Being the Eid-el-Kabir week, last week happened for President Bola Tinubu entirely outside the seat of power. Recall he already left for Lagos to celebrate the festival. The week kicked off on Sunday with the Sallah (Eid-el-Kabir) celebration. The festival, known as Ileya by the Yoruba people, is always marked with big celebrations in the different parts of the Southwest, bringing people of various faiths back home.
The week had its striking moments, events with particularly noticeable activities, and their resulting effects. One of such events was the President’s outing in South Africa. Actually, it was not about what he did or did not, rather the sort of content that some others decided to create out of that rather innocent outing. During the week, Wednesday to be exact, President Bola Tinubu joined other African leaders to grace the second term swearing-in ceremony of President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria.
Speaking about the occasion the next day when his hosted visited him at his hotel in Johannesburg, President Tinubu noted that Ramaphosa’s speech at the occasion captured the current African challenges, which leaders, particularly those of Nigeria and South Africa, must work collaboratively to tackle. “I really enjoyed your speech at the ceremony. I was delighted listening to you. We have lots of issues in common, and we need to work more closely together. It was a good celebration” were his words captured in a statement by his Spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale.
On his verified X handle, @officialABAT, President Tinubu, on Thursday summed up his outing in South Africa, saying “I had the honor of attending President Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration in Pretoria yesterday, and today I met with him for a bilateral meeting. Our discussions focused on strengthening cooperation and enhancing the economic ties between Nigeria and South Africa.
“President Ramaphosa’s warm welcome and dedication to mutual respect and cooperation reflect the depth of our relationship. We intend working together to address our countries’ challenges through robust trade and economic strategies, and I am hopeful that we can lead our nations towards increased prosperity and unity. Looking forward to collaborating at this crucial juncture for the progress of our continent”, he said.
Corroborating our President’s narration, the South African Presidency, on its verified X handle, @PresidencyZA, published President Ramaphosa’s submission after the meeting, quoting him as saying “we want to engender good economic and trade relations between Nigeria and South Africa to address the challenges that our two countries face. So it’s been a great pleasure and an honour to have you here, Your Excellency, and that’s why I felt I should come and pay my respects”. That was Ramaphosa’s message to his brother President, Tinubu.
These were the highlights of the two occasions featuring Tinubu in South Africa, however, one of the two occasions seemed to catch the attention of some of our compatriots with spasm. Before that bilateral meeting in Johannesburg on Thursday, the main event had held in Pretoria on Wednesday, a grand occasion by all standards. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by a number of heads of state and government as well as official representatives of some other countries. Our President attended as one of the invited heads of government to the event. However, proceedings at the event somehow became a content source for some of our compatriots, something to pour out on by a certain category of Nigerians.
Almost immediately after the ceremony, an opposition figure and an associate of Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Aisha Yesufu, took to her YouTube channel, recorded a video, which she posted on her verified X handle, @AishaYesufu, claiming that President Tinubu was snubbed by his host and also pushed back from the from row. She seemed her post would garner comments and likes from people who share same feeling and political view with her.
Before long re-tweets, likes/dislikes and other forms responses started trailing Yesufu’s post, it became a huge content in the media, especially on the social media platforms, even beyond that day. It formed topics for discussions, as a matter of fact, it became a topic for some groups, especially Obidient groups, to discuss on various social media platforms.
What she must have also expected were some of the reactions and comments that would not agree with her claims. A particularly revealing and bubble-bursting reaction was from O’tega Ogra, Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Digital/New Media. Ogra, who is acquainted with presidential protocols as well as what actually went down in Pretoria, responded almost immediately to the 8:31 minutes-long video by Yesufu, putting a lie to her claims and revealing she had pushed out untruths and manifest ignorance, doing so with video and pictorial evidences.
“Aisha has the constitutionally guaranteed right to express yourself, but your consistent display of crass ignorance and shameful behaviour, seemingly aimed at garnering likes and retweets, in the name of your disdain and hatred (which you profess at any given opportunity) for Nigeria is shameful to say the least.
“For the record: (1.) That first row at today’s inauguration was reserved for South African kings/royalty. (2.) The South African President wasn’t expected to start greeting dignitaries at the time of the video you shared and he was respectfully recalled to the podium by the inauguration compere (see video below). (3.) Immediately after President Ramaphosa finished the anthem, he went ahead to greet the visiting presidents who were all seated in the second row (similar to the way visiting presidents were seated in the third row during Nigeria’s own inauguration on May 29, 2023 – see pictures below)”, Ogra said in the response posted on his verified X handle, @otegaogra.
After all the hullabaloo about Tinubu being snubbed by Ramaphosa at the inauguration ceremony, the South African President made it better for those wondering what really happened, (who should be believed between Yesufu, those who swallowed narrative hook, line and sinker, and those who felt she was only playing with people’s intelligence with outright falsehood and ignorant claims), by travelling 58.2 kilometres from Pretoria to Johannesburg to meet with his Nigerian counterpart, hold a bilateral meeting, during which they both agreed on issues of mutual interest, requiring their collaboration and cooperation. How do you visit someone you allegedly snubbed on your big day?
He definitely put a lie on the claim that did not just slight Tinubu and Nigeria, but depicted his administration and country in bad light. Matter sorted, but not without giving those who live on social media content something to glean from Elon Musk. To borrow Ogra’s summation of Yesufu’s intent: “with or without your personal enmity, Nigeria will succeed. I truly hope you receive your ‘Elon Cheque’ in full this month”.
Besides the Wednesday /Thursday’s development in South African, the President had a full week of real activities. On Sunday, which was the Sallah day, he observed the Eid prayers with other senior officials of the administration, as well as Lagos’ political class, after which he sent his Sallah message to Nigerians, urging citizens to embrace the spirit of sacrifice, love, and charity, especially towards the vulnerable. He also emphasized that citizenship comes with responsibilities, including loving one’s country and neighbours, and sharing resources with others.
It was also Father’s Day and in his message to all Nigerian fathers, himself being one, he saluted all those who fill that role for their sacrifices and resilience in shaping the country’s future, noting that society is in better stead because of fathers’ sacrificial responsibility. He acknowledged the significance of the day, which honours all fathers, living and deceased, for their role in guiding children and instilling values like discipline, integrity, and service. He praised fathers as “true heroes” who work tirelessly to provide for their families, describing their commitment as a “bounden duty” to positively shape the destinies of the next generation.
Then on Tuesday, still as part of the Eid-el-Kabir celebration, he received representatives of the National Assembly, led by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio. It was another opportunity to pass a strong national restructuring message to citizens: If we must achieve a working nation, we as citizens have our own role that must not be shirked. Though much is expected from leadership, the citizens must also ensure their part is not left unattended.
“The need (for some citizens) to change the rent-seeking mindset and become more productive to the economy is a challenge. The need to stop smuggling and all economic sabotage”, he urged, adding “why should we have people removing rail tracks and all that, stealing electric cables and sabotaging the economy? We must embrace the campaign to change our value system. We must tell our people that the challenge we face is for all of us to change our mindset about our country.
“Yes, there is poverty; there is suffering in the land. We are not the only people facing such, but we must face our challenges. We must find a way to eliminate banditry and terrorism so that farmers can bring out food from the farmland. If you do not have good roads to bring the food to the population, even if you grow the food and you are losing 60-70 percent to damages, you will pay the price”, President Tinubu said.
There were other occasions that saw his celebrating with some Nigerians for reasons of celebration, and there were also occasions to mourn those who lost loved ones. For instance, on Wednesday and Thursday, he celebrated the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, for their birthdays respectively. In like manner, on Monday, Wednesday he mourned one-time Chairman of the Old Oyo State Civil Service Commission, Chief Oluremi Ademola Atanda; a long-reigning traditional ruler in Southern Kaduna, Dr Tagwai Sambo; and the mother of former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, Chief Florence Morenike Saraki, respectively.
He also attended the Jumat Mosque in Area 1 on Friday, where a special anniversary prayer session was held in honor of his mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, and inauguration of construction of 330 boreholes across the country in her honor. During the session, there was also recitation of the Holy Qur’an.
Although he returned to Abuja from South African on Thursday, the new week is actually going to be the first active working week since after the Sallah holiday, which ended last Wednesday. Many activities are expected, including a possible Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. Let us watch if content creators will have something new and juicy to feast on.
