More Notes on The Elections

BY REUBEN ABATI

The prevalence of the comic spirit is one of those distinctive features of Nigerian life and society –one of those things that make us who we are – our capacity to turn every season, every occasion, serious, not so serious, even sombre, into an opportunity for mirth, that is – plain rambunctious, defiant or deprecating laughter.

In my earlier life as a teacher of comic theory, it was an interesting time teaching the special veins of wit and humour and how the aesthetics of laughter defines national character and culture, a people’s capacity for word-play, and satire or parody. This trend, embodied in the Nigerian character, North or South, East to West is in part responsible, even in an electronic age, for the fantastic humour that Nigerians create on social media. There was so much of this on display during the recent Nigerian election and indeed perhaps, a documentation of the process would be incomplete without recalling some of the highlights of the humour that marked it, from the macabre to the grotesque, the irrational to the verbal magic of some of the key political players and their supporters. This account is merely representative; it is by no means exhaustive.

The place to begin is the verbal gem that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, then an aspirant, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu dropped in Abeokuta on June 2, 2022 when he used certain words which may well end up as part of Nigeria’s political lexicon viz: “Emilokan. Literally, the Yoruba word means “it is my turn” or “I’m next”.

Asiwaju Tinubu had categorically told his audience that it was his turn to become President of Nigeria, having helped the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari to gain power. Highly rated as a kingmaker in Nigeria’s power politics, Tinubu on that occasion announced that the kingmaker was tired of anointing others, he would rather ascend the throne personally. He was firm, assertive and throughout the season that followed, he did not waver despite criticisms that his was an expression of a sense of entitlement and disregard for the right of the electorate to choose.

Tinubu’s supporters felt inspired by his confidence. To illustrate his determination, he said that when Buhari failed thrice to become Nigeria’s President – ‘O lu le’, once, twice, thrice, he was the one who told the President to wipe his tears and he helped him in 2015 to achieve his dream.

In other words, the auto-suggestion by the APC presidential aspirant was that it was pay-back time – one good turn, as the cliché states, deserves another. He wanted his goodwill reciprocated. If anyone was in any doubt, Tinubu turned towards the sitting Governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun and told his audience that even “Eleyi” (This One) could not have been Governor without him.

The three phrases in Yoruba and the underlying rhetoric captured public imagination and caught on like wildfire.

Musicians in various genres have turned Emilokan into lyrics – each singer adapting the phrase to suit his or her taste and creativity. The National Association of Seadogs – the Pyrates Confraternity, during the group’s 70th celebration in September 2022 came up with an adaptation of the Emilokan phrase in a highly personal, satirical song. Professor Wole Soyinka, father-figure of the Confraternity, dismissed the song as distasteful. In a subsequent statement, the group said it was not out to mock or discriminate against the subject and that it was apolitical.

The apology was rather late. Disc jockeys, musicians, notably the Afro-beat singer, Dede Mabiaku, had done their own re-mix versions of the song. Several other remixes also showed up on social media platforms. But as many would recall, Tinubu’s Emilokan turned out to be prophetic. Days after the Abeokuta incident, he went on to win his party’s primaries in Abuja scoring 1, 271 votes. He defeated 13 other contestants, with some of the original total of 23 aspirants stepping down for him before the commencement of voting. The closest person to him – Rotimi Amaechi, then Minister of Transportation, scored 316 votes!

Tinubu also received the endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari who raised his hand at several campaign rallies and who voted for him on February 25, enthusiastically showing off his ballot paper to prove that he voted for the APC, even if that gesture amounted to a violation of the Electoral Act 2022. Asiwaju Tinubu was later declared winner of the Presidential election by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with 8, 794, 726 votes, beating 17 other candidates. Four political parties – PDP, LP, AA and APM and their candidates have since gone to the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenge the results.

Anyone who is interested in an elective position now borrows the phrase – Emilokan in the hope that just as Asiwaju Tinubu willed his ambition into reality, their own dreams would also come to pass. The other day, the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, freshly re-elected (Abia North) generated not a little laughter when he too announced that it was his turn, and the turn of his village, Igbere, to produce the next Senate President of Nigeria. Our democracy is now becoming “turn by turn” but let’s see if the Emilokan magical word would work for Senator Kalu.

In Ogun State, Tinubu’s host who was called “Eleyi”(This One) has been re-elected. Prince Abiodun can now confidently say that he is more than an “Eleyi” in Ogun State, having secured a second term without any Godfather pulling all the strings for him.

Next to Tinubu’s verbal inventiveness would be the memorable exertions of the Governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike and his colleague-PDP-Governors – Samuel Ortom (Benue), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi

(Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) who took a principled stand that it was the turn of the South to produce Nigeria’s next President and that it was wrong for their party to have elected a Presidential candidate from the North, and also the Chairman of the party from the North in the person of Senator Iyorchia Ayu. They wanted Ayu to step down as party Chairman at the minimum pre-condition for dialogue. The party refused.

Wike was accused of sour grapes, having lost his bid to be the party’s Presidential standard bearer at the primaries. The G-5, as the group was known, stood its ground. It later expanded into a bigger body known as the Integrity Group. Publicly, the group taunted the PDP and their presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar. Wike, the obvious leader and main spirit openly identified with members of the APC and Labour Party. Whereas he invited members of those two parties to Rivers State to commission projects and treated them to generous receptions, he snubbed the PDP candidate and members of his own party at the state level who were pro-Atiku.

He made it clear that he would only support the PDP in the state elections, and that he and his colleagues in G-5 would not leave the party. Daniel Bwala, PDP Presidential Council spokesperson derisively referred to the G-5 as the Jackson 5. Other PDP spokespersons – Aare Dele Momodu and Senator Dino Melaye were also convinced that the PDP would not be affected at the polls by the G-5 rebellion. In the just concluded general election, the PDP paid heavily for this disunity within its ranks. On February 25, it lost in states where it should ordinarily have won because the five Governors did not lift a finger to help their own party’s presidential candidate.

In Enugu, Abia and Benue the PDP Governors lost their bids to go to the Senate- in a karmic sense, perhaps. In Oyo State on March 18, Governor Seyi Makinde, also of the G5 survived and was re-elected; in Rivers, Governor Wike fulfilled his promise of installing his own successor (a puppet?), although other parties in that election insist that what happened in Rivers state was not an election.

Before, during and after the election, the G5 would be remembered for introducing to the grammar of politics a song titled: _“As e dey sweet us, e go dey pain dem.” It is a triumphal song of defiance and self-assertion. Wike gained much attention with his unique style of dancing to this song and with his usual riposte: “Enough is Enough”. When the dust settles, Wike will not be forgotten for his many colourful displays, sometimes bordering on the farcical and the grotesque. For example, drinking a 40-year-old bottle of whiskey at 11.30 am and boasting that he would even drink a 50-year-old bottle.

•Continues online at www.thewillnigeria.com