By Tunji Adegboyega
Ever before Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu became President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his birthday has almost always been celebrated with fanfare. And when I say fanfare, I mean fanfare. I have had the privilege of attending many of those occasions. At least since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999. It was an occasion that media houses in Nigeria looked forward to because of the deluge of adverts that the occasion usually attracts. This newspaper in particular has always remained a major beneficiary of such adverts. We usually smiled to the bank days after the March 29 celebrations because the adverts kept coming. Several other newspapers do, even if in varying degrees.
That was when Asiwaju was ‘Oba lola’ (future king). If newspapers had such a deluge of adverts when the man was not yet president, you can only imagine what would have happened adverts-wise in his first birthday as President. Friends and foes alike would have been falling over themselves to congratulate him. That is Nigeria for you. Success has many parents; only failure is an orphan. It would have been such a harvest of adverts that vendors would have to look for truck-pushers to help them carry their newspapers on Friday, last week, when President Tinubu clocked 72 years.
But, while many newspapers were finalising details on advert placements for the occasion, the President released the equivalent of a bombshell: no fanfare this time around. No congratulatory adverts. No fanfare, I can understand. Public funds should not be spent to congratulate him. Again, that is fine by me. But what is the President’s problem with people who want to celebrate him, I mean corporate and private individuals? Why stop those ones?
Just follow the release: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will turn 72 on Friday, March 29, 2024. The day will be another important milestone in his life as a leader and a statesman.’’ Good talk.
“During an auspicious occasion as this, it is customary for family members, friends, and associates to celebrate him in different ways.’’ Yes, yes.
Then the seeming bad news: “As the leader of our country, President Tinubu, in deference to these challenging times, will not host any birthday event and does not want any of his associates and numerous well-wishers across the country to organise any celebratory event on his behalf or in his name”, the statement read. One would think the message was clear enough at this point. But the presidential spokesman went on: “President Tinubu appreciates the honour of being the leader of Africa’s leading nation at this time and he is working very hard to make life better for the generality of our people.
“According to him, because of the present mood of the nation and the recent killing of the officers and men of our army and police in Delta State and the recent spate of security breaches by criminal elements in different parts of Nigeria, there should be no form of birthday event and placing of birthday goodwill advertorial messages in newspapers. Goodwill messages should not be placed on radio and television stations either” (for effect and so radio and television stations would not want to take the lacuna of their brand of the mass media not specifically mentioned to carry congratulatory messages on the occasion).
This was a huge blow to several newspapers that had been waiting in the wings to pluck whatever providence made their lot through the birthday adverts. As they say, ‘at all, at all, na im bad’. It was really devastating because of the huge gap it would leave in the revenue of the newspapers. Even if they take speedy ‘recofa’ drug, many of them would not recover for some time to come.
As a matter of fact, in this newspaper, we counted our loss as a result of this singular decision at some meetings we had on Monday and Tuesday, last week. We went down memory lane and tried to project how much we could have made this year if we were able to rake in so much this time last year when Tinubu’s fate was still hanging in the air; as in when he was not yet in power. Although he had as far back as March 1, 2023 been declared winner of the presidential election quite alright, there were still several court cases that could make his position uncomfortable. Today, he is not just in government, he is also in power.
So, for us, the hope of raking in the ‘mother of all adverts’, the kind that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard (to paraphrase Bishop David Oyedepo), was dashed with the President’s order or directive banning congratulatory adverts for him on his birthday. Ordinarily, though; 72 years is not a milestone and so might not have attracted a deluge of adverts; but the birthday was his first on the throne. That reminds me of something that is trending at popular pepper soup joints all over the place; that the President should be thinking along the line of having at least an Abioye (a child born during his father’s reign). If that is not already in the works, the President would do well to kick start the process as soon as some of the troubles in the land subside. I mean when election losers must have finally accepted their fate, and birds begin to sing like birds, and rats cry like rats. But that Abioye must be from the source; I mean the official source. I need to make myself clear so that neither the President nor the acclaimed source would misconstrue an otherwise genuine piece of advice. I don’t want somebody to look at me with one kind eye when I have the opportunity of visiting the seat of power. No matter how long it takes, women don’t forget such things! So, ‘Olorunsogos’, beware! ‘Surulere’ is in charge! I mean no vacancy.
I digress.
This newspaper may have been the major loser in the ‘don’t-congratulate-me-with-advert’ ban, other newspapers also suffered to certain extents.
As a matter of fact, it was such that when the paper’s managing director was addressing us at our regular meetings last week, and he parroted the same message, it was like ” what is this man saying? If people brought personal adverts for the president’s birthday or a corporate person did the same unsolicited, why should we turn them down”?
It however turned out that many people and organisations obeyed the president’s directive, as only a few newspapers made some three or four pages of congratulatory adverts on the president’s birthday, apart from Tantita Security Services that went full blast to do as it often does on occasions when it feels like making a point.
Hope is not lost, though. The President has promised to apologise later and I know he knows how to apologise very well. So, I don’t intend to lecture him on that. For now, the newspapers (that I here represent) have temporarily accepted the apology. In other words, we are GRATE. When the ‘mother of all apologies’ finally comes, we will then add the FUL, to complete the word grateful. I know that knowing Tinubu very well, the latter apology will be greater than the former. I mean the ‘apology’ would be heavily laden!
While we earnestly await the President’s latter apology, I must say that his decision on the celebratory adverts was the best in the circumstance. Money is not everything. As a matter of fact, a Yoruba proverb says if someone is going in search of money and meets honour on the way, it is better for him to turn back because, after getting the money, it is honour that he would spend it on.
Be that as it may, there is a lot to say for the President’s decision. And the presidential aide also did a good job of crafting the piece: simple, sweet-flowing prose. No contours. The land is indeed troubled. The economy is not smiling. Insecurity, including its political variant, is yet to be nipped in the bud. Power supply is still epileptic. Youths are roaming the streets in search of non-existent jobs, etc. A sensitive President cannot pretend to be blind to all of these. And, even though the government is taking actions to ease the pains, the fact is that government cannot in all good conscience pretend that all is well and celebrate the President’s birthday with the usual pomp and pageantry like when he was a private individual. His actions are expectedly more under public scrutiny today than ever before.
As a matter of fact, I do not know how meanings would not have been read into the celebration if the President had not made the announcement, especially with the gruesome murder of 17 officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army in Okuama, Delta State, on March 14. That was exactly two weeks to the President’s birthday. The soldiers were only buried on Wednesday, 48 hours to the President’s birthday. An elected President must be sensitive to the fact that these slain soldiers meant several things to several people. They were husbands to some women, fathers to their children, children to their own parents (for those of them whose parents are still alive), brothers, uncles and nieces to several others, etc. The President could not have been in celebration mode when all these bereaved people would still be mourning their losses.
I must confess that I am impressed with the President’s performance at the burial of the military personnel on Friday. The different awards he gave to their families, his personal presence at the funeral. All of these would go a long way in assuring the families that the country the soldiers served is ever there for them. It would also incentivise those still in service that even if they die in the line of duty, their dependents would not suffer. But the government must follow up on the promises to the dependents to ensure that none is trapped in the military bureaucracy.
May their souls rest in perfect peace. And to the President, too, happy 72nd birthday.
