The first photo is me on my way to Kampala for a work assignment last week.
The second is me on my way back to Entebbe Airport after the assignment.
The third is me after I flew in to Ghana to speak at a conference on Thursday. The gentleman next to me is Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the chairman of Ghana's ruling party.
The fourth is me a few hours ago on my return flight from Ghana, shortly after which I got the in-flight WiFi package and made the tweet that you lot are convulsing over.
Why am I telling you this?
First, so you can see a practical demonstration that I am a hardworking man who has never needed or asked for 1 round penny from a politician of any description. Nobody can own me or my voice. Not Opolo Eye, not Atiku, and not Peter Obi. People like you who don't have an actual job that you do for steady, reliable income, may see politics as a "game" where everyone is either a puppet or a puppeteer, but again you should be aware that there is a basic, fundamental difference in how we see and perceive of the world. The Obi's, Atiku's and Tinubu's of this world impress you because they have large bank accounts, and you assume that everyone is similarly moved by them.
But I've spent my whole life in and around large bank accounts. You had to hustle and strive to ever get the chance to meet someone like PO in the flesh. I just had to be born. That's the difference. I'm not boasting about this economic disparity because in the larger scheme of things, we're all a bunch of poor Africans anyway, but it's important that you understand that unlike you - who got stranded in Abuja because you couldn't pay for your hotel the day you went to host a fundraiser for PO's campaign - I'm typing this tweet in the restaurant of a 4-star hotel in Addis-Ababa right now. And I paid for it myself, as I always do.
I work too hard to ever be "used" by a politician. Learn to speak to your personal experience.
Secondly and more importantly, in my extensive travel around Africa, I have noticed that Africans are starting to have very nice things. My friend in Dar es Salaam uses an electric train to visit his parents in Morogoro. Most of my friends here in Addis last experienced a power outage literally YEARS ago. Some of my friends in Nairobi formed a driving club where they roadtrip around Kenya twice a month because Kenya offers the safety, road quality, and rural infrastructure to make it possible.
My friends in Ghana don't need visas to travel around most of Africa - Nigeria can never produce a @wode_maya because visa applications will truncate his YouTube career. My friends in Kigali, Dakar, Abidjan and even Ouagadougou now have things that most Nigerians statistically don't have. It is now so bad that Nigerians are no longer hated across Africa - we're actually PITIED. As in they now look down on us as the underprivileged poor cousins.
This is the picture I saw that made me dedicate myself to pushing for a better standard of government in Nigeria. I wanted us to have nice things like our brothers and sisters on the continent. It is not because Peter Obi is my father or my benefactor or my friend. He's just a politician that I invested my hopes for a better country in, because I desperately want my people to be able to experience life at the level that other Africans now do. Nigeria has been left behind in ways you can't even comprehend because you've never travelled around Africa enough to see and compare. THAT is what it is all about for me.
I don't want to keep being "the only Nigerian" or the "first Nigerian" in the spaces I'm blessed to be part of on the continent and in the world. I want 200 million of my people to see and experience the world the way I do. I want them to have nice things and live easier lives. I want them to be more than just people who came to earth to mark attendance.
So maybe supporting PO for you is some sort of club or religion. For me, it was always a clear-eyed, pragmatic choice.
A choice I can revoke.
Let me just warn you in advance:
Between now and 2027, if your contribution under my tweets regarding Nigeria getting rid of its colonial puppet ruling party is
"But Nigerians are too divided..."
"Nigerian security agents don't mind shooting everybody"
"There's no more democracy, Tinubu has already pocketed everyone so nobody should bother until 2031"
"What Nigeria really needs is sijdfoeinf oieneoineon eoiuneoneoinr enr oeinroienren [insert stream of meaningless oyibo repete word salad that nobody asked your father for]"
I WILL BLOCK YOU.
Go and spread your demoralisation and empty performance English on your own TL. My twitter account is not a democracy and I curate it accordingly.
Gbenga Adeboye remains the father of standup comedy in Nigeria, West Africa and Africa in general
(30 September 1959 โ 30 April 2003) was a Yoruba singer, comedian, stand up comedian, radio presenter, broadcaster and master of ceremony popularly known as Funwontan.
Until his death, he was popular as one of the most decorated talk show host in the world