Nigerians have vehemently criticised President Bola Tinubu and the Niger State governor, Mohammed Umar Bago, over a picture of the latter kneeling to greet the president.
In a photo that has since gone viral, Bago can be seen kneeling to greet Tinubu during his visit to the Nigerian president on Thursday.
The picture, which has stirred the ire of Nigerians, has many describing it as disrespectful and evidence of god-fatherism in Nigerian politics.
Commenting on the picture, Edena Moris stated that it is embarrassing to see the chief security officer of a state kneeling before Tinubu.
“A chief executive bowing to another chief executive in a democracy in 2024 is beyond embarrassing. It’s disgusting to say the least,” Moris stated.
Kris Eleven, in his reaction, argues that, “It’s such a disgusting sight. This isn’t respect or reverence anymore. There’s got to be something else to this foolery with APC. There’s got to be something else to this daily mockery of governance and publicity. It’s got to be really diabolical.”
For K. Baba, he noted that the attitude of both parties is “unacceptable.” He argued that if the president is revered in such a manner, no one will be able to question his decisions and policies.
“This is just too unacceptable. Nigeria isn’t ready for any meaningful growth at all. If, at this time and age, Nigerian politicians still bow down to another so-called elected individual, then who’ll question his wrong policies against the people?”
Calling it an evident display of “political hegemony, Olu Ogunnowo stated that “sadly, the reality of political hegemony pervades all levels of governance and leadership. With patronising servitude and total submission, there’s progress; without it, it’s political oblivion.”
In his reaction, Ikhide R. Ikheloa argued that with such a display of subserviency, the Nigerian democracy has been bastardised.
“Nigerian-style democracy has served to compromise and bastardise every institution that is crucial to the health of Nigeria, but what makes me despair the most is what it has done to the civil space inhabited by Nigeria’s thinkers and writers.
“Our thinkers and writers, with their western gaze, hold western leaders more accountable than they do our own, and once-hallowed institutions are caricatures of their past. The are enabling the bigotry of low expectations. There is perhaps no hope,” Ikheloa states.
While Dr. Aloy Chife states, “To think that we all come from this prehistoric place. I’m embarrassed beyond belief, and I feel the most terrible grief,” others berated Tinubu for smiling gleefully in the picture.
Calling Tinubu “Jagaban,” Adekunle LP states that the president is “full of pride. Someone else would have asked the man to quickly stand up before the camera captured it. But no. Baba was rather showing off to the camera.”
