The Assassin's Blueprint

There‘s a flurry of activity in the blacksmith’s shop which has just reopened after 19-year closure. The furnace is in full blast! Thus, let me strike while the “Who-killed-Dele-Giwa?” iron is hot.  Ironically (no pun intended), this cartoon published in 1987, five months after Dele Giwa was killed, suggests how quickly and how long the iron has been left out in the cold!

The End Of An Era

Lai Mohammed enjoys ‘bow-and-go’ screening

The Cable: October 13

….“Ndume Ali, senate leader, moved the motion for‎ Mohammed to take a bow and go.

Godswill Akpabio, senate minority leader, seconded the motion, but not before he had said Mohammed should be allowed to express himself because he was known for propaganda. ‘We are sure that before he leaves here, he will drop at least two propaganda,’  Akpabio said amidst thunderous laughter by members of the chamber.”

Read more at: https://www.thecable.ng/lai-mohammed-enjoys-bow-go-screening

President Buhari Meets Former President Babangida

What came to mind when I saw this photo was the classic phrase, “So, we meet again, Mr Bond” which has appeared in a number of James Bond films. Its variant is “I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond” or “I’ve been waiting for you, Mr Bond”.

The phrase is usually uttered by the antagonist (mostly of the villainous kind) of James Bond who may have been humbled in a previous encounter and has now finally found an opportunity to exert revenge or to stage a rematch. The outcome of the rematch is always devastating to both parties but always more disastrous for the challenger. 

If you remember, on 27 August 1985, the Chief of Army Staff Major General Babangida led other disgruntled officers to overthrow the barely twenty-month-old government of his boss, Major General Buhari. He promptly kept General Buhari in detention and literally threw away the key! The two were never to cross paths again until this meeting, thirty years later, which Buhari was chairing as the newly democratically elected President.

Buhari and Saraki Fraternize At Independence Day Celebration

MTN: Thirty-Nine Steps to cancel your subscription

MTN: Thirty-nine simple steps to cancel your subscription

This cartoon was inspired by my experience with the MTN call centre yesterday. I got a text advising that my callertunez service would expire in a couple of days. I called the centre to complain that I thought it was dishonest of them to make it difficult for me to stop the service which I did not subscribe to in the first instance and for which they would have been deducting money dishonestly from my account.

The agent ignored my complaint about being fleeced for the service I didn’t ask for. Instead, he concentrated on apologizing, albeit insincerely, for the long process I was made to go through to unsubscribe and he promised to bring it to the attention of his boss. And to appear that he was being helpful, he advised: “Try texting NO to 4100 and I think that should stop the service, sir.” I was livid, and I asked why the first MTN text on the subject did not simply say that, instead of introducing so many unnecessary steps to follow. Was their intention to confuse customers and force them to abandon the process?

His reply was a no-brainer, which he must have been tutored to repeat to callers, “Sorry, sir! Like I said, I will bring it to the attention of my boss! Can I help you with anything else, sir?”  Even when I warned him I will also bring their despicable act and our conversation to the attention of the public, he simply repeated the same no-brainer, ’Sorry, sir!.. Like I said, I……….”

Buhari's 100 Days In Office

Buhari's 100 days in office...02

One Hundred Days Behind

Buhari's 100 Days in Office...01

Thisday, 4 Years Ago......

Remember? OBJ's birthday greetings to IBB at 70 was: "You are a fool at 70". To which IBB replied: "You're a plunderer." Below is a Newspaper cutting to jog your memory, and below it are the cartoons that I made shortly after.

A Word Of Advice.....

The Parable Of The Long Spoons

Checkpoints Dismantled For Now

Time To Jettison Election Props....02

Time To Jettison Election Props

The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner!

Things Have Gone From Bad to Worse

When this cartoon was first published in Thisday in March 2008, foreigners, including Nigerians had, for some years, been enduring unbearable cruelty and meanness at the hands of South African authorities, the police in particular. While many African governments paid no attention to these maltreatments of their citizens, the malfeasance succeeded in emboldening ordinary South Africans with ideas of how they could treat these foreigners who would inevitably end up as their neighbours.

I followed up with another cartoon in August 2011 which addressed the South African people’s lack of appreciation of the contributions of Nigeria and other African countries to their struggle. http://bisiogunbadejo.blogspot.com/2011/08/libyan-struggle-south-africa-speaks-out.html

By the time the 2008 cartoon was repeated in 2012, South Africa Authorities had become even more brutal and had concocted more capers to keep Nigerians and other Africans out of their country (see the note at the bottom of the cartoon). And of course, the ordinary South African had become more emboldened and ready to twist the knife in the wound, helped by the fact that this category of immigrants seemed to have become inured to Police brutality. The South African government is now confronted with the task of containing the monster it created. But, can they swing it?

We WAS Robbed!

Just stumbled on this cartoon I made in 2010. In it, PDP can be seen swearing to wrest back EKiti State from ACN (now APC) in 2014. It did exactly so in 2014.  Another prophecy has come to pass!

Small Is Beautiful

This carton originally appeared in the now defunct NewAge Newspaper in 2003, when Obasanjo, a man reputed to be a know-it-all was President.

The cartoon made a “guest appearance” in Thisday in 2011, just as Jonathan became President and yet to show his hand.

Well, in the last four years, we've come to know that President Jonathan was the opposite of Obasanjo in the “Know-it-all” department, but a perfect match in the area of appointing too many aides. Jonathan’s aides do not advise him. Instead, they bypass him and offer their advice in form of insults directly to the public. However, the in-coming President Buhari, reputed to be austere and Spartan has vowed to appoint only a handful of aides.

************

President Jonathan balked at the suggestion that he should go for a smaller cabinet because of government’s dwindling resources. We’ve all seen how a large cabinet has added no real value to our lives, but rather constituted an unnecessary drain on our struggling economy.

We are beginning to hear that President-elect Buhari will go for a smaller cabinet. We hope he won’t succumb to pressure to do otherwise.

Fair Exchange Is No Robbery

"I Am A Nigerian. My Vote Counts"

Now, We Know Better

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Charity Begins At Home

This 1983 Guardian cartoon was based on a statement made by a governorship candidate in one of the states in the South-West during his campaign to seek a second term. Though the statement was instructive enough to incite his followers to violence – and indeed they caused untold mayhem- but it failed to generate enough votes to return him and his family to the governor’s lodge!

Politicians seeking elective positions in the 2015 elections, having tucked away members of their family, are doling out money and food to their followers and making provocative statements capable of inciting violence, which they hope will buy them votes. Meanwhile, their financial supporters are keeping a respectable distance until after the battle is “lost and won”!

Just for Laughs.....

APC Begins Town Hall Meetings

APC begins Town Hall meetings

by Taiwo Obe

“To flag off scheduled town hall meetings across some Nigerian states, APC Presidential Candidate General Muhammadu Buhari interacted, a few hours ago, with the business community in the nation's commercial hub, Lagos. Foluso Phillips, of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, asked the candidate which policies of the present federal government would be changed and which would continue. Buhari prefaced his answer with, "this is going to be a positive change." Thereafter he referred to an article he read (or was it a cartoon?) showing someone overlooking a cliff. That's where Nigeria is at now. It's either we fall off or take calculated steps back. The task ahead, he said, would be to look at the policies that need to be continued or those to be changed completely.
As the interaction was being rounded off, I overheard one of the businessmen say "But they said he's senile." 

The above statement was posted on Taiwo Obe’s wall. A couple of responses to it were curious to know which cartoon the general was referring to. Well, look no further, I have found the cartoon….

The General must have a highly retentive memory to have been able to recall the cartoon he saw about 30 years ago! I suspect the cartoon in question was the one I made showing a self-possessed Head of State as he headed for the precipice. Reproduced above.

It was one of the many cartoons I made depicting soldiers and officers behaving badly that got me into trouble with the regime of General Buhari, to the point that an officer from the Department of Military Intelligence visited the Guardian office for a “friendly chat” and “advised” that the regime would prefer not to see cartoons of men in military uniform in the Guardian. I got around it by using metaphor. I simply stripped them of their uniforms and donned them the caps of hostile neighbours, shylocks, extortionists, unscrupulous company or club chairmen, etc.

A few months later, a Military Intelligence Officer who came to the Guardian on some other mission popped in my office on his way out and said, “We got the message and we’re watching”

You Have The Right To Remain Silent

Towards 2015 Elections: Political Thuggery

Last week, presidential candidates of all the political parties signed an undertaking that violence that arises from politics of bitterness will be kept out the 2015 elections. Well, we all know the undertaking was essentially between the two largest political parties, PDP and APC, whose supporters are more than likely to resort to violence.

This is a reworking of my cartoon that appeared in the Guardian in 1983. Another version of it appeared in Thisday in 2009 under the title: Things haven’treally changed

Things Haven't Really Changed

You can see the the main cartoon, Toward 2015 elections: Political thuggery here

Tolerance

...In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo bloodbath

"Being A Politician Is A Thankless Job"

Political Duplicity