There’s a new shortcut to instant popularity in Naija: add Seyi Tinubu’s name onto any wild claim and boom, you’re headline gold – no need for facts, proof, or even a little hint of evidence. And the former Vice President, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, is also toeing this path!
Take the so-called “military parade,” for example, during which Seyi inspected a group of youths in Boy Scouts-like uniforms in Abeokuta. Before you could say, Boy Scout, Atiku, screamed to the world that they were soldiers on a parade, for Seyi. He thought and believed the worst, even when he just needed to look and he’d see those were only youth volunteers!
Then there was the funny, if not ridiculous, Elizabeth Jack-Rich drama in which scandal-monger Jackson Ude, alleged that Seyi was
having an affair with the wife of former presidential aspirant, Tein, only for the family to dismiss it as rubbish. But Jackson and others who aimed to trend on Seyi’s name had cashed out and gotten their trend.
And now, there’s the pièce de résistance: Seyi allegedly masterminding the abduction of a student leader after a ₦100 million bribe was rejected. Again, His Excellency, the former vice president is amplifying what has been dismissed as “salacious, fallacious, and utterly fabricated.”
At this rate, Seyi Tinubu’s name might as well come with a “trending is guaranteed” stamp. Forget truth or proof. Even forget investigating.
Just put Seyi’s name into your story and you enjoy 24 hours of viral fame! Guaranteed.
Ochuko, a social commentator, writes from Asaba via [email protected]
