On Tuesday, 27 March 2018, the media was flooded with pictures from the Presidency showing President Muhammadu Buhari receiving a delegation that was described as a contingent of the Martin Luther King family. The contingent was in the country to present what was tagged the First Black History Month National Black excellence and exceptional African leadership award to the President. Never mind that internationally, Black History Month is actually in February, not in March. March is International Women’s Month.

Nigerians, already weary of the gaffes that have come from the presidency, chose instead to investigate the president’s new award instead of congratulating him. Less than forty-eight hours after the announcement by the Presidency’s spokespersons, the Martin Luther King Center replied the inquiry of Ohimai Amaize, a Twitter user, with the account, @MrFixNigeria by denying the award in its entirety.

The award given to President Buhari of Nigeria was not given by The King Center, at the request of The King Center or by the children of #MLK and #CorettaScottKing. @MrFixNigeria

— The King Center (@TheKingCenter) March 28, 2018

As usual, the Presidency through its spokespersons have tried to explain away the monumental gaffe but it was too late. Nigerians have yet again been disgraced internationally by the presidency which seems more concerned with fake international accolades instead of actually delivering on its campaign promises. We’ve seen a plethora of porous and contradictory excuses, Lauretta Onochie even referred to the presenter of the award as Martin Luther King’s wife.

Right on the heels of this gaffe, the president visited Lagos to commission the Ikeja Bus terminal, three years after we were promised that the Lagos Light rail would be ready. The president began his tour of Lagos by creating one of the worst traffic jams in recent times, after the governor declared a public day the day before. Buhari went to recommission the Eko Atlantic project (it had already been commissioned once, but what is one more) and while he was there, decided to swing in a photo op with British model Naomi Campbell, who was in the country for a fashion week event. This meeting was spun as some sort of endorsement for the president, which also backfired when Nigerians began to draw allusions to Campbell’s former association with a number of dictators. This indifference was further amplified by the fact that the  President spent a good portion of his time at the Tinubu Colloquium celebrating the life of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, at the very same time eleven soldiers who died as a result of an ambush by armed bandits were being buried in Kaduna. A former military officer ignoring the state burial of soldiers who died serving the nation is not something you’d expect to happen, yet here we are.

If Buhari still wants to get elected in 2019, then he is certainly doing a piss-poor job of convincing us why we should vote for him.

tosin adesina