Tag Archives: 2019
Awosiyan Segun – The Baby Is Fine… (2019 Elections)
There is always a sense of fear and anxiety during the months preceding general elections in Nigeria. This cartoon is a pictorial representation of that feeling.
In this cartoon, there is pregnant woman and a man who represents the masses. “2019 Elections” is written on the pregnant woman’s baby bump. This is a symbolic move. For one, there is sometimes a sense of uncertainty that comes with being pregnant. Before technological advancements that have made it possible for people to know the sex of their child prior to delivery, expectant parents often just resign to fate. Awosiyan Segun draws on this.
The man in the picture happens to be a doctor, albeit a confused one (based on how he looks). As we can see, he is trying to access the “health” of the “2019 Elections”. After his examination, he believes that the “baby” is fine; but, he does not know “if it is a boy or a girl”.
In summary, it seems that the cartoonist, Awosiyan Segun, is implying that the masses of Nigeria do not know what to expect from the 2019 elections.
Awosiyan Segun – 2019 rAPC vs APC…
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is the ruling political party in Nigeria. The party formed in 2013 as a coalition of aggrieved members of other political parties. Members of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC, with a large following in the North), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN, popular in the South West), and some aggrieved members of the incumbent (in 2013) People’s Democratic Party (PDP) agreed to form an alliance that would wrestle power from PDP.
As the 2019 elections draw nearer, certain members of the APC are being considered as threats to the victory agenda of the party. Seeing this, those members decided to call themselves Reformed APC (rAPC). This is what this cartoon reveals, showing two brooms (the logo of the APC). The difference between the two, however, is that one broom is bulkier than the other. The bulky broom is the APC in its original state. The non-bulky one represents what has become of the APC as some of its strands are falling off. Those strands, one may argue, are the aggrieved APC members (rAPC) who are trying to dissociate themselves from some of the allegations of corruption leveled against some APC leaders.
Bennett Omeke – PDP, APC
Here, Bennet Omeke captures the reality of party politics in Nigeria in creatively, as one would expect. This piece highlights a usual cycle in Nigerian politics: politicians defecting from one party to another.
However, instead of policians, Omeke uses worms. There are two apples. An infested and a rotten one labeled PDP (People’s Democratic Party) and a soon-to-be-rotten and -infested one labeled APC (All Progressives Congress).
The worms – the politicians – have already infested and sucked vitality out of the rotten apple and now they are on their way to their next victim: the apple that is being infested.
The other part of the cartoon is a reversal of the first. It shows what happens after a cycle of infestation is complete. Another cycle begins.
Bennet Omeke – Towards 2019
Pot calling kettle black. Here are two men engaging in a mudslinging game. Each man has a bucket of mud beside him, dipping his hands into it, scooping some mud, and throwing it at his opponent. This is a classic example of what happens when politicians are preparing for elections. By all indication, these men look like members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition: the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Bennet Omeke – Again You Can’t Deceive Me…
Here, we see two members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) begging some aggrieved members not to leave. They are not just begging, they are doing so with wrapped gift packages.
The kneeling members, from all indications, look like President Muhammadu Buhari and the national chairman of the APC, Mr. Adams Oshiomole.
Perhaps the most striking feature of this cartoon are the backpacks and travel bags of the defecting members (Senators and Representatives). It is possible those bags are filled with loots.
Bennet Omeke – Defections PDP Now Majority in Senate
Here, two canoes are sailing. The canoe with an umbrella (the logo of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP) looks bigger than the canoe with a few people, the All Progressives Congress (APC) canoe. There are also images of individuals swimming towards the umbrella-adorned canoe. There is also bird that is rhetorically responding to the news of PDP now being the majority in the Nigerian Senate.
Considering that APC is an amalgamation of few political parties and some PDP stalwarts, some political commentators have asked the same question asked by the flying bird. The loyalty of some APC members to APC have always been questioned.