T-Pain is Coming

by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún

Nigerian symbolism follows me. 

In 2017 when I first wrote about maga, a term in Nigerian English/Pidgin connected with email scam culture, I was struck by the implications it had for blind followership and mass delusion, but I didn’t expect it to blow up as it did. The term “maga means fool” caught fire for some reason and flew around the world, and eventually I was quoted even on Snopes, who rated the claim as “Mostly True.” My weekly Medium analytics still throws up that 2017 piece as a perennial readers’ favourite, to this day. And the rise of Trump continues to mirror some of the most risible aspects of Nigerian popular and political culture.

“Maga” was obviously similar in tone and value, relevant, and easy to explain. So too is felony: Nigeria’s current president, Bọ́lá Ahmed Tinubú, like Trump, was elected despite documented evidence of his criminality. There is a sealed felony charge against him from when he lived in Chicago in the early ’90s. He settled U.S. drug dealing and money laundering charges against him for several hundred thousand dollars, and then he sold his presidential candidacy to Nigerians as one for hope and a fight for the masses.

Through electoral shenanigans, a feeble opposition, and a bitterly divided country, Tinubú eked out a narrow win and now sits in Abuja. A year later, economic situations in the country have worsened, cronyism thrives, and the electorate—even those who voted for him—have woken up to the reality of their situation. Earlier this year the people found him an appropriate nickname, using the initial of his surname and the prevailing condition of the country: T-Pain.

No, not the American musician.