Anita Ogona
Nigerians lashing out over worsening economic crisis has labelled President Bola Tinubu โTpainโย barely one year into his administration, according to an internal memo and aides with direct knowledge of the presidentโs quandary reveals that the president has been seething inside the State House over such tag
During a recent meeting at the Presidential Villa, the president told two guests and aides present that he was โvery sadโ that Nigerians wonโt stop blaming his administration for the raging economic crisis, adding that most citizens would rather ridicule him than offer potential solutions to the countryโs challenges, internal notes and our sources said.
โThe president has been very sad and not hiding his frustration over how quickly the so-called Tpain label was allowed to spread on social media,โ an aide at the meeting told Peoples Gazette. โThe president was mostly angry with unpatriotic people who sit on social media to call him names without offering any unique solutions of their own but only to malign the government.โ
Another aide subsequently corroborated the account. Both officials sought anonymity to discuss the presidentโs annoyance with The Gazette, fearing administrative backlash.
One of the officials said the president was not particularly seeking to muzzle speech and other fundamental rights on social media, but only decried the undesired impact of its unfettered deployment on the governmentโs ability to deliver on its promises without distractions. The Gazette reviewed internal deliberations among a restricted loop of presidential aides where countermeasures against the social media derision of the president were suggested.
โWeโre just trying to determine where the campaign to humiliate the president and people working for him is coming from,โ the official said. โThe president respects the rights of Nigerians to express themselves, but some of us will push back hard against the attackers before they do further damage to the countryโs image.โ
A presidential spokesman declined comments for this story on Monday morning.
The Gazette could not pin the label to a specific point in time, but it appeared to have gained rapid resonation among Nigerians on social media in recent weeks. It was a play on the first letter of the presidentโs last name, presumably with inspiration from American rapper Faheem Najm, who goes by the stage name T-Pain.
