Sights of politicians breaking down in tears in public always make the headlines. The latest in a line of politicians seen in this art while speaking in public is Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State over the taxation burden on the poor in the state. WALE ELEGBEDE chronicles other public figures that have openly expressed their emotions
On a good day, Prof. Ben Ayade, the governor of Cross River State is a usually steely leader. He is bold, erudite and sophisticated. On and off his duties as governor, he has left no one in doubt of his pedigree as a scholar who has his way around out of space innovative ideas and slogans.
But over the weekend, the sturdy Ayade triggered an emotional trend on social media with the viral video of him crying before the camera while lamenting the plight of poor Cross Riverians and waiving taxes for some low-income earners.
Incidentally, the governor had a record of breaking down while speaking in the public. Within his past five years stint in government house, he has wept in public four different times and that made political analysts to mull aligning him with former governor of Imo State, Chief Sam Mbakwe, who earned the sobriquet of ‘The Weeping Governor’ on the account of his famed tears while in office. However, the late Mbakwe, who was a Second Republic governor, was reputed to be one of the best governors of his era on the account of his outstanding performance.
Recall that in 2016, the living condition of Bakassi returnees in his state drew tears from Governor Ayade. He wept again in 2017, while making case for the Bakasi people with the National Commissioner of the National Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. The governor also broke down in tears after laying hands on the state’s 2018 budget document of N1.3 trillion called ‘Budget of Kinetic Crystallization, the highest budget of any Nigerian state in history.
Of course, last week at the inauguration of the state anti-tax agency set up to ensure that poor people are exempted from the tax net and headed by Emma Isong, the governor declared between sobs that it is better for him to “task my brain” than to expect tax from people who are still struggling.
Ayade, who broke down in tears, said: “I never knew that five years as governor, there would still be people living in thatched houses in Cross River. I almost cried because I knew how prepared I was but it didn’t end the way I dreamt for the state. I wish God would intervene because I really wish I could help. It’s very painful.”
He said if it pleases God, he should take his wealth so that other people in the state could be rich, adding that, “This is not Ben Ayade, this is not my nature. I am not wired for this insensitivity to a weaker person.”
Expectedly, political pundits and social media commentators had almost as much to say about the governor’s tears as about the substance of his message.
However, the general sentiment seemed to be that Governor Ayade was doing something unusual by crying. Regardless, his breakdown puts him in a growing club of politicians who have shed tears in public.
At the global echelon, most modern-day US presidents or candidates have succumbed to their emotions on occasion. Former presidents George Bush – both junior and senior, Bill and Hillary Clinton, even Barack Obama, have all been caught weeping at some point.
The list of leaders known for their emotional outbursts also include former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, known as the Iron Lady, who welled up when she left Downing Street in 1990. Former Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also shed tears in 2009 after the announcement that Rio de Janeiro would be the host for the 2016 Olympics. The list is perhaps endless but the motives were largely same political.
But some political analysts averred that tears are as old as humanity and they are not bad in themselves. They however noted that the conundrum for public officers when they turn on the waterworks in public is the interpretation of those tears in line with the occasion on which they flowed.
“I am yet to see a governor—who weeps when he wants to collect his monthly security vote from the Federal Government. When they collect their salaries and allowances, they would not break down into tears and water wont flow freely when they had to travel abroad with their families on holidays,” Comrade Akeem Bamgbola, a social critic said.
In Nigeria, the list also appears endless of politicians and public figures who hugged headlines for crying in public for one reason or the other.
Muhammadu Buhari
As the then presidential candidate of the now defunct Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), General Muhammadu Buhari, now president, wept in the full glare of the public at an event in Abuja.
This art made most Nigerians then to wonder what could make a retired army general cry a few days before the nation’s presidential elections.
But for the supporters of the former head of state, the answers are not far-fetched; he was broken by the dismal leadership records in the country.
Buhari broke down in tears at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, at the event organised by his party, the CPC, to mark the end of its 2011 presidential campaign. Buhari wept intermittently as he managed to conclude his 12 page address at the occasion.
The then Vice presidential candidate of CPC, Pastor Tunde Bakare, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, ex- Secretary of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.), were all on the high table as Buhari sobbed in between words. They were also moved to tears as they used their handkerchiefs to control sipping tears.
The emotions created by Buhari’s sobs inevitably led to the abrupt disruption of the question and answer session with newsmen that were scheduled to follow.
He said: “After being head of state, I am sure I could easily have retired into a life of comfort and ease as an elder statesman, as a contractor or as a beneficiary of any one of the nation’s many generous prebendal offerings. But that is not what I wish to do with my life.
“And so, if I don’t take any of these alternative courses of action, it should be clear that I am not in this for the love of office or for pursuit after personal glory or in order to achieve some personal goal. Far be it from me that this should be. I need nothing and I have nothing more to prove.
“I am in this solely for the love of my country and concern for its destiny and the fate of its people. And that is why, despite the many disappointments along the way, I am still in the struggle and will remain in it to the end. I have decided to dedicate the remainder of my life to fighting for the people of this country-until their right is restored to them.”
Atiku Abubakar
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections openly wept for the country wept while speaking to some of his supporters who had purchased a presidential nomination form for him as an aspirant at the time.
The Adekemi-Adesanya Eboda-led global coordinator for Women and Youth Support for Atiku (WAYS) and some other support groups of the former vice president purchased and presented the nomination and expression of interest forms to Abubakar, urging him to contest for the ticket of the PDP in the 2019 election.
The groups, which stormed the headquarters of the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation in Wuse 2 area of Abuja with the forms they had earlier picked at the PDP national secretariat, said that they resolved to tax themselves to raise the funds for the PDP forms as expression of their commitment to support Atiku in his 2019 presidential bid.
Atiku, whose emotion took a better of him, busted into tears and wiped his face with a white handkerchief, urged his teeming supporters to go the extra mile and mobilise support for him to ensure he secures PDP’s ticket to contest the 2019 presidential election.
Accompanied by scores of his supporters, Atiku, who repeatedly wiped his tears with a white handkerchief, called on his teeming supporters to go the extra mile and mobilise support for him to ensure he secures the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) ticket to contest the 2019 presidential election.
The expression of interest and nomination forms were handed to the former vice president by Atiku Support Group, a movement galvanising support for his presidential ambition.
The support groups said they had taxed themselves to raise N40m for the forms as an expression of their love for the Turaki Adamawa.
Explaining why he became so emotional, Atiku said,”It is almost three decades of my political career this year. But today has also turned out to be one of the most emotional days in those three decades of my political career. I have tried to present myself as a candidate for the office of the president in a number of elections. The only time I succeeded of being on the ballot was in 2007.”
He added: “In 2007, I was on the ballot not because I believe I was going to win but because I wanted to prove a constitutional issue so that all Nigerians can avail themselves with the constitutional protection, and I succeeded at the Supreme Court. And that is why today, no Nigerian can be stopped from contesting an election unless he has been convicted by a court of law.”
Goodluck Jonathan
Former President Goodluck Jonathan in June, 2012, shed tears during his visit to the site, where a Dana Airline aircraft crashed in Lagos, killing everyone on board.
The sobbing president promised a thorough investigation into the incidence that led to the crash. “This particular incident is a major setback for us … I will make sure that this will not repeat itself in the country,” he said.
More than 153 people were killed when the domestic passenger plane travelling from Abuja, crashed into a heavily populated area, Iju Agege, Lagos.
Samuel Ortom
Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, wept uncontrollably in public at the news of a fresh massacre of his people by Fulani herdsmen.
The bloodletting occurred in January 2018 and scores of people including children were victims of the attacks by gunmen suspected to be herdsmen.
The governor lamented the unwarranted wanton destruction of lives and property.
His words: “What I have seen here is far beyond the report we received. Several innocent people have been killed. Women and children murdered with their throats slit open.
“Many people are still missing while several houses have been destroyed. The whole of Guma and Logo have been turned into desolate lands.
“This is unfortunate; we are living in a country that is presumed to be our own. Security agencies in this country had been aware of the impending attacks and what you are seeing here is just a tip of the iceberg.”
Ortom urged the Federal Government to step into the matter so as to avert further destruction of lives and property.
He expressed regret that the state government informed the Federal Government of the impending attack but it still took place.
Ayodele Fayose
Former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, broke down in tears on a national Television just a few days to the July 14, 2018 governorship election in the state.
Fayose, who sobbed like a baby, while speaking with Channels Television, said he was in pains after he was “shot at” and manhandled by security agents. He further lamented that “I cannot take this anymore” before crawling away from the camera.
The governor’s tears came minutes after he addressed a crowd of PDP supporters, and he later appeared in bandages on his right arm and a neck brace.
He lamented: “I call on the international community, Ekiti is under siege. How can I be governor of Ekiti State and be treated like this in my own country? My people, I call on all of you to stand and remain standing.
“I will go back to the hospital for a while to rest… I am having a lot of pains, but I prefer to bear these pains because of you. I prefer to bear these pains because of you…”
Patience Jonathan
In what later became a household sobriquet, ‘there is God ooo’, former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, wept uncontrollably in 2014 to expressed her displeasure at the absence of Hajiya Nana Shettima, wife of the former Borno State governor, at a second enlarged stakeholders’ meeting on the abducted schoolgirls in Borno.
The First Lady busted into tears after she took a roll call and discovered that the governor’s wife and those she invited were absent.
Shettima was absent at the first meeting, which Mrs. Jonathan convened earlier to seek clarification on the number of girls involved and this made the then First Lady to postponed the meeting to enable Shettima, parents of the abducted girls, the school’s security guard and two of the girls that escaped, among others, attend the meeting.
She kept on repeating: ‘There is God in everything we are doing. There is God.”
Mrs. Jonathan, however, expressed shock that the Borno State government appeared not to take the issue serious.
“After the incidence, I waited for her, she did not come. I sent for her, she came.
“I asked questions, no answer. I asked her to come with the principal and parents: she did not turn up till today. To our greatest surprise, she sent a commissioner.
“The next thing I saw was women demonstrating. No woman will fold her hands while her house is on fire. She is the mother of Borno.
“She is the mother of these children, I am their grandmother. She should be more concerned and come to her grandma.
“The police, army, WAEC, government officials came with a few of their own but no parent was present to tell us their child was kidnapped or among those who escaped.
“The mother of Borno is not concerned about what is happening, her children are involved,’ Jonathan said while in tears.
Muhammadu Sanusi II
In October 2019, the now deposed 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II broke down in tears while delivering his speech at the United Nations meeting to reach Sustainable Development Goals in Lagos.
The former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) condemned the rapid increase of inequality being experienced in the country.
Citing an example, the monarch gave an account of a painful situation he had witnessed.
According to Emir Sanusi, a woman carrying a sick child walked into his palace which is just 200m from a children’s hospital in the community to seek for help.
Elisha Abbo
Amidst copious tears, Senator Elisha Abbo, who assaulted a woman at a sex toy shop in Abuja last May, apologized for his action.
At a press conference in Abuja, the remorseful Abbo, who represents Adamawa North Senatorial District at the Senate said it was not in his character to beat up a woman and regretted his action without making excuses.
He apologised to the woman, the senate and the church, saying that he is an ambassador of Christ.
Abbo also apologized to the PDP, the political party through which he won election to be in the Senate.
“It is with a deep sense of remorse and responsibility that I, Senator Ishaku Abbo (SIA) profoundly apologize to all Nigerians, the Senate, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), my family, friends as well as our mothers – the Nigerian women.
“I personally apologize to Barbra and her family for my action towards her, which has brought immense discomfort in our body polity.
Kashim Shettima
Former governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, wept in January 2019 over the resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram in his state when he led a delegation to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The meeting with the President where the governor wept uncontrollably held inside the council chamber of State House Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The governor broke down as he delivered his opening remarks, to state why he and his team were visiting the president again.
The meeting had in attendance all three senators from the state, members of the House of Representatives, the APC governorship candidate and traditional rulers.
Aliyu Modibbo Umar
Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr .Aliyu Modibbo Umar, wept openly while handing over the administration of the territory to Remi Babalola as supervising minister in October 2008.
The handover held at the FCT minister’s official residence in Life Camp Abuja, was however without the presence of the then outgoing minister of state for the FCT, Senator John James Akpanudoedehe.
Modibbo who could not hold back tears, summoned courage to commend then President Umaru Yar’Adua for the opportunity given him to serve the country, saying he was ever willing to serve again.
“I don’t want my colleagues to start commending me here, because if you do, large tears may break from here; we will turn this place into a crying field, then I will leave you at that state,” he said.
At that moment, tears were already flowing down the cheeks of the outgoing minister, who lost his usual eloquence.
Boni Haruna
When Boni Haruna led a federal government delegation to his home state of Adamawa in his capacity as Minister of Youth Development in February, 2015, he shed tears as they visited some of the victims of the insurgency in the North-East.
Haruna, who was a former governor of the state, visited victims in Mubi, Hong, Maiha, Ganye and Michika local government areas of the state, who reunited with their families after soldiers had recaptured their towns from the hands of terrorists.
The minister could not hold back his tears as he met the victims as some of the victims said that they were happy to be home.
Diezani Allison-Madueke
In August 2007, Diezani Allison-Madueke, who then Minister of Transport cried over the sorry condition of Benin-Ore Express Road, when she visited it.
Newstelegraph