10 Times Mr Macaroni Satirised Nigerian Politicians

With the popularity of content creation in Nigeria, people have taken to watching their favourite domestic social media comedians, especially on mediums like Instagram and YouTube, primarily for entertainment purposes. Among the existent jesters whose skits are prioritised by fans is Adebowale Adedayo, popularly called Mr Macaroni. It turns out that besides his ability to thrill fans, he pays his due homage to social value, and not too many of his contemporaries can boast of the adroitness with which he uses one stone to kill two birds. In interesting ways, both in and outside his comic act, Mr Macaroni has fashioned a legacy for himself as a social commentator and activist.

Watching his comedy skits, Mr Macaroni usually takes up the personalities of Daddy Wa, a married womaniser, and Professor Hard Life, a sadistic lecturer. Being attracted to curvy ladies, the character of Daddy Wa tries but fails consistently to get hold of the mostly younger women despite having money to throw around. It never ends well for this character as he gets outsmarted by the ladies. Mr Macaroni passes a strong message here to all married men fond of cheating on their partners. On the other hand, Professor Hard Life caricatures university dons in Nigeria who are too full of themselves as they literally parade as demigods for students to worship. Yet, while he juggles between these personas, just for the harmless fun of it, Mr Macaroni has often segued into the character of a politician or a socially concerned youth, through which he dishes out nuggets of socio-political wisdom. 

Following the EndSARS saga in 2020, during which he and Nigerian rapper, entertainer and fellow social activist, Falz hit Lagos streets with aggrieved Nigerian youths to protest against an ignominious arm of the police force, Mr. Macaroni’s fame has skyrocketed, with the young man amassing critical acclaim for his ability to appeal to the societally downtrodden. His Twitter handle @mrmacaroni remains an extension of what he believes in and what he stands for, as he relentlessly uses the platform to vocalise his patriotism, either to the solidaristic response of fans or to the rancorous reactions of his non-fans.

Evan Gottlieb, Professor of English at Oregon State University, describes satire as “the act of making someone or something look ridiculous, raising laughter in order to embarrass, humble or discredit its target”. Being one of the oldest literary genres, satire has been explored in the works of many literary icons, its use dating back to as far as Ancient Rome. Nigeria’s foremost playwright and legendary Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka is touted as an apologist of this genre, with a lot of his literary writings committed to nationalist and Afrocentric interests. Owing to the modern development of media and the internet, it has become expedient for this age-old genre to be embraced in more stylised ways while preserving its reformative instincts. Mr Macaroni is filling part of this gap through his skits.

In the buildup to the recently concluded general elections, Mr Macaroni sporadically released comedy skit episodes of himself playing the role of an average Nigerian politician. Generally, with these acts, he drew the attention of people to the pretentious behaviours that our politicians put up during election seasons in order to secure the confidence of the public. Exposing the outright gimmickry of certain members of the ruling class hopeful of the people’s mandates, he hoped electorates would look beyond the facade to determine their national and subnational fates.

Here, in this piece, we take a look at ten times Mr Macaroni satirised Nigerian politicians, and we attempt to demystify the messages on those occasions.

Job seeker delegates interview questions

In this video, an interviewee is asked questions about how he intends to improve the fortunes of a company. Instead of tackling the questions head-on, the interviewee gloats about his impressive resumé and invites three of his protégés to answer the questions on his behalf. Recall that in 2022, when a presidential hopeful appeared at the Chatham House in the United Kingdom and was asked questions, the aspirant absolved himself of responsibility by delegating some members of his team to address the concerns.

Mr. Macaroni vs The Okada Rider

Here, on the eve of an election, a contesting politician visits a park of Okada riders and gives them wads of naira notes. He is hailed while doing this, and he tells the people to vote for him. When a rider gives him a lift, the rider intentionally gets into a pothole and throws the politician off. He scolds the politician for not fixing the road in his previous tenure and promises that the riders’ association would not vote for him.

These School Children Didn’t Follow The Script

While being filmed by his media team, a politician distributes food packs to a class of pupils during the pre-election time, but the children aren’t impressed by the hypocritical gesture. As he rants about having previously catered to the nutritional needs of children in the community, the children expose his lies. Referring to him as “Grandpa”, in a manner that caricatures Nigeria’s overaged and retrograde political aspirants, the kids share testimonies of the politician’s failed leadership in the past. In the end, they resolve to tell their parents not to vote for him.

The Politicians Don’t Care

At a press briefing, a politician appears to bewail a terrorist incident that led to the deaths of people. Shedding crocodile tears and professing faux empathy, he pays lip service for the umpteenth time. He lies about having lost appetite since the incident occurred, yet once he leaves the media, he joins his political cronies in a feast. Here Mr Macaroni characterises the dubious nature of Nigerian politicians, similar to how Niyi Osundare portrays the Zebra in his satirical poem The Leader and the Led where he treats the black-and-white stripes as an omen of political duplicity.

5,000 naira for your future

In this episode, Mr Macaroni takes a swipe at vote buying, as he plays the role of an observer and concerned citizen. Korex, who often appears alongside Mr Macaroni in the latter’s videos, plays the role of the politician who distributes money to people as security for their votes. When a lady is confronted and advised by Mr Macaroni against vote buying, she remains unyielding and prefers the immediate palliative the cash offers. 

Politician steals offering box

In this episode, on the eve of an election, a pastor introduces a corrupt politician to a church congregation for prayers. The politician, played by Mr Macaroni, is rejected by members who criticise him for having despised them and for not doing anything to ameliorate the tough economic situation. When the church members refuse to pray for him, he decides to forcefully retrieve the donation he made to the church. 

The Party Delegates

Having lost the party primaries, a betrayed politician goes to meet the party delegates and retrieve the car gifts he gave them for having deceived him. The politician got only a vote compared to the 135 delegate votes he was promised. It appears the delegates refused to support him because of a lack of faith in his political agenda.

Fellow Nigerians We Must Unite

Released October 6, 2022, this episode deals with a Nigerian honourable, played by Mr. Macaroni, who decides to adopt a divisive political strategy in order to win an election. Prior to election day, he tries to recruit three mercenaries as political thugs to cause chaos and bring ethnic and tribal discord among the youth whom he perceives as the biggest threat to his leadership. The young men, representing the three main ethnic groups in Nigeria, suddenly come to their senses that they are being used as tools, so they refuse to run any more malicious errands for the honourable.

A similar scenario as this video played out when the Lagos gubernatorial election drew closer. The atmosphere became rife with some propaganda that the candidate of a political party that was in strong contention to unseat the ruling APC government was an IPOB apologist. Another propaganda, in which Igbos were said to have called Lagos a “no man’s land”, to the irritation of the state’s indigenes, gained momentum. Many people fell for these cheap tantrums, as it influenced their decisions on who to vote and who not to vote, but people who read between the lines understood elements of the ruling party to have used this divide-and-rule strategy to deter people from uniting to oust them from power.

Election Season in Naija

In this episode, the politician decides to join a queue for food, refusing the people’s urge for him to go before them. When it’s his turn to be served, the food is finished and he is left disappointed. There’s probably a profound message here of the politician getting a taste of his own medicine: now he knows how it feels to be famished, how it hurts to have one’s source of hope suddenly cut off, in a similar way as when the masses feel left in the lurch after the futile promises made by their leaders.

Politicians Right Now

Mr Macaroni collaborates with fellow comic stars Craze Clown and Lasisi Elenu to represent how politicians become emergency philanthropists and overzealous sympathisers during election season. The three acts are portrayed as politicians who, prior to elections make themselves available to the grassroots, as a way of canvassing for support.

Recall that governor-elect Sanwo-Olu was the target of furore a few days before the gubernatorial elections when he started to make himself more available to the masses and started putting up unusual appearances in places where he hardly ever appeared. Alex Omenye captured this.