One distinctive characteristics of Nigerian leaders is their love for titles, both appropriate and inappropriate ones.

It has become quite common place for President Buhari’s media team and advisors to bandy around the appellation “father of the nation” when they refer to him, and call his wife “mother of the Nation”, a title neither has earned if their track records, individually and collectively, are to be scrutinized. President Buhari has worn the toga of that title so much that every time he is at an event he is greeted with the noise “baba oyoyo” but his fatherhood is one that comes with dereliction of duty.

Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari was in Plateau state for two days to commission some projects embarked upon by the state government and as usual, his media team released pictures of his supporters trying to catch a glimpse of the President as some struggle with his security details by coming close to his official vehicle.

One picture that readily comes to mind from that visit which is the basis of this story was the one that shows some individuals on a billboard cheering at the President while he in turn waved at them. The picture has gone viral on the social media but it’s nothing to be happy about.

If truly, President Buhari is the father of the nation he would have directed security officers at the venue to chase them away from such life risk that might lead to a massive accident considering the strength of the billboard. Also, for a man that nearly lost his son in a motorbike accident, he should have done better by chastising the jobless youths of plateau that chose to “celebrate” him on a billboard. Not to mention the decrepit state of the billboard itself and the disorderliness that it implies for youths to have access to a 20ft billboard with no safety apparatus. We know of course,

We’ve always shouted global best practices every point in time but is it a global best practice for hapless citizens to wave to the President atop a billboard? It’s a No… the President should have learnt a serious lesson from his son accident but he learnt nothing. This is carelessness and shouldn’t be found in a President.

tosin adesina