It wasn’t MEND
Never before has an obscure animal so captured the popular imagination.
“Will Paul be predicting success for England in
2018?” the BBC asked months ago, following news that the octopus had
been appointed an official ambassador for England’s World Cup bid.
His death, on October 26, at the ripe old octopus-age of two-and-half, has set off a deluge of wit and humour from Nigerians.
“Final whistle blown for Paul the octopus… Bet he didn’t see that coming!” Wunmi Thomas mourned on Facebook.
Obinna Chima took things a bit further. “The FG
would be sending four serving ministers, six members of the National
Assembly and eight governors to represent us at octopus Paul’s
funeral,” he announced.
The fact that conspiracy-theorising is in the
Nigerian DNA was evident: “…who killed Paul the Octopus???”
Facebooker Obasi Paul queried.
Perhaps it was in response to that question that
this viral tweet emerged: “President Jonathan absolves MEND of
complicity in Paul the Octopus’ death.”
During his lifetime, Paul’s astonishingly accurate
World Cup predictions led to an outpouring of hope from Nigerians –
especially on Facebook and Twitter – that INEC would recognise him as
the solution to the country’s age-old inability to produce a
controversy-free electoral process.
But now that he’s dead, expectations are shifting. People are being
warned to expect the following email in the months ahead: “I’m the son
of the late Paul de Octopus. Before he died he left $1bn in vault in
World Bank. I need your help 2 claim it. This is not a scam…”
Leave a Reply