Popular comedian, Atunyota Akpobome, famously known as Ali Baba, recounted his “most memorable joke” on Channels Television’s Sunrise breakfast programme on Saturday. According to funnyman, his joke on ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s supposed frugality remained evergreen.
Channels TV report that, Obasanjo was Nigeria’s democratically elected President from May 1999 to May 2007. Before then, the strongman of Hilltop in Abeokuta was Nigeria’s military Head of State between February 1976 and October 1979.
Ali Baba reflected on his tenure as President under Obasanjo and remarked, “My most memorable joke would be the one with Obasanjo, which he himself recounts; in fact, he suggested I should erase it from my book, he wrote the introduction for the book.
“It was because people were saying that Obasanjo was very frugal and that he was unaware that I was earning as much money as I was until the day he ran into Audu Ogbeh and Doyin Okupe,” the woman said.
“Ali Baba, one million (naira) why? He (Obasanjo) stumbled on (the budget) while they were preparing an event. Since 1999, has he been charging that amount?
After a hearty chuckle, the comedian continued to describe how he presented the then-president at an African Union function in Abuja and how Obasanjo called him “Ole,” which is Yoruba for “thief.”
Though Obasanjo’s remark was intended as a dig, Ali Baba chuckled that AU members mistook it for a compliment.
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