I watched the video of President Bola Tinubu’s fall in Türkiye a few hours after it surfaced. I then took time to read the reactions that followed online. Honestly, what confronted me was not political disagreement or policy critique, but laughter, mockery, and cruelty, much of it amplified by younger people who treated a moment of physical vulnerability as entertainment.
Apparently, old age is not merely a biological stage; it is a social achievement. To grow old is to have survived disease, hardship, disappointment, conflict, and uncertainty. It is why elders, even flawed ones, are accorded a baseline dignity. One may reject an elder’s decisions, question their authority, or oppose their leadership, but to ridicule their frailty is to misunderstand the moral weight of age itself.
This is the point where the title matters: an elder’s fall is not comedy. In many African traditions, when an elder stumbles, empathy follows, not laughter. Empathy allows reflection, because the road does not end with one man. It continues, and every young person mocking today is merely rehearsing tomorrow’s vulnerability.
Please note this: political accountability is non-negotiable. President Tinubu’s policies, governance style, and political choices are fair grounds for criticism, debate, and even protest. Democracy depends on that. But cruelty disguised as humour adds nothing to civic discourse. It replaces reason with ridicule and justice with spectacle.
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Social media, however, has altered our moral reflexes. In this digital economy of attention, empathy is often treated as weakness, and dignity as an inconvenience. We are encouraged to laugh first, think later. But a society that laughs at ageing is silently at war with its own future.
There is a Yoruba proverb that reminds us that the elder who falls today once stood when others could not. Power fades. Bodies weaken. Titles dissolve. Age humbles everyone. To mock that process is to deny our shared humanity.
If there is a fair critique to be made from the incident, it lies elsewhere. His public presentation and dressing were poorly coordinated for the moment and setting, an avoidable lapse by those responsible for managing his image. That is a legitimate, practical observation. Mocking old age is not.
We all pray for a long life. Yet long life comes with frailty. May we not create a culture that punishes people for surviving long enough to experience it. May God make our old age gentle, and may our hearts learn compassion before our bodies demand it.
