Abstract:
Around the world, cartoons are a popular journalistic genre used in the mimical portrayal of rather
severe political and socio-economic issues. The purpose of this study is to examine political
cartoons on Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), especially regarding his intention to be the President of
Nigeria in 2023. This qualitative and descriptive study relied on primary and secondary data
sources and is predicated on the visual rhetoric theory, which is the term used to describe the
study of visual imagery within the discipline of rhetoric. The study employed the analytical
method, and a purposive sampling technique was adopted in the cartoons’ selection. Political
cartoons, articles, and commentaries of political analysts and political communication scholars on
Bola Ahmed Tinubu were reviewed. The study population comprised editorial or political
cartoons on BAT’s visual genre in Nigeria published from August 2021 to August 2022 in
Nairaland, the second most visited Nigerian website. The findings of the study indicate that many
cartoons depicting Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidential ambition are unsupportive of his ambition.
His disputed age, uncertain health condition, and perceived corruption are some predictors of this
lack of support for BAT’s presidential ambition. The paper therefore recommends that political
actors should consider posterity when they act, particularly as the media, which includes cartoons,
document their actions and promote narratives which posterity uses in its judgments.
