By Kareem Shamsudeen
The founder of Punocracy, Nigeria’s first satirical blog, Mr. Kunle Adebajo, made this declaration at the Punocracy Prize for Satire ceremony which held on Saturday, November 9, 2019 at the U&I building, UI. Mr. Kunle Adebayo confessed that it was difficult organizing the award ceremony, but he was happy that the ceremony came through. “I’m really glad we did.” I really think planning an event has something in common with laundry during rainy season,” he stated.
Mr. Kunle Adebajo further mentioned the objectives of Punocracy. According to him, “the objectives include; treading interest in politics, we look to diversify content development and finally we want to have fun.” He also made mention of the distinctiveness of the logo of Punocracy.
“Let me tell you briefly about the logo.” The logo is a compass but you will notice that one arrow is bolder than the other, and what this is basically talking about is that satire has two meanings; the primary meaning and the undertone which has implied meaning,” he explained.
While making brief comments on satire generally, Mr. Adebajo noted that, “at this moment, nobody is celebrating satires as political commentary and I think this is problematic. Satirical literacy is really important and it is already an endangered species. For me, I believe someone who finds it difficult to understand satire will find it difficult to be tolerant or appreciate satire. Satires do a better job in mirroring the society than other sources of writing. Satire is truer than other forms of articles,” he stated.
Mr. Adebajo, however, said choosing November, 9 for the award ceremony was because it was convenient but he also linked the date historically to when the East Germany denounced the Berlin wall. He then went ahead to declare November 9 as the “World Satire Day.” He also said: “We are trying to fight against the ills in the society not by ammunitions but by humour, sarcasm etcetera. I look forward to celebrating this with you today and many more years to come.
