It wasn't until this Nigerian schoolgirl/#BringBackOurGirls crisis that I'd ever really seen press footage of Goodluck Jonathan, the often-criticized Nigerian president who'd won somewhat substantially in a re-election campaign a few years ago.
I subscribe to the BBC's Africa Today podcast, and so have heard about him and heard his voice somewhat frequently, but I'd never taken the time to look up what he looks like. Partly it's because the majority of African leaders haven't fit my viewing æsthetic historically, but it's just never come up.
So, one day I'm watching the news and I see this fedora-ed dude walking alongside François Hollande and I think, "Does he dress like this all the time???".
The answer, it seems, is yes. Is the majority of Google Image search results I'd called up (including the one above), he is wearing about that same hat. There are a few with him not wearing it as well, and he actually looks better without it.
My question is, then, why? Why does he wear it? Is he like his predecessors and comrades-at-arms in other African nations who've done things because they think they look good even though they fall — often quietly, sometimes publicly — in the ridicule of their people for these faux pas of fashion?
Perhaps this is worth some research. It may even be in his Wikipedia entry…
… after looking up …
Alas, no dice. But his wife's name is Patience. How interesting.
