Ali Baba, a well-known comedian from Nigeria, once had a scary moment because of a joke he made about General Sani Abacha, who was a military leader in Nigeria a long time ago. Ali Baba shared this story on a show called Leadership Podcast.
He described what happened one time when he was telling jokes while Abacha was in charge. He said, “The first time I felt very scared for my life was when General Sani Abacha was the President.”
Ali Baba explained that he was in Abuja hosting an event. There was a group from Akwa Ibom that was going to dance. General Abacha was there, sitting with his big, dark sunglasses on. Ali Baba jokingly asked him, “Sir, it’s almost 10 PM, why are you wearing these dark sunglasses? You should take them off so you can see the dancers better!”
After this, Abacha took off his glasses and spoke to his assistant. Ali Baba saw some security officers getting ready to take him away. But instead of running away, Ali Baba decided to sit on the ground near Abacha and make a joke about himself. Abacha actually found it funny and smiled at him.
To give you a bit of history, General Sani Abacha was the leader of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. He took power after another leader was kicked out. Abacha was known for being very strict. He put a lot of people who disagreed with him in jail, and many were treated very badly.