By Austin C. Okigbo
It is no longer unusual to see images of world leaders with face masks as evidence of measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus disease. We see these images however when given world leaders are pictured in the context of news related to the COVID-19. For instance, a quick google image search on President Joseph Biden on COVID-19 yields result of multiple images of him with face masks, but a similar search on news on Afghanistan almost never shows him with a face mask. This clearly is what happens in photojournalism- relevant images for specific news items.
However, anyone who is following the patterns of recent reporting on Nigeria especially as it pertains to President Muhammadu Buhari by Associated Press and Reuters would have noticed that he is shown almost always with face mask even when the news item is unrelated to public health. An example is the reportage by Reuters on Wednesday August 25 with the title “Nigeria Signs Military Cooperation Agreement with Russia”