NATIONAL: Drama at Armed Forces Remembrance Day as released pigeons refused to fly

NIGERIANS were treated to a comic spectacle today when an agitated President Buhari struggled to prod a symbolic pigeon to fly almost seven years after a similar thing happened to former president Goodluck Jonathan.

In what appeared to be a repeat of history, the doves, otherwise known as white pigeons, released by President Buhari at the Armed Forces Remembrance Day ceremony, refused to fly despite multiple attempts by the President.

The development, which many Nigerians have been squeezing humour from, has sparked a debate on social media.

The President had opened the birdcage at the National Arcade, picked up one of the doves, and thrown it into the air but the bird landed atop the cage and refused to fly.

Buhari, who was eager to let the white pigeons fly, opened the roof of the cage in a bid to send them all out but the birds remained adamant and decided to sit on top of the cage’s roof.

The President, who appeared tired of trying, soon left the birds and returned to his seat.But moments after the President had left, however, some of the birds flew.

Releasing doves has been a ritual used to commemorate the life of a departed loved one and it is used to mark memorials or funerals. It is quite symbolic because the dove signifies peace.

When a similar thing happened to President Goodluck Jonathan in 2014, the Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry Enugu, Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka, described the incident at the time as a sign that God had abandoned Jonathan and torn apart his administration.

Studies show that domesticated doves which are used to living in cages are not always keen on flying.

The Vatican stopped the ritual in 2014 when Pope Francis released two birds that would not fly out of the window of the papal apartment and required several attempts to get the birds to fly out over a crowd of spectators.