NIGERIA’S NEWEST 30-YEAR-OLD MAN TURNED OUT 15

In a stirring tribute to the modern campaign brochure, Mahmoud Sadis Buba briefly rode into Nigeria’s political spotlight as the “Wonder of Zaria,” a fresh young voice from the APC whose childlike appearance was presented as a medical condition rather than, say, a fact-checking opportunity. Then the paperwork arrived, that ancient enemy of all political poetry, with leaked documents reportedly showing the 30-year-old House hopeful was actually born in 2010, which would make him 15 and thus just barely old enough to understand what a campaign slogan is, but not quite why grownups keep pretending they’re shocked when reality shows up with a birth certificate. As always, the system did what it does best: first marvel, then speculate, then discover that the “unusual candidate” was apparently unusual in a much more literal way than advertised.