Alabi Yusuf: How viral campaign photo is changing a dropout’s future

Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, recently visited the Alaba neighborhood in Lagos with his campaign train. He was greeted by a cheerful crowd of supporters while he waved at the crowd from his SUV’s open sunroof as the crowd cheered him along the streets of the Orlie-mile 2 road.

Esther Umoh a Nigerian professional photographer from Akwa Ibom State who is the official photographer for the Peter Obi campaign train was on the streets that day documenting proceedings with her camera. One of the images showed a boy standing in front of Obi’s SUV with his arms held out and staring up at the presidential candidate as if he were waiting for a superhero to come save him. The image soon gained popularity under the name “Daddy Oyoyo,” a slang for welcoming parents home in Nigeria.

The image looked like something out of a movie and it quickly became the most shared image that day.

One Twitter user @manny_ekpe tweeted saying “The actual renewed hope.” Another user Mercy Abang tweeted “A photo with a thousand words.” Popular sport photographer Pooja praised the image as one of his best photos from the presidential campaigns giving credits to the framing, the story, the moment and the connection. Appreciating the photographer, another Twitter user Ugochi tweeted “Big shout out to @EstherUmoh10 for capturing this beautiful moment and changing this young man’s story.”

Alabi Yusuf Quadri, the 15 years old boy in the viral picture, is a secondary school drop-out, it was gathered. His mother was unable to save up enough to pay his school fees.

Just like Yusuf, millions of Nigerian children find themselves out of school due to the rising cost of living that has mostly affected lower income families. According to UNESCO’s latest global data on out-of-school children, Nigeria now has about 20 million out-of-school children with the country’s education budget for 2022 being only 5.4 percent of the country’s total annual budget.

Not long after the picture of Yusuf went viral some supporters took it upon themselves to locate him.

Twitter user IruefiNG spoke to the boy and his mother and after figuring out their current state of living decided to post his story online and solicit for help to send the boy back to school. Yusuf’s account details have been shared online with supporters already sending funds to his bank account increasing his chances of picking up his education where he dropped it.