Professor Uju Anya, a Nigerian don, has received backlash on Twitter for her remarks regarding the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.
Few Hours before the Queen’s death was announced, Professor Anya wrote on her Twitter page, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
Since then, the tweet has been removed for breaking “Twitter rules.”
She made reference to the alleged participation of the British empire in arming and munitions-supplying the Nigerian government during the country’s civil war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970, in another tweet.
“If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star,” she wrote, following the announcement of the Queen’s death.
The tweets drew the attention of Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, who quoted the post and wrote, “This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow.”
Aide to President Buhari, Bashir Ahmed, also tweeted, “Don’t know that Uju Anya until I saw some of her tweets for the first time on my timeline this evening, her tweets about late Queen Elizabeth II were so unfortunately unnecessary.”
Another tweep, @novieverest wrote, “You can condemn slavery and colonization without being an Uju Anya. Her statement was terrible and you can’t defend it. It is that simple.”
Many people defended the professor, though, for speaking out against the colonial history of the British Empire under the late Queen.
Anya’s tweets, according to @vickkingsley, are a mirror of many people’s unsaid feelings, “ the thing with Uju Anya’s tweet is, a lot of people feel exactly the way she feels but she was bold enough to state even those who feel the same way as she are all dragging her. Uju Anya is the villain now but you have had massive disdain for the British government, colonialism.”
“I stand with Uju Anya. The level of sympathy Queen Elizabeth who died peacefully is over, levelling the sympathy given to Africans who died as a result of colonialism because there was no social media,” @Philosophiero1 tweeted.
Anya’s employer, Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, also issued a statement denying any responsibility for the professor’s remarks.
“We do not condone the offensive and objectionable message posted by Uju Anya today on her personal social media account.
“Free expression is core to the mission of higher education, however, the views views shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standard of discourse we seek to foster,” the statement read.
