For social media activists, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce’s tweet on the alleged loot of the late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, was too insensitive for a joke, which, perhaps, the lawmaker had in mind.
Murray-Bruce has taken to Twitter to express his disappointment with the current financial position of the Federal Government, thanking God that Abacha had stolen from the country.
He also sarcastically described the late military leader as a visionary, saying his loot had become the country’s “saving grace.”
He wrote, “Thank God for Abacha. In some way, he was a visionary. In this time of scarcity, his money being returned to us is now our saving grace.”
But this remark was one tweet his followers did not take lightly. Hence, the lawmaker has come under attack for making a jest of an offence that reportedly reduced the worth of the country and embarrassed its citizens.
For one, the presidential candidate of the KOWA Party at the 2015 poll, Remi Sonaiya, took the former NTA director-general to task, saying his remark was not in good taste.
“Hopefully, this was written tongue-in-cheek. But given the horrors we knew under Abacha, it may not be in good taste,” Sonaiya, the only female candidate that ran for the presidential poll, posted on her Twitter page.
Also, one Somi Ekhasomhi scolded the Bayelsa State-born lawmaker for attempting to make a joke out of a “crime” that has attracted condemnation from the public. She said the lawmaker’s Twitter handle was too important to be used to make statements that were opened to misinterpretations.
She noted, “He is being sarcastic. He too feels the need to mock those who say this with a straight face. But I agree that a senator’s handle is not the place to make a joke that is so open to misinterpretations.”
Tweeting on @buky, another social media user urged the lawmaker to delete the post, noting that it “is disgusting.”
“Please delete the tweet. This is a highly irresponsible and a slap on our face,” @buky posted.
According to Emeka Obasi, a social media influencer, Murray-Bruce would have avoided the unnecessary backlash if he paid attention to the public mood. He said the current challenges experienced by Nigerians did not encourage such jokes.
The majority of the online activists, who criticised the lawmaker, said his remark was an endorsement for corruption, a position that contradicts his “common sense” sermon.
Meanwhile, a professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi, has also taken to digital media to express his concerns about the performance of the country’s economy, observing that nothing short of a “rapid response” from stakeholders and institutions will save the citizens.
Utomi is among the few Nigerian experts who have embraced the social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, to share their thoughts on national issues, including the economy.
Tweeting on the state of the economy from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, the political economist regretted the challenges investors in Nigeria faced, noting that there was the need to speed up efforts to improve on the country’s business environment.
According to him, the country needs a consensus among the elite on how it can sustain economic progress.
“I am at now in Dubai, just had indigestion served with someone reading story of investors leaving Nigeria. We need rapid response. (I) hate to think the recursive economy is back. We really need elite consensus on how to sustain progress in Nigeria,” he tweeted.
Utomi’s post from Dubai is like a call for a revolution, or so his teeming social media fans have perceived the phrase “rapid response.”
A response from one Oloopo Adeniji confirms this. Adeniji said, “Professor, you could start a movement and you can be sure that we, young ones, would follow. But you need to start one.”
Tweeting also, Emmanuel Ugwuanyi said Nigerians were waiting patiently for the Utomis to start doing something meaningful to announce to the government that they were not docile, as they often perceived.
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