After the announcement of the passing moments of Queen Elizabeth II of England, a Nigerian-born American professor, Uju Anya, took to the microblogging platform, Twitter, to express her disdain for the 96-year-old late monarch.
Some hours before the Queen’s death was announced, Professor Anya wrote on her verified Twitter handle (@UjuAnya): “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.”
Twitter has since deleted the tweet for violating its rules.
After series of reactions to the disputed tweet, she tweeted a reference to the rumoured role of the British empire in supplying the Nigerian government with arms and ammunition during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 1970). She wrote after the Queen’s death “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.”
The tweets drew the attention of many including 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.”
Taiwo_Ajakaye (@dmightyangel) wrote “They were INDOCTRINATED from childhood that other tribes, ethnicity, Nation and tongues were responsible for their woes in life. Even when they are doing well, that VICTIM CARD must be played be it in Nigeria or somewhere else… Uju Anya is a typical mirror of bigots….”
Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Digital Communication, 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.”
Anya is a Professor of Linguistics at the Carnegie Mellon University. The US based institution issued a statement distancing itself from her comments.
“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 shared absolutely do not represent the values of the institution, nor the standard of discourse we seek to foster,” the university said.