While the world mourned the Queen, Nigerians chose to do the same, but in an attention-grabbing manner.
Nigerians have reacted to the news of the death of Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom, who was the longest serving British monarch.
The queen died at Balmoral, Scotland at the age of 96 after 70 long years on the throne.
The queen’s son Prince Charles has taken over as British monarch and will now be addressed as King Charles III.
Queen Elizabeth’s death sparked different reactions amongst Nigerians, with some becoming controversial.
Hilarious reactions:
The Queen’s memes have flooded Twitter, with many catching fun on #blackTwitter.
On other platforms, there have been photos of Ankara fabric reportedly put up for sale, as is the norm in Nigeria, when an elderly passes on.
Also, a photo of the queen, with Nigerian gospel singer, Tope Alabi’s voice playing in the background of a video, has gone viral.
Controversial Nigerian singer, Portable in his reaction to the Queen’s death, shared a freestyle video about the passing of the Queen and the immediate ascension of her son, Prince Charles. Starting off the video, he said:
“Iya Charly ti ku, Charly lo kan” (Charles’s mom (the Queen of England), Charles is up for the throne), Portable sang: Iya Charly ti ku, e ba wa wa Charly lo. Iya Charly ti ku, oun ni mo se sofun yin kpe ke toju emi yin.”
Meaning: the Queen is dead, help us look for Charly. The Queen is dead, which is why I advise you to take care of your souls.
In his own reaction to the Queen’s passing, popular Nigerian singer, Naira Marley tattooed her face on his hand.
The 32-year-old posted a video of the tattoo on Instagram, hours after the Queen was announced dead. In the video, Naira Marley could be heard bidding goodbye to the monarch. He said:
“Rest in peace ma.”
Controversies:
Nigerian-born, American university professor, Uju Anya, has come under fire on Twitter over her tweets, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
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.”
The tweet has since been deleted for violating “Twitter rules”.
In another tweet, she referenced the rumoured role of the British empire in supplying the Nigerian government with arms and ammunition during the nation’s civil war which spanned 1967 – 1970. Following the announcement of the Queen’s death, the Professor tweeted:
“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.”
While some claimed she spoke the minds of many Africans who were slaves under the Colonial rule, others termed her tweet as harsh and unnecessary.
Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos 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.”
@vickkingsley wrote:
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.”
Another tweep, @Philosophiero1 wrote:
“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,”
Also generating backlash from Nigerians, ex-presidential aspirant of the Young Progressives Party, YPP, Adamu Garba, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to immortalize Queen Elizabeth.
He asked Buhari to rename the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN to Queen Elizabeth University of Nigeria. In his words:
“In order to immortalized Queen Elizabeth, we should rename the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to Queen Elizabeth University of Nigeria since it is the first University in Nigeria.”
Garba who dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and later came back, this year, said if he was Nigeria’s president he would declared three days of national mourning for the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
“If I’m the President of Nigeria today, I’ll declare 3 days of National Mourning for the death of The Queen Elizabeth II of England.”
Tweeps didn’t take Garba’s tweet lying down, as they dragged him to filth. See some reactions below:
@YOexellency wrote:
Don’t think that will be enough, why not change the name of some states in SE like Enugu should be rename to Queens state, Anambra should be rename to Elizabeth Il state. Adamu go always b Adamu
@SaintVawulence wrote:
When she visited Nigeria twice, she spent 18 days out of her 20 days visit in the North of which 10 days out of the 15 days she spent in the North was well spent in Nasarawa State. It will be nice they immortalise her by rename the emir after her It will be nice
@coinbully wrote:
Why not rename ABU or BUK since your colonizers gave Nigeria to your people to conquest?
@theishanboy wrote:
No dem for just draw the queen picture for Nigeria flag na.
@zilliondavid wrote:
This was someone that wanted to be president saying all these rubbish, i guess he is just saying it as cruise bcus the queen has brought us more harm then good.
@CollinsOKD wrote:
The fact that this guy by merely coming out to joke about a chance at even becoming the president of this country earned him the appendage of “ex presidential aspirant’ still offs me every time
@CherylOkereke wrote:
University of Nigeria is not the 1st Nigerian University