Politics
Forgive me, ministerial nominee begs Senators, Nigerians over derogatory tweets
Bosun Tijani
Ministerial nominee for Ogun State, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has apologised to the Senate over his past unpatriotic and derogatory tweets against Senators and Nigeria as a nation.
Tijani, an Information and Communication Technology, ICT professional, made the apology while fielding questions from Senators during the ministerial screening.
Senator AbdulFatai Buhari (APC Oyo North), had taken Tijani up on some non-patriotic tweets he posted about four years ago, which the lawmaker found embarrassing and unbefitting of a personality that would occupy a public office in Nigeria.
Visiting Tijani’s past comments on social media, the lawmaker said: “On the 21st of July 2019, Dr. Bosun tweeted against Nigeria that he does not appreciate the Nigerian passport and Nigeria as a nation,” asking the nominee to clarify whether he still believed in Nigeria and the country’s passport.
Responding to the questions, the 46-year old Tijani, said that he was very passionate about Nigeria and was committed to the country’s development, explaining that he made the offensive tweets as a result of a frustrating experience he had with the Chinese Embassy.
However, Senator Elisha Ishaku Abbo (APC Adamawa North), seeing that the nominee was also going to face more bombardments from other Senators, quickly rose to Tijani’s defense, saying that the nominee tweeted out of a mixture of frustration and love for Nigeria.
Also, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Ogun West) lent his voice in defense of the nominee, who is from his state, requesting that his “youthful exuberance” and “shortcoming” should be forgiven.
Senator Adeola, who chided the nominee, said Tijani has what it takes to use his skills to develop Nigeria’s IT industry, pleading that “the baby should not be thrown away with the bath water.”
Not yet done with Tijani, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Simon Mwadkwon (PDP Plateau North), read another “non-patriotic” tweet by Tijani which was posted sometimes in 2021.
This time around, the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central), described Tijani as an “EndSARS protester”, revealing that his own daughter also protested police brutality and extrajudicial killings in October 2020.
He said said Tijani was trying to speak for his generation and should not be haunted for the tweet, pointing out that President Bola Tinubu wants to work with young people like Tijani to bring and harmonise their ideas for the betterment of the country.
Senator Bamidele asked youths to learn from Tijani’s situation and thereafter urged his colleagues to forgive the nominee.
With the intervention of the the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, the nominee subsequently apologised for his non-patriotic tweets and Akpabio said that his apology was accepted.
“We are all fathers and we cannot throw the baby away with the bath water…On behalf of the Senate, I want to accept your apology,” Akpabio intervened, and asked Tijani to take a bow.
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