President Buhari’s social media handlers
have embarked on frantic attempts at damage control over comments by
the President Buhari’s daughter Zahra, attacking President Obama for
legalizing homosexuality.
Zahra, one of the daughters of Nigeria’s
President Muhammadu Buhari had tweeted from her Twitter handle
@Zahra_Buhari on Thursday in clarification of an earlier tweet targeted
at President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia. President Buhari’s handlers had
on Saturday, made efforts to deflect the embarrassment through
sponsored denials in online news platforms stating that Zahra’s comment
was not referring to President Jammeh.
However, Zahra’s clarification on
Thursday of her earlier tweet at President Jammeh has now inadvertently
labeled President Obama and the US Government as “Child Fuckers” for
legalizing homosexuality and gay marriage.
Within hours after The Trent’s report on the possible diplomatic mess Zahra’s comments could create between Nigeria and the United States,
President Buhari’s social media handlers have frantically created a new
Twitter handle for Zahra Buhari in attempts to disclaim the
embarrassing @Zahra_Buhari handle as a fake. The new Zahra Buhari handle
tweeted at Kayode Sesan, the Political Editor of Breaking Times, the
paper who first reported the ‘child fucker’ tweets, on Saturday claiming
she had just joined Twitter.
But investigations by Breaking Times
revealed that the offensive @Zahra_Buhari handle has been active for
months leading to Nigeria’s presidential campaign and actually belongs
to the Nigerian President’s daughter Zahra. The account has grown from a
few hundred followers when it was first introduced to Nigerians, to
over 400,000 followers. The account was active during the Presidential
Campaign that brought her father into office.
An inside source at Twitter Nigeria
confirmed under condition of anonymity to BREAKING TIMES on Saturday
that there were already moves to get the new Zahra Buhari handle
verified to give credibility to damage control efforts over the
embarrassment Zahra Buhari is causing Nigeria and the Presidency through
unguarded social media statements.
The White House is yet to publicly react
on the issue which observers say is capable of affecting outcomes
of President Buhari’s July 20th meeting with President Obama in
Washington DC.
Ironically, reversal of Nigeria’s
anti-gay law is expected to top agenda of the Obama-Buhari parley beyond
collaborative efforts on Boko Haram.
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