While the account was opened sometime in June 2016, the first flurry of tweets occurred on June 9, 2017, after a tweet announced the country as “Africa’s largest economy and most populous country.”
That message was tweeted at exactly 11 pm.
However, the second tweet intimated the social media community that the account would be handled by different Nigerians, who would be tweeting from the page at different times.
Apart from the first diplomatic welcome tweets to the account from Ukraine, followed by Sweden, Ireland and Israel, respectively, the handle became busy when Nigerians began to cast pun on the government.
As the funny tweet started rolling in, Alade Dangote (@tOe_15) said: “Nigeria is the only country with Twitter handle.”
Immediately, the account’s handlers replied that it joined other countries such as Canada, Israel, Ukraine, Sweden and several others.
Another user, SF (@segunfamisa) replied, “Oya join them and give us stable light,” followed with HRH (@Ogisa_.2d) which tweeted, “Thank God you now have a handle when I move to abroad I can say…now unfollowing @Nigeria.”
Igala Alan Shore (@iamAnomeli) went on to tweet, “Last last, we will still hear that it cost N72m to open & verify that @Nigeria handle. Just chill.”
Though most reactions were funny and slightly negative, there were still the positive ones like the tweet by Rogers Yakubu (@Gwariboy) which stated, “Hello @Nigeria, regardless of your worldwide bad image and reputation I still love you, without you, there’s no me. Thank you!”
Similarly, Raoul Bhatt(@bhattmaan) tweeted, “@Nigeria What a positive thing to do for a beautiful country.”
Interesting as the tweets may sound, there is no doubt that Nigerians are excited their country is boasting of an official twitter handle. It will be exciting to see how the handle will be used to add value and bridge the communication gap between Nigerians at home and abroad.
