Uju Anya, a Nigerian-born Professor based in the US, has insisted on hating Queen Elizabeth 11 despite a massive outrage generated by her controversial post.
UK’s longest-serving monarch, died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.
She died peacefully on Thursday afternoon at her Scottish estate, where she had spent much of the summer.
While the world was mourning the Queen and tributes were pouring from different corners, Anya tweeted that she wished the late monarch “excruciating pain”.
A few hours before the death of the British monarch was confirmed, the associate professor of second language acquisition wrote on her verified Twitter account, “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving, raping and genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating”.
Although her tweet has since been pulled down by Twitter for violating the platform’s policies, Twitter users across the world have questioned the tone of the professor’s comment.
Among them is Jeff Bezos, the world’s second richest man. Reacting to Anya’s message, the American entrepreneur wrote: “This is someone who is supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow!
Bashir Ahmad, a Presidential aide, also tweeted: “I 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 the late queen Elizabeth were so unfortunately unnecessary”.
Another Twitter user @samvistains tweeted: “you can condemn slavery and colonisation without being an Uju Anya. Her statement was terrible and you can’t defend it. It is that simple”.
But in defence of her earlier tweet, the embattled university don stated in another tweet that she was not remorseful about wishing the late monarch excruciating pain while in the hospital.
“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”, she tweeted in a thread with her original tweet that was pulled down by Twitter.
While some Twitter users continued to blast Anya for her tweets, others defended the professor’s comments.
A Twitter user @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 it. Even those who feel the same way as she is dragging her. Uju Anya is the villain now but you have had massive disdain for the British government colonialism”.
Another Twitter user @samvistains wrote: “Aunty Uju please forgive and forget. Gbaghara inu?
Meanwhile, the authorities of Carnegie Mellon University released a statement disassociating themselves from the professor’s tweets.
“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 statement said.
