Nigerians are not finding it funny as they resorted to social media to slam Bowen University – a private tertiary institution in Iwo, Osun State, over a Twitter post that was believed to have mocked students of Nigeria’s public universities who have been home for more than five months over prolonged workers’ strike.
On Friday, the university, which is owned by the Nigerian Baptist Convention, celebrated its graduating students in a message on its Twitter account, expressing the graduates’ satisfaction for devoting four years to four-year degrees.
The article, which allegedly took aim at Nigeria’s public universities’ erratic academic calendar says; “This is what finishing four years in four calendar years in a Nigerian University looks like. You should be here too.”
The post was accompanied by a group picture of some of the university’s graduating students.
The caption of the image in the post upset a lot of Nigerians, many of them were students at public institutions who had been wandering the streets for more than 180 days as a result of the ongoing dispute between the Nigerian government and the university employees.
The students and other Nigerians accused Bowen of being insensitive to the plight of many Nigerian students.
While some accused the university of not being affordable enough for even many members of the Baptist church whose contributions, they said, were used to build the institution.
A user @Chukwubabie tweeted: “When Bowen University was being built Baptists contributed money, my parents, my aunt, my church members, they all contributed money and now more than half of the people in my Church cannot afford Bowen and the best move is to rub it in our face???…”
Another user @datsbobby wrote: “Your fees are too expensive for the average Nigerian household. Tweeting this is too insensitive, especially as a lot of the students who are in government universities may not be able to afford your fees and are victims of a failed system.”
@senisulyman tweeted; “This laughs in the face of millions who cannot afford private universities. We live in a classless society where there’s no longer a sense of right or wrong – everything is acceptable. “Is it a lie” or “they’re a business” doesn’t explain away this classless Tweet.”
“I see no problem here and yes I attended a Federal University and experienced months of the strike. You can’t tell them not to market with their strongest USP because you feel it hurts the public university students,” tweeted @ozoemena_nonso.
Another user, @AsinceresongofGod, wrote: “Looking at the comment section and all I see is pained people trying to label it as “insensitive”. The school posts about their quality, awards, wins… but they post about this advantage as well and they are suddenly insensitive?? It’s marketing. You market your strength!.”
See the video below for more!
