A tweet by civil rights activist, Aisha Yesufu, has managed to offend two opposite social groups – the LGBTQ community who wants her removed from Twitter for undermining them, and pro-north tweeter users, Arewa Twitter, who thinks her tweet promotes homosexuality.
LGBTQ is the acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Queer people, while Arewa Twitter is Nigerians who are pro-north on the micro-blogging app.
On January 11, Aisha Yesufu provoked the two sides into a rage with the tweet: “You do not need anyone liking your choice of sexuality. All you need is being given the right to practise your sexuality. Homosexuality was freely practised in Nigeria for hundreds of years and I witnessed same-sex marriages in the 80s. So calm down, it is not a new discovery.”
The background to the tweet was a discussion on the historicity of homosexuality in Nigeria. Aisha Yesufu had earlier argued that homosexuality predates western legalization of the act, citing sodomizing of children in boarding schools and practice in the north called “Dan Daudu.”
Dan Daudu, before the introduction of Sharia legal code in the northern part of Nigeria, was openly practised. Men openly dress like women, talk like women and behave like women.
“This passionate ignorance is the problem we have. The hypocrisy of thinking homosexuality is a new trend when it has been practised openly for hundreds of years and same-sex marriage happened here even before it was legalised in the western countries,” she had said.
After Aisha Yesufu’s comment, a front-liner of the Arewa Twitter, @Waspapping_ asked her: “Was that the reason you guys hide behind #ArewaMetoo so you could fight for homosexuals right in the north?”
He added: “Aisha Yesufu is proof that President Buhari was right when he said his wife belongs to his kitchen and the other room.”
Another Arewa Twitter member @_yellows said: “You look at Aisha Yesufu and the nonsense she tweets and you’ll understand why it’s always better when ladies stay in the kitchen.”
Aisha Yesufu responded to Arewa Twitter saying: “Buhari looked at Arewa twitter youth and their #BambiAlaMentality and decided to use the brush on them to brush every other youth across the country and call them lazy youth. Naaah it is the ones on Arewa twitter that are beyond lazy.”
But while the Arewa Twitter members are taking on Aisha Yesufu for not condemning homosexuality, an online community of homosexuals which call itself The Cool House, were at the same time offended by the tweet because it stated that they needed permission to practice their act. The members later held a virtual meeting to debate how to get Aisha Yesufu suspended from Twitter.
But Aisha Yesufu responded to them: “I am not one of those on this platform desperate to be liked. I have enough love for myself biko. I don’t use social media to pay my bills neither do I collect funding from anyone for my advocacy. I am also not a brand promoter that you will report me and ask them to drop me.”
