Astha Rajvanshi, a Time’s reporter, has come under fire for writing the citation of Bola Tinubu, the president-elect of Nigeria, in the 2023 issue of the magazine’s 100 most influential people.
In the report, Rajvanshi described Tinubu as a “longtime political power broker”, who has had nearly two decades to prepare for the presidential election.
She said the former governor of Lagos is “aware of his inheritance” in the form of a “litany of crises in a fractured nation, including deep-rooted corruption, religious insurgencies, and shortages of cash, fuel, and power in a crumbling economy”.
But at the release of the magazine’s issue on Thursday, several Nigerians, particularly supporters of Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), known as Obidients, subjected the journalist to intense criticism.
With deluge of vitriol on her timeline, Rajvanshi resorted to locking her account on Twitter but the battering continued on her Facebook and Instagram pages.
Rajvanshi was accused of laundering the image of Tinubu, while some others called her “the promoter of a man that rendered families hopeless due to heroin trafficking”.
The Cable
