Nigerians react to similarities in Atiku, Sanwo-Olu congratulatory tweets to Actress Funke Akindele

Several Nigerians on X (formerly Twitter) have reacted to the congratulatory messages sent by Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Lagos governor, and Atiku Abubakar, the former vice-president, to actress Funke Akindele on her box office record.

On Thursday, ‘A Tribe Called Judah‘, a family comedy-drama produced by the actress, became the first Nollywood movie to hit N1 billion at the Nigerian box office.

The movie earned N1 billion in just 3 weeks, making it the fastest Nigerian film to achieve the feat.

It also became the highest-grossing Nollywood movie of all time, with earnings still counting. The film made Akindele the highest-grossing Nollywood director of all time.

Since achieving the feat, several prominent Nigerians — including President Bola Tinubu — have sent congratulatory messages to Akindele.

Joining the fray, Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 elections, hailed Akindele over the “phenomenal success of A Tribe Called Judah”.

“I extend my heartiest congratulations to @funkeakindele for the phenomenal success of “A Tribe Called Judah”. This film has not only shattered box office records by becoming the first Nigerian movie to earn 1 billion naira in domestic theatres, but it also stands as a beacon of cultural pride and the unyielding spirit of Nollywood,” the tweet, which was published on Friday, reads in part.

In the same vein, Sanwo-Olu, on Saturday, praised the filmmaker over the “phenomenal success of A Tribe Called Judah”.

In the now-deleted tweet, the governor appeared to have adopted similar lines to what Atiku used in his post, sparking a wave of mixed reactions on social media.

How come Atiku Abubakar and Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu tweeted (word for word) the same congratulatory message to @funkeakindele on hype success of her movie, “A Tribe Called Judah.”

Is it that the same person handles both accounts or the handler is grossly incompetent? Atiku… pic.twitter.com/X4L0Lf1RbP

— Obiasogu David (@afrisagacity) January 6, 2024

While some users accused Sanwo-Olu’s X handler of plagiarism, others implied that the operators of both politicians’ social media accounts might have used AI — a technology that mimics human intelligence to perform tasks.

“Na the same AI write both posts,” a user wrote.

“Sanwo-Olu had to copy Atiku’s tweet. No originality, no emotional intelligence. Kai,” another user added.

https://twitter.com/firstladyship/status/1743656001755369836?t=4UKN6SPIlEelCZbIOynwgA&s=19

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu sir, this is embarrassing to say the least. How could you sanction copying a post made by Atiku Abubakar? Does that mean you have no one in your team to come up with something unique to convey your message? pic.twitter.com/3kkmaKvZdf

— Tonye Barcanista (@TonyeBarcanista) January 6, 2024

Sanwo-Olu or Atiku should sack their media aide.

That was so much mental laziness to copy a tweet from a public figure and post word-for-word.

What happened to paraphrasing?

— FS Yusuf (@FS_Yusuf_) January 6, 2024

Does this imply that Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his team, being too lazy to write their own tweets, resorted to copying from Atiku? Copy copy Governor!
___
Mummy Zee Innoson Betta Edu #olosho Linda Ikeji pic.twitter.com/oOUBcOj6Ny

— Citizen for Ethical Governance (@Good_citizins) January 6, 2024

https://twitter.com/iamdevine007/status/1743625828213162242?t=Pyl-tQgiffrpACevlVnmyw&s=19

See Gov Sanwo-Olu’s new tweet after the backlash below;

Congratulations to @funkeakindele on the success of her record breaking film, "A Tribe Called Judah" which crossed the One Billion Naira mark recently.

With this milestone, she leads the record of highest-grossing Nigerian films of all time in Nigerian cinemas with 3 titles. A… pic.twitter.com/gKOfe3cVfB

— Babajide Sanwo-Olu (@jidesanwoolu) January 6, 2024