Time’s Reporter Astha Rajvanshi Criticized for Describing Bola Tinubu as Influential

Astha Rajvanshi, a reporter for Time, has been facing criticism for including Bola Tinubu, the president-elect of Nigeria, in the magazine’s 100 most influential people issue for 2023.

Rajvanshi described Tinubu as a “longtime political power broker” who is aware of the challenges facing Nigeria.

However, several Nigerians, particularly supporters of Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), known as Obidients, criticized Rajvanshi for allegedly laundering Tinubu’s image. The journalist was subjected to intense criticism on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram causing her to put her Twitter account under lock.

Tinubu won the presidential election with 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had 6,984,520 votes to come second, and Peter Obi placed third with 6,101,533 votes. Obi and Atiku challenged the result in court, alleging irregularities by the electoral commission.

However, on April 11, INEC asked the presidential election petition tribunal to dismiss a petition filed by the LP and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi. The commission argued that the grounds of the petition are vague and prayed the court to either “dismiss or strike it out for being grossly incompetent, abusive, vague, nebulous, generic, general, non-specific, ambiguous, equivocal, hypothetical and academic”.

It is important to note that the inclusion of Bola Tinubu in Time’s list of influential people is a recognition of his political influence and power in Nigeria. However, the criticism of Rajvanshi by some Nigerians highlights the polarizing nature of Nigerian politics.

Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:

ASTHA RAJVANSHI stays in India and she is doing image laundering for Tinubu, will she vote for #TinubuTheDrugDealer to be President of India with all she knows about Tinubu??
After doing the dirty work for Tinubu, she locked her account, she does not want any backlash…@TIME pic.twitter.com/2NfvAqI4Jv

— Anti-Agbado! (@Oserume1) April 13, 2023

Lmao 😂 Nigerians pursue Astha Rajvanshi go Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, since she don lock her Twitter account.

— Maazị FA (@maaziossy) April 13, 2023

No amount of PR from Astha Rajvanshi will change the fact that Tinubu was indicted for dealing Drugs in the US.

— Mindset🗝️ (@mindset_tweet) April 13, 2023

Poor @astharajvanshi , Nigerians have made her lock all her accounts.

Dear Astha Rajvanshi, I hope you understand why Nigerians are at rage with you and the Time Magazine.

Bola Tinubu was INDICTED for heroine trafficking and money laundering in Chicago Illinois USA which he had pic.twitter.com/FJnnyffW52

— Theodore(Dr) B.Mls, MPH, D.Epi (@DrTheodo) April 13, 2023

Astha Rajvanshi deserve all she got,… A simple research would have made her dodge this whole attack.
Nigerians are still angry! This has absolutely nothing to do with obident;

Then you glorify the source of their anger Omo you go collect.
It's like indirectly mocking us. pic.twitter.com/0gf4Kd29Um

— Vicocool A (@victorajibade10) April 14, 2023