Okupe Wanted More Than Handshake From Me—Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has reacted to an allegation made by Doyin Okupe that he was snubbed by Ezekwesili at the Heathrow Airport in London, England.

Okupe, President Goodluck Jonathan’s aide on Public Affairs, alleged that the former World Bank Vice-President refused a handshake with him when both met in London recently.

Ezekwesili is one of the leaders of the ‘BringBackOurGirls’ campaign, calling on the Federal Government to rescue the abducted secondary school girls by members of the Boko Haram Islamic sect on April 15, 2014.

The group was earlier banned by the FCT Police Command from carrying any form of protests in Abuja, but the Police High Command reversed it.

Okupe had described Ezekwesili as ‘childish, petty and unfit’, claiming she did not behave like a true Christian, especially as a pastor’s wife.

But reacting to the allegation, Ezekwesili said she verbally answered Okupe’s greetings.

“If it matters to you at all, then know that I actually verbally answered that greeting but declined the theatrics of a false hearty handshake,” she wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, some Nigerians have continued to react to the issue, saying the President’s mouthpiece was trying to use the handshake to create media frenzy. Some of them alleged that Okupe might have secretly planted a cameraman somewhere to take the pictures of him handshaking the activist.

However, we do not subscribe to this school of thought.