By Dipo Olowookere
Shares of Guinness Nigeria Plc on Monday closed flat on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Business Post reports.
This occurred after the brewery company was lambasted last weekend for using an uncouth language on the presidency and interfering in local politics.
Last Friday, a debate was held for the vice presidential candidates of five of the political parties contesting in the 2019 elections.
The debate, which took place at the Transcorp Hilton Abuja, had Mr Ganiyu Galadima of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Mrs Khadija Abdullahi of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Mr Yemi Osinbajo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Mrs Umar Getso of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) participating.
During the exercise, which was aired live on local television stations from 7pm, a member of President Muhammadu Buhari Media Team, Mr Johannes Tobi, reacted to the figures quoted by candidate of the opposition party, PDP, on Twitter, which Guinness Nigeria, through its official Twitter handle, violently responded to, calling the presidency “goat.”
“I knew this PDP man, Peter Obi, would start with lies and contrived data,” the presidency posted on Twitter and when Guinness Nigeria was to respond to this, it said, “Shut up your dirty mouth goat.”
This generated reactions on social media over the weekend, with many lambasting the company for interfering in politics.
Most companies try to stay away from local politics so as not to get in trouble when an opposition finally clinches power like it happened in 2015 in Nigeria when the present government snatched power from the PDP at the polls.
On Saturday morning, the company managing the official Twitter handle of Guinness Nigeria apologised for the offensive response to the presidency’s view of local politics.
“Good morning everyone. My name is Oduntan Odubanjo, the Commercial Director of Terragon Ltd, managers of Guinness Nigeria Twitter handle.
“I hereby apologise without reserve for the offensive tweet earlier sent in error from the Guinness Nigeria Twitter handle to Johannes Tobi.
“The message has absolutely nothing to do with Guinness Nigeria and was not sent or authorised by the company. This is a full and unreserved apology to Johannes Tobi for the unwarranted message and also to our client, Guinness Nigeria, for the embarrassment caused by this matter.
“The offending tweet was sent entirely in error by a team member who will have no further access to the Guinness Nigeria account. Please be assured that appropriate learnings have been taken from this incident and proper internal measures are being taken to address this incident.
“We thank you for your acceptance of these sincere regrets and apologies,” the statement by Terragon Limited read.
On Monday, shares of Guinness Nigeria on the local bourse remained at the level it finished last Friday, N73 per unit.
Business Post reports that the investorstraded a total of 109,887 units of the brewery giant’s equities on the floor ofthe exchange yesterday in 23 deals valued at N8 million.
