Tesla CEO Elon Musk has come full square with his bid to take over Twitter, confirming speculation that he has intention to acquire the social media platform.

On Thursday, the tech prodigy, who recently floated the idea of starting a social media platform free from propaganda and censorship, announced in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a $54.20 per share in cash for Twitter’s acquisition.

The offer which he dubbed “best and final” will represent a 54% premium over the Jan. 28 closing price and amount to $43 billion in value.

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said in the filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”

“As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced,” he announced.

Musk’s interest in Twitter has gone beyond tweeting funny memes to his more than 80 million followers to owning the microblogging app, which over the years, has been his platform of choice.

On April 4, Musk took a 9.2% share in Twitter, making him the company’s highest shareholder. He was subsequently appointed into Twitter board, an offer he later turned down in the morning to take effect. Musk’s reason to turn down the offer, even though he had earlier accepted it, was as a result of the board’s agreement, which would stop him from increasing his shares as a board member, thus limiting his chances of making a hostile takeover.

Musk’s aim in acquiring Twitter is to bring about the ideas he had floated. In a series of tweets weeks ago, he talked about needed changes bordering on free speech, an edit button and increasing Twitter usage.

After his initial stake became public, Musk immediately began appealing to fellow users about prospective moves, from turning Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter and adding an edit button for tweets to granting automatic verification marks to premium users. One tweet suggested Twitter might be dying, given that several celebrities with high numbers of followers rarely tweet.

It is what he reiterated in his letter to the Twitter board. Musk has said he believes Twitter “will neither thrive nor serve [its free speech] societal imperative in its current form,” adding that the app needs to be transformed as a private company.

Twitter is currently valued at $37 billion, making Musk’s acquisition offer irresistible. Wall Street analysts say that Twitter can’t afford to reject Musk’s takeover offer if it’s serious. The social media company’s shares soared 18% at the news.

With about $260 billion net worth, Musk can afford a takeover of Twitter. He has hired Morgan Stanley as his adviser for the takeover. The offer price also includes the number 420, the same number he used in 2018 when he moved to take Tesla private, though it is widely recognized as a coded reference to marijuana.

But even though the deal is largely believed to be irresistible, there is doubt that Twitter will accept it. “The $54.20 per share offer is too low for shareholders or the board to accept,” Vital Knowledge’s Adam Crisafulli said in a report, adding that the company’s shares hit $70 less than a year ago.

Musk said in his letter to Twitter that an unfavorable outcome of the deal may force him out of the company.

“If the deal doesn’t work, given that I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe I can drive the necessary change in the public market, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” he said.

The board had earlier drawn up a clever agreement designed to stop Musk from amassing more shares, curtailing his potential of having a controlling stake.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said in the wake of Musk’s rejection of his board appointment that “There will be distractions ahead, but our goals and priorities remain unchanged. The decisions we make and how we execute [them] is in our hands, no one else’s.”

So it’s unclear if Musk’s offer will change anything. However, the offer presents Twitter with two options; either let Musk take control or allow him to leave as remaining Twitter’s highest shareholder would mean being part of a system he doesn’t believe in.

Some eminent Nigerians including the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson Ayokunle and the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, recently warned that widespread insecurity across Nigeria was and remained the greatest threat to the forthcoming 2023 general elections in the country.

Other individuals and groups who had spoken in similar vein include the Secretary-General of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Okey Emuchay; the National Secretary of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Ebipamowei Wodu; the representative of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Prof. Yusuf Usman; Aare Ona-Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams; the Convener of Niger-Delta Self-Determination Movement, Ankio Briggs; as well as a member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Diaspora Government, Udeh Christian Iwuagwu,  amongst others.

They spoke on 12th April 2022 during the Inclusive Security Dialogue Retreat jointly organized by the Global Peace Foundation and Vision Africa, in Abuja, warning that there might be no election in 2023 if the current spate of insecurity in the country wasn’t aptly not checked.

The CAN President, Rev. Ayokunle in his submission said, “Care must be taken to ensure that the 2023 election does not become a sham. Insecurity, if it is not taken care of, by the government, there will be no 2023 general elections.

“Going by the present state of affairs in the country, are we sure the bandits and terrorists will not overrun the country before 2023? These criminals are moving from one level of sophistication and recklessness to another. Nigerians want a better society, and if we do not deal with this insecurity, I don’t think there will be any election in 2023.

“Why has the government not deemed it fit to expose those financing terrorism and insecurity in Nigeria? For whose benefit are you hiding their identity? Nigerians want to know those who have put us in this mess as well as those who are siding and abetting them.

“If we are going to have a free and fair 2023 election, we must embrace home-grown democracy which recognises our complexities and is ready to make sure that we distribute things fairly so that the six geo-political zones are drafted into the leadership of this country at all times, so that every region will have a sense of belonging because no one wants to play the second fiddle.”

In the same vein, the Sultan of Sokoto, represented by the Co-chairman of the Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace, Kunle Sanni, among others, said, “A lot of people have been arrested over banditry and terrorism, but how many of them have been jailed or executed? These people have killed thousands of people. Some people should pay for all these atrocities.

“The National Security Adviser and the Service Chiefs should all resign by now, because they have failed. Let us get new people with fresh ideas to confront the situation.

“The President, Muhammadu Buhari knows how to recruit people to work for him, but he doesn’t know how to sack them. Unless we all speak up and tell each other the truth, there may be no Nigeria even in 2023. We don’t pray so.

“In Nigeria, the bane of our problem is corruption. Anywhere people think there is money, a lot of corrupt elements move to that side. The issue of insecurity in Nigeria is the new crude oil, because that is where the money is.”

On his part, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo scribe, Okey Emuchay said, “As soon as the issue of the Igbo presidency took a life of its own, the spate of insecurity heightened in the South-East. Today, Anambra is under siege. People are being killed; public assets are being destroyed to the point where the State Governor has shut down all the local government headquarters. It is that bad.

“We (Igbos) are part of Nigeria and no amount of intimidation or insecurity or blackmail will make us less Nigerians. We are the most federated of all the units in Nigeria and we have contributed to the utmost development of every part of the country. We have paid our dues in Nigeria.”

Furthermore, the representative of NEF, Prof. Yusuf Usman argued that Nigeria’s slide into anarchy began with the scrapping of history as a stand-alone subject from the school curriculum, noting the elders had lost control of the youths across the country.

He hence stated that banditry was not a military problem, but a social issue which must be addressed through justice and social reorientation.

While Mr. Udeh Christian Iwuagwu, a member of the IPOB Diaspora Government, said the solution to Nigeria’s insecurity was linked to restructuring of the federation. He therefore called for a referendum to allow the people determine how they want to be governed.

Also, the Secretary of the INC, Mr. Ebipamowei Wodu decried the economic injustices being faced by the Niger-Delta people. His colleague, Ms. Ankio Briggs who also spoke on the occasion equally opined that the requirement of ‘State of Origin’ in government activities was divisive and should not be encouraged by all and sundry.

Earlier at the event, the Facilitator of the Retreat, Bishop Sunday Ndukwo Onuoha said, “As Nigeria treads the path to yet another election in 2023, it is imperative that all stakeholders join hands to tackle these problems.

“We must deliberately choose to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Men of good conscience and consciousness must rise above ethnic sentiments and religious fanaticism to address these bedeviling challenges as our common enemy.

“In dealing with the security situation in Nigeria, we must stop ethnicizing it. We must rise to salvage our generation, and no one can do it for us. The time for silence and wringing our hands in helplessness must stop. Let us take hope home, and reassure the people that peace exists in the threshold.”

These calls, as highlighted herein, aren’t unusual with the ones earlier made across the lengths and breadth of Nigeria and beyond by all well-meaning individuals and entities, yet the troubles bedeviling the country continue unabated as if she isn’t led by any person or group.

This is a strong indication that something fishy is really happening under our collective nose, hence the need for a holistic check and cross-examination among all concerned parties within and beyond.

At this juncture, Nigerians as a people must take the bull by the horn by ensuring that the chaffs are duly and aptly separated from the grains as the country passes through another electioneering era.

This can only be done by telling ourselves nothing but the gospel truth.