Amongst the other things Twitter is to people — the source of information and access to opportunities, it is also a place to find the love of your life. In this article, eight Nigerian women talk about meeting their partners on Twitter.
Lili
My partner and I started talking on Twitter in 2016. He tweeted something about being irreligious and I found it ludicrous. I messaged him for his number and we started talking. We met for the first time at a creative event and remained friends. We slowly went from talking once in a while to talking every day. Occasional hangouts followed, and by January 2019 we had started dating.
Amaka
My boyfriend and I had been following each other for a while, but I don’t think we ever interacted until last year. One day, I tweeted that I needed a plug for something and he sent me a vendor’s contact.
A few months later, I deactivated my account because life was being a bitch. He noticed I was gone for a while and when I returned, he messaged me to check in. Checking in turned to hours on the phone. We both love music so we would listen to music together over the phone via Spotify’s group session.
A week later, we decided to meet in person. The morning of the meeting, he told me he liked me and I responded, “Oh, you do? I had absolutely no idea. It’s not like we spent hours on the phone depriving each other of sleep like we don’t have work.” That weekend was the best weekend I had had in a while. We started dating a month later and we are 10 months in now.
Omegie
I had given up trying to find a partner in real life and I felt like Twitter would be a better place to find love. I thought I could easily find people like myself whose values aligned with mine. My partner and I met in March. She wasn’t active on Twitter but we had interacted a few times. One day, I tweeted, “Like this tweet and I will tell you what I think about you.” She liked it and I messaged. We immediately clicked in a way I hadn’t with anyone else before. We moved to WhatsApp and started doing video calls. We officially started dating in May. Sometimes, I wish we met in real life because Twitter is where I hide from reality. I tweet all my thoughts unguarded so her having access to that makes me feel watched but she’s reasonable and understanding. We hardly interact on the timeline and I think that’s because we have a lot of other platforms that we talk more on. I go through our old Twitter chats when I need something to smile about.
Layo
My boyfriend and I went to the same primary school. We weren’t in the same set, so we weren’t in contact. One day, a video of him went viral and I messaged him to ask if he went to our primary school. He said yes and that’s how we started talking. We met a couple of times and it’s been great ever since.
Nene
Before my partner and I started dating, I had been seeing her tweets. She looked hot and seemed to have sense but I wasn’t sure she was queer.
One day, I texted her to say she looked familiar and that she is really cute. It turned out her sister and I went to school together. I thought it would be a turn off for her but it wasn’t. We kept talking and two weeks later, we went out together. That day, I realized that she was someone I didn’t want to ever be without. Every day, I experience love in new ways with her. It feels good to watch myself change positively.
Ella
When I relocated to his state, I put up a tweet asking people in that state to like it. He did that and commented. That’s how we became friends. Although we hit it off, we had no intentions of dating. This changed when we met a month ago and realized that we were in love. We have been dating for a few weeks.
Memuna
Twitter suggested my account to my husband for him to follow. He said he looked at my profile picture and read my blog before following me. I saw his profile picture, and I followed back. He messaged to say hello and that’s how we started chatting every day.
We met up a few weeks later and it went well. We started dating shortly after. Now, we are married with two kids.
Ife
I followed my boyfriend on Twitter. His bio at the time was, “I am a lot of things.” I messaged him asking him to share some of the things he was. His reply was funny and the conversation continued. We talked off and on for about eight months. We started talking about feelings in January 2020. By February, we started dating.
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