Nigeria rebukes, suspends twitter operations in the country

On June 1, 2021, Persecondnews recalls that Twitter, the social media giant, had deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets on Biafra civil war, a comment that drew the ire of Nigerians as disparaging the Igbo.

Buhari’s tweet that was deleted by Twitter on Tuesday reads: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”

However, Twitter frowned at it, saying it violated its rule.

Buhari had on Tuesday vowed to shock all those agitating the break up of Nigeria when he received the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari had said: “I receive daily security reports on the attacks, and it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail.

“Insecurity in Nigeria is now mentioned all over the world. All the people who want power, whoever they are, you wonder what they really want. Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We’ve given them enough time.”

The Federal Government had reacted to the deletion of the post, accusing Twitter of “double standards’’

Mohammed said while Twitter found Buhari’s tweets as offensive, it has “conveniently ignored inciting tweets by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and his cohorts, displaying the same biases it did during the ENDSARS protest where government and private properties were being looted and set on fire, terming it human rights’’.

“Twitter’s role is suspect and Nigeria will not be fooled. Twitter may have its own rules, it’s not the universal rule. If Mr. President, anywhere in the world feels very bad and concern about a situation, he is free to express such views.

“Now, we should stop comparing apples with oranges. If an organisation is proscribed, it is different from any other which is not proscribed.

“Two, any organization that gives directives to its members, to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centres, to kill warders, and you are now saying that Mr. President does not have the right to express his dismay and anger about that?

“We are the ones guilty of double standards. I don’t see anywhere in the world where an organization, a person will stay somewhere outside Nigeria, and will direct his members to attack the symbols of authority, the police, the military, especially when that organization has been proscribed.

“By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with,’’ Mohammed said.