Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The decision of a popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter, to delete a tweet posted by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday via his verified handle has not gone down well with the federal government.
Mr Buhari had made a post believed to have been targeted at those of the Igbo extraction in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria.
Between 1967 and 1970, Nigeria and the South East region of the country under Biafra engaged in a clash later known as the Nigerian Civil War. Millions of people from the region were killed in the 30-month war.
On May 30, 2021, the region paid respect to the fallen Biafran heroes and two days after, Mr Buhari issued a threat believed to be offensive to the Igbos.
“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,” the tweet had read.
But this generated outrage from Nigerians, who berated the President for using such language by reminding the Igbos of the horror they went through during the war.
Twitter was petitioned and after it initially found nothing wrong with the tweet, it backtracked and deleted it, stressing that the post “violated the Twitter rules.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, was not happy with this development and he went hard on Twitter, accusing it of double standards.
“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 organisation 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? Are we the ones guilty of double standards?
“I don’t see anywhere in the world where an organisation, 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 organisation has been proscribed. By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with.”
Mr Mohammed said the decision of Twitter to delete President Buhari’s tweet shows that its role in the Biafra agitation “is a suspect” and that the country will not be fooled.
Recall that recently, Twitter chose to open its office in Africa in Ghana, ignoring Nigeria with the excuse that the giant of Africa does not respect the rule of law and was gagging freedom of information.
