Buhari’s Tweet Attracts Twitter’s Sanction, as FG Reacts with Fury
The federal government in Nigeria was irked by Twitter’s decision to block President Muhammadu Buhari’s post alluding to the 1967-1970 Nigerian civil war.
In a series of tweets on his verified Twitter handle, @Mbuhari, the president on Tuesday tweeted: “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.”
Twitter deleted the tweet on Wednesday, saying “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules”.
Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said Twitter was guilty of double standard.
He expressed this opinion while addressing State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday
Mohammed said Twitter conveniently ignored inciting tweets by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and his cohorts.
According to him, Twitter ignored Kalu’s remarks that encouraged the killing of Police personnel.
He said he could not understand how President Buhari’s tweet was offensive, and urged Nigerians not to trust Twitter’s role in Nigeria’s affairs.
He said: “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.
Most Nigerians have however hailed Twitter for deleting Buhari’s posts on Nigerian Civil War.
Recall that Twitter had earlier in the year banned former United States’ president, Donald Trump, for his inciting comments which led to the attack on the US Congress.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB’s) media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, said in a statement which Nigerian Sketch obtained that “The Indigenous People of Biafra has noted the action of Twitter in deleting the inciting and acrimonious statement by Muhamnadu Buhari, threatening another war against Biafrans.
“We know that the global outrage sparked by the evil, unpresidential and genocidal tweets made the cabal running the zoo to beg Twitter to delete them. But we want to assure him that the world has already taken note of the genocidal threat. He cannot escape the International Criminal Court to account for his actions sooner or later.
“We however, commend Twitter for its courage to speak truth to power. IPOB demands Twitter to go step further and completely delete Buhari from its system as a deterrent to other tyrants like him.”
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