The Federal Republic of Nigeria has reportedly suspended indefinitely the operations of the micro blogging and social networking service, Twitter. A statement from the Information Ministry announcing the suspension accused the American social media company of allowing its platform to be used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
The decision, we are told, followed the earlier decision by Twitter to delete President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet, which according to the social media giants, violates their code of ethics.
Buhari in a tweet on Tuesday, last week, said “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.”
But a Twitter spokesperson said the post “was in violation of the Twitter Rules. The account owner will be required to delete the violative Tweet and spend 12 hours with their account in read-only mode”.
President Muhammadu Buhari would, however, not listen to Twitter’s explanation and using state power at his disposal, went ahead to suspend the American company.
First of all, The Chronicle appreciates what looks like a harsh decision that has been taken by Buhari. Indeed, those who saw the Biafra war will attest to the fact that it was very destructive. Thousands of lives were lost whilst many others were driven out of their homes and became refuges in foreign lands, including Ghana. From the statement issued by the Federal government, reacting to Twitter’s decision, it is clear that a group of people have started agitating for an independent state.
Buhari, as a former military man, who was at the forefront of the Biafra war and saw the atrocious things that happened, would obviously be alarmed if some youth groups, who did not experience the civil war, but just read about it, are resorting to similar tactics that brought about the war. Clearly, should anyone reading this editorial find him or herself in the shoes of Buhari, he or she would behave in the same manner the Nigerian president has done.
Because the youth of today have never witnessed civil wars on the scale it happened in the past, they fail to appreciate the devastating effects of some of these wars. We can even reference our own Trans Volta Togoland agitators in Ghana. Obviously, some of the youth from the Volta Region are being misled, but because they not know the effect of war, they are blindly following their leaders.
Buhari, as the commander in chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, takes command responsibility over whatever happens in this vast West Africa nation. If the actions of these youth, who are agitating for independent state, result in a full blown war, it is Buhari who would be blamed. One can, therefore, appreciate the reason why the president posted such a message on Twitter.
But all these notwithstanding, The Chronicle does not thing it is right for Buhari to also order the suspension of Twitter, since two wrongs do not make a right. What Mr Buhari should note is that his personal interest should not override that of the state called Nigeria. In the heat of the American election, the same Twitter suspended the account of former president Donald Trump, for allegedly using his private account to incite Americans.
Any America president is seen as the defacto ruler of planet earth, but the world never read anywhere that Trump also suspended Twitter from operating in the US, despite the vast powers he can commandeer. Though the American president protested against Twitter’s decision, he respected the rules governing the operation of the social media company and this is what we call proper democracy.
Unfortunately, here in Africa, our leaders think they are supper human beings who do not make mistakes and this is very worrying. In our view, instead of suspending Twitter, which was done on the same Twitter platform, Buhari’s government could have written to state its position to the social media giants. Whilst Nigeria is an independent state that is not under the beck and call of any foreign identity, Buhari should also respect the rules governing operations of Twitter.
Indeed, from what we are reading, Twitter wouldn’t have gone ahead to delete the tweet if Nigerians had not protested to them. In our opinion, therefore, the action of the Federal Government of Nigeria against Twitter is needles and must be reversed now, unless Buhari wants to prove to us that he is a dictator and not a believer in true democracy.
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