African literary giant, Professor Wole Soyinka has reacted to the suspension of Twitter’s operations in Nigeria by the federal government on Friday.
He has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to sort out his problem with the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter privately.
But, in a brief statement on Friday, Prof Soyinka says Mr. Buhari should not rope in the right of free expression of the Nigerian citizen as collateral damage in handling his private issue with Twitter.
He says: “Heard the news of Buhari’s ban on Twitter an hour or so after sending off TO SHOCK AND AWE to the print media. Kindly add my total lack of surprise at this petulant gesture, unbecoming of a democratically elected president.
“If Buhari has a problem with Twitter, he is advised to sort it out between them personally, the way Donald Trump did, not rope in the right to free expression of the Nigerian citizen as collateral damage.
“In any case, this is a technical problem Nigerians should be able to work their way around. The field of free expression remains wide open, free of any dictatorial spasms!
