By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Apparently not happy with the turn of events, Nigerian Government on Wednesday questioned the role of Twitter in the secessionist agitation in the South East following the social media’s deletion of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari in which he evoked the memories of the Nigerian civil war to threaten “those misbehaving” in the region.
President Buhari had on Tuesday said in series of tweets on his handle @Mbuhari: “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.”
Sensing the words to be offensive, Twitter has now deleted the posts citing violation of its laid down rules, a punishment it also visited on a former United States President Donald J. Trump in the run up to the US Presidential Election last year.
But Twitter’s action has attracted the reaction of the Nigerian government as the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who reacted to the tweet deletion at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He wondered why Twitter would delete President Buhari’s post without doing same to the inciting ones that had been posted by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Mohammed who spoke to State House Correspondents after FEC meeting alleged that the role of Twitter in Nigeria is suspect, noting that the social media platform also backed opponents of government during the #EndSARS protests.
According to the Minister: “the mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very very suspect. Has Twitter deleted the violent tweets that Nnamdi Kanu has been sending? Has it? The same Twitter during the #ENDSARS protests that was funding #ENDSARS protesters, it was the first to close the account of former President of US, Trump.
“And you see, when people were burning police stations and killing policemen in Nigeria during #ENDSARS, for Twitter, it was about the right to protest. But when a similar thing happened on the Capitol, it became insurrection. You see, we are not going to be be fooled by anybody”.
