Yesterday, the social messaging app, Twitter, flagged and subsequently deleted a tweet credited to and posted on the account of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari for being ‘inflammatory.’
In the tweet posted on June 1, 2021, Muhammadu Buhari, in reaction to the spate of insecurity across the nation threatened to deal ruthlessly with those perpetrating the violence. From the series of tweets that were put out on the account believed to be the official Twitter account of President Muhammadu Buhari, the particular words that were deleted read:
“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.”
This particular tweet caused an uproar across the country with several analysts arguing that it was a genocidal threat directed towards the Igbo people, who were still reeling from the effects of the Biafra-Nigeria civil war.
Having initially flagged the tweet as violating its policy, the platform later deleted it all together as it was said to bear the semblance of a tweet from the Chinese Embassy in Washington which dehumanized the Uighur people – Twitter had deleted the later tweet in January and therefore decided that the Nigerian president’s tweet should suffer the same fate.
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It is now worthy that Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari is not the only leader that has been regulated on the platform by the owners. The 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, was permanently banned from the platform for his role in inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
However, the Federal Government has responded, accusing the social media app of double standards, following its decision to delete Buhari’s tweet where he boasted of his efforts in the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, claimed the social media giant is a Biafra apologist as it has ignored the inflammatory tweets put out by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) while it was in a hurry to delete that of Mr. President.
“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 organization is proscribed, it is different from any other which is not proscribed.
“Two, any organization that gives directives to its members, to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centers, 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 organization, 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 organization has been proscribed. By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with.”
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