The federal government has accused Twitter, which on Wednesday deleted president Muhammadu Buhari’s Tuesday tweet on Biafran war of 1967-1970 that claimed many lives, as being biased.
Buhari, through his Twitter handle, @MBuhari had 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.”
The president’s tweet attracted complaints by a section of Nigerians and Twitter deleted the tweet, stating it violated its rules.
However, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in a reaction to the action, Twitter’s role appears suspicious, saying Nigerians will not be fooled.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, Mohammed said that Twitter had ignored inciting tweets by the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and others, adding that Twitter displayed the same bias during last year’s #EndSARS protest, which rocked the nation.
“Twitter may have its own rules, they are not the universal rules. 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.
“Two, any organisation that gives directives to its members, to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centres, to kill warders, and you are now saying that Mr President does not have the right to express his dismay and anger about that?
“They are the ones guilty of double standards. I don’t see anywhere in the world where an organisation, 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 organisation has been proscribed.
“By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with,“ he said.
