Pascal Oparada
There are worries that the Nigerian government may restrict Twitter in the country following the deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet on Wednesday by the social media site.
Buhari’s tweets, which had threatened people of the southeast with violence if the destruction of state assets in the region continue, caused global outrage, forcing many to ask that Twitter take down the tweet for inciting violence on a people.
The microblogging site took down the tweet Wednesday afternoon.
The country’s information minister, Lai Mohammed slammed the social media platform saying its mission in Nigeria is suspect.
Dr Olufumnilayo asked Nigerians to be prepared for a crackdown on Twitter following the action it took against Buhari.
“Just to quickly warn you all:
This mad govt can block Twitter in Nigeria.
So my dear Nigerians in Nigeria,
Please kindly download VPN and start learning how to use it. That way you stay online even if these mad idiots choose to block Twitter.
They can do it. Go write this down,” he said.
“So the federal government want to ban Twitter in Nigeria because they deleted a tweet that violated rules. Abeg Watin all this old people dey smoke def,” @Updateboyx said on Twitter.
The rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) warned the Nigerian government not to clamp down on the social media platform, saying doing so will amount to suppression of freedom of expression.
It threatened to sue the federal government if it takes action that further jeopardises free speech in the country.
“BREAKING: We urge President Buhari to caution Mr Lai Mohammed for reportedly accusing Twitter of double standards over reported deletion of the President’s tweets.
We’ll sue @NigeriaGov if it uses the deletion as a pretext to restrict Nigerians’ access to Twitter in the country.
”Targeting or slowing access to Twitter in Nigeria over the reported deletion of President Buhari’s tweets would amount to a blatant violation of Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information.
We’ll challenge any slowing access to Twitter in Nigeria,” SERAP said via a tweet.