Popular Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Lagos, Chief Olabode George has criticised the federal government’s suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria.
The former deputy national chairman of the opposition PDP, questioned the sanity of Nigeria’s information minister, Lai Mohammed over the order.
It will be recalled that Mr. Mohammed accused twitter of ‘double standards’ after the social media giant deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari’s personal account. He was also the one to announce the suspension, directing NCC to order telcos to comply with the order.
Speaking to Daily Independent, Bode George said;
“The outright ban of Twitter is not a proper thing to do. This government should be patient in their dealings. If the federal government is angry with Twitter, does that imply that all Nigerians are also at war with Twitter? Were Nigerians consulted before this decision was taken?”.
“The head of the Minister of Information should be examined. Why will he advise the President to take such a decision? Why should the Minister of Communications give that advice? If they find any fault with our currency now, will the federal government ban the exchange of naira to dollars?”.
“This is scary. Why are we just fighting everybody up and down? It has nothing to do with politics. It is undemocratic and illegal. My advice to oga (President Buhari) is to take things easy”.
“We are in a democracy and not under military rule. When Twitter banned Donald Trump during the US presidential election, why didn’t Trump place outright ban on Twitter in the whole of US?”
“The President’s account with Twitter is an individual account, not that of all Nigerians. Twitter is a private company and they have their laws”.
The Federal government’s decision to suspend Twitter has not gone down well with a lot of Nigerians who believe its an encroachment on the rights of Nigerians to free press and media.
