Lai Mohammed has accused Twitter of ‘double standards’.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has accused Twitter of practising “double standards” following the delete of President Muhammadu Buhari’s threat tweet.
Mohammed while stating that Twitter’s mission in Nigeria is suspicious, said the microblogging platform ignores “hate” messages from the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) but was quick to enforce its rules on the president.
The microblogging site earlier pulled down the tweet of the President wherein he threatened to treat Nigerians “misbehaving” in “the language they understand”.
Buhari had cited the Civil War and promised to deal with those “bent on destroying” Nigeria through “insurrection.”
The president said, “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
After many Nigerians reported the tweet, Twitter deleted it on the account of violated rules.
Although further details on the development were not provided by the microblogging site, its policy states that such measure is sometimes taken because “the behaviour violates the Twitter rules.”
The Minister while reacting to this at state house on Wednesday, said the Tech Giant turned a blind eye on the activities of IPOB.
Mohammed said: “Twitter may have its own rules, it’s not the universal rule. If Mr. President, anywhere in the world, feels very bad and concerned about a situation, he is free to express such views. 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?
“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 also questioned Twitter’s mission in Nigeria, adding that its style of operation makes it a suspect. “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very very suspect”
“Has Twitter deleted the violent tweets that Nnamdi Kanu has been sending? 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 Donald 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 fooled by anybody. We have a country to rule and we will do so to the best of our ability. Twitter’s mission in Nigeria citing those two examples is very suspect. What is their agenda?
“How does Mr. President’s speech that anybody who is destroyed infrastructure, police offices, INEC offices should be ready for the consequences… is that inciting violence?”
President Buhari during a meeting with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu on Tuesday, had cautioned those “misbehaving in certain parts of the country”, particularly in the south-east where government infrastructures have been under attack.
IPOB, despite the continuous attacks on public infrastructures and killings in the region, keeps denying responsibility for all.
