BEVERLY HILLS, June 04, (THEWILL) – The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said it vehemently rejects the suspension of the social media platform, Twitter, by the President
Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, describing it as a draconian action and a slide towards a fascist regime in Nigeria.
The party asserted that the suspension of twitter, is a vexatious, condemnable and barbaric move to muzzle Nigerians, particularly the youths, ostensibly to prevent them from holding the overtly corrupt, vindictive and divisive Buhari administration accountable for its attrocities, including human right violations, patronizing of terrorists
and outright suppressive acts against innocent Nigerians.
PDP said “Our party is appalled that the Federal Government could exhibit such primitive intolerance and power intoxication because the social media giant demonstrated international best practices in not allowing the Buhari presidency to use Twitter as a platform to propagate and spread
the Buhari administration’s hatred towards Nigerians”.
The PDP insisted that rather than being a platform for activities that
are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence, as claimed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Nigerians,
particularly the youth, have been using the social media platform,
largely, for activities that promote unity, as well as social, economic
and commercial interaction in our country.
“Our party notes that Mr. Lai Mohammed, in his statement, failed to cite an example of where Nigerians used Twitter as a platform to promote acts
that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence as he
claimed.
“Of course, the failure to give any such instance, confirms that the
Federal Government is only out to victimize Nigerians.
” The Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC)
administration are only afraid of Nigerians on Twitter because of their evil machinations for which they dread the Nigerian youths.
“Moreover, Freedom of Speech is firmly guaranteed in our Constitution and the Buhari administration should be ready to face Nigerians over its misrule.
” In the case of any infringement, our nation has adequate extant laws to deal with such and not this move to gag the people”, PDP said.
The PDP therefore charged Buhari to end this assault against Nigerians by immediately and unconditionally rescinding its decision to ban Twitter, as such amounts to pushing our citizens to the wall.
The party said: “After all, it was the same Twitter that provided President Buhari and the APC the platform to campaign in 2015 and 2019.
” It is also on record that President Buhari would not be the first
President in the world whose tweet would be deleted.
” When it happened to former US President Donald Trump, he was not known to have deployed any act coercion against Twitter.
“Our party invites President Buhari to halt this international shame by
rescinding this ugly decision.”
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
