…Says action unbecoming of a democratically elected government
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has faulted the decision of the Federal Government to suspend Twitter indefinitely in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had on Friday announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.
The literary icon, while reacting to the development, said he lacked “Surprise at this petulant gesture, unbecoming of a democratically elected president.”
According to Soyinka, “if Buhari has a problem with Twitter, he is advised to sort it out between them personally, the way Donald Trump did, not rope in the right to free expression of the Nigerian citizen as collateral damage.
“In any case, this is a technical problem Nigerians should be able to work their way around. The field of free expression remains wide open, free of any dictatorial spasms!”
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had tweeted within the week that: “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.’’
Twitter found the tweets offensive as it they were interpreted to suggest threat of genocide against the Igbo of Nigeria and they were consequently deleted.
