Nigerian govt’s suspension of Twitter a slide towards fascism – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday described the Federal Government’s suspension of the microblogging platform, Twitter as a draconian action and a slide towards a fascist regime in the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had earlier on Friday announced the suspension of Twitter activities in Nigeria.

The minister said in a statement the federal government banned Twitter because of its persistent use for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.

However, PDP in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, declared that the suspension of Twitter was a vexatious, condemnable and barbaric move to muzzle Nigerians, particularly the youths, in a bid to prevent them from holding the government accountable for its atrocities against Nigerians.

The party expressed surprise that the government could exhibit “such primitive intolerance and power intoxication because Twitter demonstrated international best practices in not allowing the Buhari presidency to use the platform to propagate and spread its hatred towards Nigerians.”

The statement read: “The PDP insists 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 youths, 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 administration are only afraid of Nigerians on Twitter because of their evil machinations for which they dread the Nigerian youths.

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“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.

“The PDP, therefore, charges President Buhari to end this assault against Nigerians by immediately and unconditionally rescinding the decision to ban Twitter, as such amounts to pushing our citizens to the wall.

“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 United States President, Donald Trump, he was not known to have deployed any act of coercion against Twitter.

“Our party invites President Buhari to halt this international shame by rescinding this ugly decision.”

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