The PEN Nigeria has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to unban Twitter, saying tweeting was a democratic right.
The Federal Government had banned the social media giant last week, after it deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari, who had made a controversial statement on how the government would deal with IPOB secessionists.
PEN Nigeria, in a statement by its President, Folu Agoi, noted:
The right and freedom of expression is a democratic right which in today’s world can no longer be trampled on by the state or any organ of government. Nigerian Centre of PEN International (aka PEN Nigeria) chooses to side with the citizens of Nigeria on this issue of the ban of Twitter by the Federal Government of Nigeria and, thus, call on the Buhari-led regime to immediately reverse itself.
It is clear and obvious that the ban is a respond to the deleting of the tweet of the president on account of his open threat to visit and repeat the same manner of carnage and atrocities against the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria as the federal government did in the civil war if the people continue with their agitation for self determination and secession from the country. This level of intimidation and threat by government to unleash violence on the citizens was considered unacceptable by Twitter, and as such the tweet was deleted.
To therefore excuse the ban on the need to maintain the corporate existence of the country no way speaks to the fact on the ground. If anything, the point must be made that it is the refusal of government to respond favourably to the misgivings of citizens, their aspirations and quest to have their lot improved upon and the insistence by the government that citizens cannot respond to these challenges or draw government attention to them that is, in reality, the threat. Nigeria has all it takes in terms of resources and manpower to improve the lot of all its citizens, if managed appropriately, with governance aimed at meeting the needs and aspirations of the working masses. The quest for self-determination in a peaceful manner is legitimately a democratic right that must be respected by all.
PEN Nigeria, therefore, calls on the Buhari regime to immediately retrace its steps, as it is clear that Nigerians in their millions are already rejecting this ban, and have chosen to keep their Twitter accounts active in spite of government’s new threat to prosecute those who do not acquisence to its ill-advised order for Nigerians to deactivate the accounts.
Democracy is anchored on democratic rights, and indeed the right and freedom of expression is graded as fundamental to the survival and sustenance of democracy. PEN Nigeria on this account insists that government should immediately do the right thing and reverse the ban. We also call on government to change its approach of ignoring the complaints of citizens about the challenges of insecurity, particularly kidnappings and unwarranted killings, mass unemployment, oppression and intimidation of the masses — including workers — by some state governments, inflation and corruption, high cost of electricity tariff, determination to again increase the pump price of petroleum etc. The government should take necessary steps as a matter of urgency to address the myriad of problems facing the country and assuage the citizens’ anger with a humane approach to governance.
