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On October 14, 2020, when I saw Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeting “Do #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS”, I knew he would eventually have problems with the Nigerian authorities. No government in the world would give him power by making donations to a movement that shook the foundations of his power.
From the point of view of the Nigerian government, the technology giant helped escalate the country’s internal crisis by taking advantage of its huge global reach, not only “EndSARS” but also “Go to Buhari” to demand funding from protesters on the streets of Lagos. . There are millions and respectable ways for the government to react, but the current Nigerian government has not found it.
So on June 2, when Twitter deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari threatening the 1960 civil war and violence in southeastern Nigeria, the response of the Nigerian authorities was swift. On June 4, the Ministry of Information announced the suspension of the country’s social media platform.
Make no mistake: The tweet deleted by Buhari has been the anger of the Nigerian government with Twitter – and not the trigger -. The real problem with the platform is the state of being the most prominent tool for Buhari’s list of low-government citizens. This led to the #EndSARS protest, probably the most organic protest in Nigeria’s recent history.
Surely that protest could not have happened without Twitter. It was a platform shared by the victims of police brutality in the hands of men dressed in black robberies. I was hidden in a police cell and in prison for days, knowing that most of these stories were true.
In early October 2020, SARS officials harassed Nigerian youths and in one case, killed a young man, had a strong tendency on Twitter and caused outrage across the country. This led to a constant outburst of similar experiences shared by the victims, which sparked public outrage and many took to the streets to demand the dismantling of SARS.
Nigeria’s biggest open secret about the protest was that the government hired rebels to attack the protesters and infiltrate and discredit their movement. The protocol movement went downhill as state agents made a major effort to cover up the deaths and wounds of the October 20 military siege.
Eight months after the demonstrations ended, Twitter remains the only platform where these events are occasionally reviewed, sometimes on the 20th of the month but often for no specific reason. Twitter remains the meat of the Nigerian government, a lasting memory of the blood spilled on October 20, 2020 in Lekki Toll Square in Lagos.
Shortly after Twitter removed Buhari’s tweet, Information Minister Lai Mohammed accused the social media platform of “funding #EndSARS protesters”. He also criticized Twitter for Nnamdi Kanu, the head of the Secessionist Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), for removing fire tweets for calling for the creation of an independent state (Biafra) in south-eastern Nigeria.
But Mohammed ignored the fact that Buhari’s tweets had been massively denounced by the people. Moreover, the tweets encouraging Kanu’s secession are not compared to the weight of the president threatening citizens in the civil war remembered for the genocide suffered by the people in southeastern Nigeria.
The government of Buhari is supposed to be in the hands of the people; It exists because of the failures of the Kanu government. Therefore, both parties cannot be attributed the same level of responsibility to the citizens. It is quite worrying that this government cannot see the distribution of Buhari’s tweets.
As for IPOB, it’s a self-made problem. Twitter serves as an amplifier of growing complaints. Many of those who denounced Buhari’s offensive tweet have no sympathy for the IPOB, but are concerned about the government’s obsession with Kanu and its people to the detriment of significant and destructive threats to Nigeria’s existence.
In 2017, the Buhari government declared the army an IPOB “militant terrorist group” in violation of the country’s Terrorism Act, which stipulates that only one judge can make a statement before acting in accordance with the law. Four years later, there is still no courage to name militants from pastoralist communities as terrorist groups, named in 2015 by the Global Terrorism Index as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world after Boko Haram, ISIS and al-Shabab. .
A few days ago, militants killed at least 25 people and destroyed houses, shops and a palace in a town in southwestern Nigeria, but they are still not terrorists because of the bias that Buhari had towards shepherds, who is himself. Bandits are scaring the North of Nigeria; since December, about a thousand people have been kidnapped and their unofficial spokesperson Sheikh Abubakar Gumi has often burned his image in the media. However, for the Nigerian government, killers and kidnappers are not terrorists.
Minister Mohammed’s proclamation can be said to have become a platform for Twitter “for activities capable of harming the existence of Nigerian corporations”. The biggest threat to Nigeria is the lack of inspirational governance.
Nigerians are hungry. Naira continues to weaken. People’s purchasing power is declining. Unemployment is skyrocketing. There is a lack of quality health care. Shepherds, bandits and militants are killing people with impunity.
Solve these problems and watch Kanu disappear into the darkness. No one will listen to him if they have food on the table. No one will join the June 12 demonstrations, which call for some activist groups to protest the Twitter ban if they win healthily and professionally. June 12 is a significant day in the history of Nigeria, as 1993 was the most free and fair election in Nigeria. The result was overturned by the dictatorial regime of Ibrahim Babangida.
Good governance is the ultimate secret to ensuring the existence of Nigerian corporations. Twitter, which in 2015 Buhari asked Nigerians to condemn Jonathan’s failure of the government, cannot be a sudden problem in 2021. He would not be removed from the people he is currently using to criticize his shortcomings – except, of course, that the rest of his two years in office can be considered a waste of speed.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.
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