Nigeria on Friday indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities two days after the social network deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari. The Ministry of Information and Culture said in the statement, “The federal government has suspended, indefinitely, the activities of the microblogging and social networking service Twitter in Nigeria.”
The microblogging site, on Wednesday, deleted a tweet by the President which Nigerians had criticized as a declaration of war. In the deleted tweet, Buhari had made a reference to the country’s 30-month civil war in 1967-1970, warning “those who wanted the government to fail” to cease from instigating trouble. “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigeria civil war. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the president tweeted on Tuesday night.
As per the media report, Information Minister Lai Mohammed accused Twitter of ‘having an agenda’. “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very, very suspect. Has Twitter deleted the violent tweets that Nnamdi Kanu has been sending,” Mohammed said.
Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The main aim of IPOB is to create an independent state for the people of the old Eastern Region of Nigeria through an independent choice. He lives in exile in Israel.
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