By Ebi Dressman
YENAGOA- Millions of Nigerians struggled on Saturday to access Twitter, a day after Nigerian authorities suspended operations of the social media giant in the country, as a response to the deletion of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari for violating its terms of service.
Yes, everyone is entitled to an opinion when it comes to public issues. But to me, President Buhari’s recent ban of Twitter in Nigeria is a gag against the media. It is also a repression of the civic space and it undermines the fundamental human rights of the people.
The Nigerian Constitution guarantees Nigerians free speech and freedom of association. Yes, the Government can regulate media platforms to reduce their negative impact on our society, like fake news, inciting the public etc. But outrightly banning the usage of these platforms is a threat to our nascent democracy.
A robust mass media and a vigorously active civil society are two important ingredients in a strong and healthy democracy that can curtail corruption from the society even without the political backbones.
The absence of media freedom and an active civil society, creates space for enormous and unchecked political power, leading to corruption and anti-democratic behavior by government functionaries.
This is because the media plays a vital role in improving governance and reducing corruption. It also increases economic efficiency, stability, creates positive social and environmental change.
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In the U.S, it was Twitter that deleted all of Donald Trump’s tweets and subsequently suspended his account, while he was still President. He never banned or indefinitely suspended access to Twitter usage in the U.S.
To those of us who are now supporting the recent #TwitterBan by the Nigerian Government, simply because people are using it against the Government of the day. We should not forget how same platform was used in criticising past Governments and their policies.
Even till this moment, some of us are still using other social media platforms in criticising our state government policies, but we are supporting Federal Government for banning Twitter.
What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
We must put political sentiments aside on issues that affect the general public.
Stop calling a spade a machete. We must call a spade by its name.
