TWITTER BAN, JUSTIFIED OR NOT?
“if the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter”-George Washington
My lord, a lot has been going on in this country ranging from insecurity, poverty, unemployment, banditry and agitations from youths amongst many others events but this government administration has only decided to take a drastic and careless action by banning Twitter. This act illustrated the misplaced priorities of an administration that has spent the last couple of weeks weakly upbraiding kidnappers and banditry rampaging the country. My lord, it is more shocking that amidst all this, my fellow learned partner here has decided to support the government, it is obvious that definitely, he may be learned but he is unable to see beyond his nose, I'm sure after re-educating him, he will have no other choice than to redraw this case.
“We should remember that Twitter has gone beyond a source of communication for many of our hardworking youths in Nigeria. It has become a source of livelihood for many, irrespective of their political affiliations or religious leanings,”. My lord, this statement is from a tweet from the Governor of Oyo State while addressing the general public, a day after twitter was banned. Before my fellow learned friends come to defend his case, I advise that he puts on his cap of reasoning. Twitter indeed is beyond a social media App, it is a major platform majority of the youth who have developed soft skills get clients, a platform that gives brand Influencers audience to increase sales of their products exponentially and most importantly a platform where Nigerians seek for justice and voice out their criticism and grievances about any administration, governmental actions and even private companies. This ban is no doubt an attempt to shield the government from criticism particularly from Nigeria's youth who make up more than 70% of the population, After all, there have been clamor from the youths that BuhariMustGo!!
Also, it is interesting to note that according to NetBlocks, a watchdog organization that monitors cyber-security and governance of the Internet, each hour of the social media gagging costs Nigeria about $250,000 (N102.5 million), bringing the daily loss to N2.5 billion. This is no doubt a huge sum for a country paying eighteen thousand naira as minimum wage. The suspension has already created a market access gap for millions of small and medium scale enterprises (SMSEs) that use the platform to reach their customers. As the restriction persists, the cost rises as well as the impact spreads from large corporations to small businesses. If the government continues to enforce the ban, it will set a dangerous precedence that could spread to other social media platforms, resulting in even more losses.
This could potentially complicate the challenges COVID-19 and other structural defects had imposed on businesses. It will no doubt hit e-commerce market in the country which is estimated at $12 billion.
Aside the financial implications, the Nigerians Government directive is at its core, an affront to the Nigerian's rights to freedom of expression and other rights guaranteed by the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), the African Charter on Human and People's Rights as well as Civil and political rights. Beyond the incongruence in this policy, it appears as if we are back in 1984 under a military regime because the government has started exploring options to institute a shield like that of China on Nigerian-Internet users. This only give more points that we are far from running a democracy as a nation. This App has no doubt helped citizens to bring corrupt political officials and security officers in recent times to book hence has protected their rights and that of others. It is crystal clear that the government feels intimidated as a result of this but must have forgotten that it was the only means of communication between the government and its citizen.
My lord, let's forgive the Nigerian government for tweeting about the ban on Twitter but we should not turn a blind eye to the fact that they also recognize the relevant of this App in information dissemination. We all know that we are in information age and when the right information is passed at the right time will save lots of lives, money and time especially for a developing country as ours. And with fraud in every nook and cranny of the country, we should expect fake news to start flying around as there are no reputable App to debunk them.
However, I will join my opponent when he decides to tongue-lash the silhouette and shedibalabala twitter users but we need to not lose focus because the government did not ban the App as a result of this but a claim that the App threatens the corporate existence of Nigeria because the President’s tweet was deleted as it contradicted the App’s platform rule. My lord, I ask this court a rhetorical question, how will our existence be known if we are separating ourselves from the world?
Above all, banning the App without a plan or a substitute when the country is at a critical time in the history of hers is not only a drastic but meaningless action. I rest my case My Lord.
Is Twitter ban justified?
Definitely!
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself" -- Thomas Paine
If you are an avid Twitter user, you will easily understand that the microblogging platform is sometimes a hoax and an irritating dumping ground for biased contents. My Lord, isn't it just right that the Nigerian government placed a limit on its consistent cacophony? Because of the almost centralized nature of the social media platform, it is clear that the bird app has been a growing nuisance to freedoms of speech and sovereign governments globally. It is indeed laudable that the Nigerian government has taken a fore front in ending this menace.
They say great nations do great things, this is becoming true for the Giant of Africa after its government placed an indefinite ban on Twitter. In fact, Donald Trump, the former United States of America's president, gave credit to Mr Muhammadu Buhari for taking a global leading role in breaking Twitter's totalitarian hold of the social media. My Lord, who is Twitter to deprive the President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces his access to free and open speech? Now, it is important to put this out very clearly. For you to take down a president's, or even anyone's post because of whatever reason, there should be an acceptable process to be followed to that effect. Nigerians keep clamoring that the Nigerian government did not notify her citizens before banning Twitter, did Twitter formally notify the whole world before taking down the president's posts? It is very laughable that those criticizing the Buhari's action as undemocratic are eagerly praising and supporting Twitter's authoritarian action. Is that anti-Buhari I am smelling?
Quite strangely, how does President Buhari's tweet threaten punishment of "harmless" secessionists in the southeastern part of the country? According to Twitter, Buhari's posts were deleted for violating its abusive behavior policy after several days of reports by Nigerians to take them down. The interesting question is, who are these Nigerians making sense of and subsequently reporting Mr Buhari's tweets? Are they the same Shedibalabala generation of Nigerian tweeps? Or they are the "follow-for-follow-back" spammers that you cannot exactly conclude if they are really humans or bots? My Lord, the argument here is that how informed and unbiased were those reporting Mr Buhari's tweets? In fact, they might have been TwitterNG spammers paid by an opposition to decry the Nigerian president!
In those deleted tweets, President Muhammadu Buhari threatened to deal with those causing trouble in the southeastern part of Nigeria in "the language they understand." My Lord, how is this statement even an issue to start off? After Nigerians have been clamoring about the insecurity in Nigerian southeastern region, their president pledged his dedication to dealing with the trouble-causing insurgents and his statement automatically metamorphosed to a declaration of punishment of innocent Nigerians? Should a normal Nigerian cause trouble and misbehave, especially in a manner that leads to loss of lives and disruption of the social order of a nation? How does Buhari's mentioning of the Biafra war, where he served as the commanding general for the Nigerian side, suddenly threaten a reply of the extrajudicial killings of the civil war? Nigerians, without prejudice and grudges, really need to answer these questions before throwing conclusions at the president's statement.
Viewing the issue from the Nigerian government's perspective, don't you really think the actions of Twitter undermines Nigeria's corporate existence? Rather than overlooking Twitter's unwarranted actions against people's posts, it is better governments dialogue with the microblogging company to clearly define their limits. Kehinde from Oponpogiri District will post a really controversial tweet but will go scot-free, whereas, President Donald Trump will post something less controversial and you will flag Trump's tweet. How is this democratic and judicial? I believe the Nigerian government's move to ban Twitter will stimulate other countries to consider their need of upholding human's freedom by defining the social media platform's limits.
While there are obvious side effects to Nigeria's banning of Twitter, it is important for Nigerians to understand that the ban is required to decentralize Twitter's power. Your love for the microblogging app should not cloud your passion for freedom. Many countries have realized this and have censored Twitter, especially Iran and China, enough is enough for the bird app's politically-inclined misconduct. This fact is explicit in Mr. Trump's statement where he expressed his regret that he should have also censored Twitter while he was in office as the President of the United States.
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