BEVERLY HILLS, June 08, (THEWILL) – Yemi Solade, Nigerian actor, has stated that Twitter insulted President Muhammadu Buhari and the country at large after the company deleted his tweet.
THEWILL recalls that Twitter had earlier deleted the tweet of President Buhari wherein he spoke about the Civil War experience and threatened to deal with those “bent on destroying” Nigeria through “insurrection.”
This development led to the eventual suspension of the micro-blogging platform by the Federal Government for “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
The suspension has continued to spark reactions with many Nigerians, including celebrities, condemning the move.
However, in a now-viral video, Solade supported the government’s suspension of the social media platform as he accused Twitter of trying to “foment trouble and anarchy” in Nigeria.
According to the actor, the President’s tweet was merely an expression of his thoughts and Twitter was wrong to have deleted it.
Solade said: “It (Buhari’s deleted tweet) is just an expression for all I care. It’s something that is coming from everyone’s fundamental human right to express. Even at that, I will not subscribe to malicious posts and hate speech. Nobody thought Twitter was going to be banned. Everybody thought it was a huge joke,” he said.
“I think Twitter went too far insulting the President of Nigeria and, by extension, all of us —some 200 million people of Nigeria. I think about 45 percent of the subscribers, more or less, Nigerians, make Twitter very thick.
“This is not the first time Twitter will attempt to humiliate Nigerians. It happened to Pastor Chris Oyakilome. I think the white supremacist and imperialist tendencies should be curbed sometimes.
“As much as I am of the opinion that everybody has the right to expression and thought but then when a platform is used to foment trouble or want to project anarchy there should be rules regulating such practices.”
The movie star also accused the social media service of promoting hatred, adding that most of the comments on the platform were usually negative.
“But in this case, one comes across some volatile moments on Twitter. I would want to align with the school of thought that Twitter wasn’t really helping. Nigeria has so many problems to contend with and Twitter wasn’t really helping the country,” he added.
The veteran actor also said: “Most of the posts were far too negative, especially hitting the government of Nigeria. And I know individuals doing business on Twitter will miss it.
“I want to think in a larger space that it really trampled on the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.”
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