In a televised speech on the occasion of “Democracy Day” on June 12, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged the deteriorating security situation in the country’s northeast and southeast. CNN recalls that more than 800 schoolgirls have been abducted since last December. Buhari also mentioned poverty and youth unemployment in the country and various steps to address these issues. But Buhari’s problem is not diminishing; Rather growing. There have been protests against Buhari in various parts of the country on the occasion of ‘Democracy Day’; Where people show placards saying ‘Buhari must go’. Protesters criticize Buhari’s actions; In particular, they criticized the closure of social media Twitter in Nigeria. On June 4, the Nigerian government shut down Twitter, saying that some activities were being carried out using Twitter that could endanger Nigeria’s very existence.
Many speculate that Buhari’s June 1 tweet may be linked to the closure of Twitter in Nigeria. In that message, President Buhari threatened to crack down on separatist groups in the country’s southeast, who have attacked various state institutions, including election offices. Twitter deleted Buhari’s message, saying it violated Twitter’s rules. Buhari recalled the civil war in the Biafra region in the southeast in the 1980s; And he warned that no such separatist movement would re-emerge in the region. In an Al Jazeera article, Nigerian journalist Fisayo Soyombo recalls that in October 2020, US technology company Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey requested in a Twitter message to pay for Bitcoin in the Nigerian “Enders” movement. Soyombo says it was only after Jack Dorsey’s tweet that it became clear that Twitter was going to run into problems with the Nigerian government. This movement might not have been possible without Twitter. The Endersers is a movement calling for the disbandment of the Nigerian Police’s Special Anti-Rubber Squad, or SARS. According to a report by Quartz Africa, the message of the movement was spread 26 million times on Twitter through hashtags from 2016 to October 13, 2020. In 2020, a video of George Floyd being tortured to death by police in Minneapolis, USA, spread on social media. This led to riots with police across the United States. There has been a movement in Nigeria since Floyd’s point. On October 3, 2020, a video surfaced on Twitter showing SARS police firing on a young Nigerian man. As a result, protests spread across the country. Buhari’s government’s crackdown on protesters has exacerbated the situation.
Nigerian government information minister Lai Mohammed told reporters that Twitter had never deleted the dangerous tweet of Namdi Kanu, a separatist leader in southeastern Nigeria. Kanu, who lives abroad, is directing attacks on Nigerian state agencies. Namdi Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, in the separatist Biafra region of southeastern Nigeria. Who kept alive the failed separatist movement of the 1980s. He was arrested once in 2015; He was released two years later. Journalist Soyombo says there are not many followers of Namdi Kanu, except in some parts of the country’s southeast. But the Buhari government’s additional concerns about Kanu have led to nationwide protests, with nearly 40 million Nigerian Twitter users being plunged into darkness.
The Nigerian government says that if Twitter wants to operate in Nigeria, it must be licensed in Nigeria. According to a CNN report, Twitter is a problem in two big countries like India and Nigeria. But if you want to expand your business, there is no alternative to operating Twitter in both countries. The Indian government has been embroiled in a controversy over freedom of speech with Twitter for the past few months. A few days ago, US social media companies started clashing with Australia and Britain.
Speaking to Deutsche Welle, Abdullahi Mohamed Koli, a Nigerian political analyst, said Twitter was empowering those working against Nigeria. In addition to the IPOB, many other organizations are using Twitter to endanger Nigeria’s very existence. Twitter does not want to open an office in Nigeria, register, obey Nigerian law, or pay taxes; Which is against the interests of Nigeria. The words of Mohamed Koli reflect the words of the Nigerian government. Nigeria is still struggling to survive after half a century of Biafra civil war. The Nigerian leadership has pushed its own people away from protecting the artificial geographical boundaries left by the British; Has made the country even weaker. U.S. technology companies, such as Twitter, have been embroiled in legal disputes with British Commonwealth countries, including Nigeria, India, and Australia; Which confronted their business interests and corporate ideology. During the Biafra War, some Catholic Christian countries and organizations, including the United States, France, and Ireland, directly or indirectly supported Biafra. The former British colony of Nigeria received the greatest support from Britain and the Soviet Union. Although Nigeria is the largest and wealthiest country in West Africa, its artificial borders have weakened it internally. This weakness has made him dependent on the West; Which is still visible today. The instability surrounding the country across West Africa has dragged Nigeria down, but Nigeria has not become geopolitically strong due to internal weaknesses; Rather, it has become a victim of the West’s own conflict.
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