There has been uproar in the Social Media over President Muhammadu Buhari’s threat that the people of Igbo-dominated South East region who are supporting secession would receive the 1976-1970 civil war experience.
The outrage resulted with Twitter deleting his message.
Buhari was reacting to the unwarranted widespread attacks on security personnel and public facilities by unknown gunmen in the region. But critics saw his comments as an escalation of violence and a promotion of genocide rather than an attempt to curb the excesses of criminals rampaging across the South-East.
President Buhari boasted about the role he played alongside other Nigerian military officers in the Nigerian Civil War of 1966-70, during which over three million Igbo civilians were killed, many of them rounded up and shot at close range or starved to death.
President Buhari, speaking via his verified Twitter handle, @MBuhari, said after after a briefing from @inecnigeria on Tuesday on the attacks on their offices: “Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We’ve given them enough time. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later.”
Activist Aisha Yesufu @AishaYesufu raised alarm at the President’s pronouncement and tweet, saying as she took on an Igbo name: “My name is Aisha Somtochukwu Yesufu #IAmIgbo. Any threat to Igbo people is a threat to me. An attack to Igbo people is an attack on me. I condemn the 1967 threats from President Buhari to the Igbo people No Nigerian is more Nigerian than any Nigerian.”
On Wednesday, Twitter deleted President Buhari’s message amidst widespread condemnation of the tweet with the Social Media platform saying that the tweet violated its rules.
Nigerian had inundated Twitter with inquiries on the tweet and the deleting of the tweet may be a procedural measure to lock President Buhari out of his account for 24 hours or face a temporary suspension.
Earlier, Twitter had seen no wrongdoing in its response to some of those who marked the tweet as genocidal and reported it as a violation of its policy.
But following an enquiry in which Nigerians detailed how the tweet was essentially similar to the one posted by the Chinese Embassy in Washington which Twitter deleted in January and marked as dehumanisation of a protect ethnic group of Uighur, the social media giant backtracked, striking down the tweet of the Nigerian President, a phenomenal step against a sitting President.
An elated Reno Omokri @renoomokri, said: “I commend @Twitter for deleting @MBuhari’s tweet threatening Civil War 2 on Nigeria’s SE. It was a most irresponsible tweet and Nigerians are grateful to @Jack for talking that action. But please do not stop there. Delete his account. Buhari is a menace to the world.”