Donald Trump supports Buhari’s #TwitterBan

Former President of the United States, Donald Trump has hailed the decision of the Nigerian government to suspend the operations of Twitter in the country.

“Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President,” he said in the statement released on Tuesday.

Trump who has remained suspended by Twitter, Facebook and other social media giants for inciting American citizens said he wished he suspended Twitter operations while he was still in the office.

He urged more countries to follow the lead of Nigeria by standing up to the ‘evil’ social media companies.

“More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech — all voices should be heard. In the meantime, competitors will emerge and take hold. Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President. But Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?” he added.

Nigeria suspends Twitter

The Federal Government last Friday suspended the operations of Twitter, the microblogging and social networking service, in Nigeria.

Lai Mohammed, Minister of information, announced the suspension in a statement.

According to the statement, the minister cited “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.

But many say that is only a cover and Twitter was suspended for deleting a tweet of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In the tweet which stirred outrage and was widely reported by Nigerians, the President made reference to the civil war while threatening to deal with violent agitators in the southeast region.

“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” he tweeted.

“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”

Trump’s suspension

In January, Trump was suspended and has remained suspended by social media giants, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for his ‘I will never concede’ speech that preceded violence as his supporters attacked the US Capitol.

Hundreds of Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol, the meeting place of the US Congress after Trump vowed to never concede at a speech in Washington.

The ‘Save America’ March which preceded the speech was organised to support Trump’s false assertion that the recent presidential election was rigged in favour of the winner, Joe Biden of the Democratic Party.

“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical Democrats,” Trump told a crowd of his supporters.

“We will never give up. We will never concede. It will never happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.”

“We will not let them silence your voices,” he said. “We’re not going to let it happen.”

Following the speech, the supporters stormed to the Capitol to overturn the presidential results and “take back our country” as Trump edged. Lawmakers were forced to scramble into desks and chairs as the police could not barricade the building.