Buhari’s Twitter Problem and Iron Fist

Chido Nwangwu Publisher? USAfricaonline.com weighs in on the recent penalty forced on President Muhammadu Buhari by the microblogging social media platform, Twitter

The great thing about today’s multimedia of communications Is the magic of organic spontaneity. Information and news can be shared, instantly.
Yes; you no longer have to wait for the BBC, CNN, NTA, TASS, and for all it is worth, for Nigeria‘s Information Minister Lai Mohammed to spin, manage, package and relatively define what you read, how and when you consume the news and information.

A few hours into the morning of Wednesday, June 2, 2021, the world’s number one micro-blogging site, Twitter, deleted Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet where he referenced the 1967 to 1970 NIgeria-Biafra War. He intended to and did deliver a chilling threat to deal with “misbehaving” Nigerians in “the language they understand.”

Buhari warned on Tuesday June 1, that “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”

Nigerians responded on Twitter and other social media platforms in massive numbers and expressed their disagreement with the threats by the President. In a clear and deliberate reference to activists and agitators primarily in the East-central/South-eastern part of Nigeria, the former retired army general, Instantly demolished claims of his spin doctors and media special assistants that he was “the father of the nation.”

The fundamental fact and objective truth remain, as some of the distinguished gentlemen and women from his part of the country have attested to is that Mr. Buhari’s actions and nepotistic appointments polarize Nigeria.

Narratives and previous pretenses to a basic level of statesmanship has vanished! Against his own interest, what do I know; maybe in his preferred interest, Buhari’s first and consistent goal in history is the unapologetic defender, activist and champion of the Fulani and their herdsmen.

Those who have made six years of exculpatory excuses for Buhari’s understandable incompetence and potentially (repeat) genocidal threats?actions were awakened by the Twitter reprimand against him.

His temperament and rage were barely concealed.

Alas, even the carefully-crafted spin and falsehoods collapse in the merciless digital vortex of communication.

Literally, assumptions and claims that had been made by Buhari & Co over decades are withering amidst an avalanche of global counterpoint.

Remarkably, the asymmetrical landscape of communication can mortally damage the credibility of leaders and the direction of many countries.

With such power and influence of multimedia exposure via the ubiquitous internet and extranet platforms, they have pierced the walls of impunity and high-handed bigotry.

The social media has the capacity to catapult events to distant places.

Twitter’s statement on Buhari’s threat: “This tweet violated the Twitter rules.” USAfrica review of those rules show, in part, posting and sharing tweets which threaten to reflect “behavior” such as “Threaten violence against an individual or a group of people; engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so; nor promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

Evidently, with the rise of the social media of communication, the world has become the broadcast platform for anyone with digital instruments such as the iPhone, any mobile device and fixed desktop devices.

QUOTE

Buhari warned on Tuesday June 1, that “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. Nigerians responded on Twitter and other social media platforms in massive numbers and expressed their disagreement with the threats by the President. In a clear and deliberate reference to activists and agitators primarily in the East-central/South-eastern part of Nigeria, the former retired army general, Instantly demolished claims of his spin doctors and media special assistants that he was “the father of the nation. The fundamental fact and objective truth remain, as some of the distinguished gentlemen and women from his part of the country have attested to is that Mr. Buhari’s actions and nepotistic appointments polarize Nigeria