From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
An elderstatesman and the immediate past Secretary General of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Mr. Anthony Sani has that Twitter owners ought to have deleted tweets by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) allegedly threatening Nigeria’s unity, saying that he saw nothing wrong with tweets by President Muhammadu Buhari that have generated so much controversy.
In a statement made available to Daily Sun, Sani said, “My reactions to the Twitter suspension saga is that I had first read the suspension of Twitter by the government as due to deletion of President Buhari’s tweet as overreaction on the part of the federal government,a case of elephant frisking at gnats one might say.But when I read that the deletion of the president’s tweet was due to pressure from supporters of IPOB,I became angry.
More so when U S A, U K and E U condemned the suspension on the basis of suppression of freedom of speech and abuse of human right.
“I became angry because these same countries have instituted variegated sanctions across the globe which affected and still affect the rights of citizens and businesses of both the target countries and those that institute the sanctions.
“Some of us have read such sanctions to be for overriding national interests that supersede human rights which are not limitless.More distressing has been the fact that Twitter does not delete worst tweets by the leadership of IPOB that are aimed at putting Nigeria asunder.
“Are U S A ,U K and E U expecting the Nigerian government to be reticent and ignore utterances and actions that threaten the corporate existence of the nation because of human rights?I dare say no,precisely because we see nothing wrong in the president’s tweet which merely echoed what many of us have said,to wit,that those drumming war are youths who have never experienced trauma of war.
“And if the only language the hoodlums understand is force,then such should be used for overriding national interest.That is why the January 6 riot on the Capitol is never viewed as expression of human right but an insurrection.That is also why former president Obasanjo could say we cannot allow Nigeria to be overtaken by hoodlums and non state actors.
“But now that the two parties have understood each other, we hope a solution would soon come so we can cast the saga astern for larger interest”.