BY ROSEMARY NWAEBUNI
President of Freedom Ministries International, Bishop Nuel Ikeakanam, has urged the federal government to immediately rescind its ban on operations of twitter in the country to avoid further international disgrace.
Ikeakanam in an interview with The Pointer noted that it was disappointing that federal government could take such decision on account of deleting a tweet of President Buhari for offensive threats to advocates of self-determination.
The Bishop said it was a demonstration of federal government’s intolerance to press freedom and fear of contrary views.
He added that the ban on twitter operation in the country was one of the present administration’s attempts to hamstring press freedom in the country.
He explained that the federal government had continued to slam television stations in the country with humongous fines via its regulatory body the NBC for telecasts which they felt uncomfortable with, noting that their constant censorships on the press negates the provisions of press freedom in Nigeria’s constitution.
While calling on human rights organisations in the country to take up the matter in the law courts before government begins to contemplate more draconian measures, Ikeakanam noted that the twitter had become a microblogging social media platform through which youths ventilate their opinions on issues that affect the global community.
He averred that with the ban, Nigeria had inadvertently suspended herself from views and opinions that should guide and shape public policy.
“This will adversely affect the image of the Nigerian government which at best times had not been good. He said: “The suspension is as idiotic as it is useless.”
The Bishop revealed that twitter organization and users have nothing to lose from the ban rather the country has much to lose, adding that twitter users may resort to the use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) for their tweets which masks the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
Ikeakanam slammed the Attorney General of the federation, Abubakar Malami for threat to prosecute violators of twitter gag order warning that it would do more harm to the perception of Nigeria as repressive and intolerant of contrary opinions.
“It goes further to confirm President Buhari as a sworn enemy of free speech and free press. The federal government and its officials should stop embarrassing themselves with these threats.
“In this digital age, there are many more ways to get ideas and opinions across to target audiences. If Nigerians at home are barred from speaking out against the malfeasance of this government, would they also bar Nigerians in Diaspora?
“The absence of free flow of information will definitely give rise to fake new and conspiracy theories which obviously would do more harm to the polity”, he said.
