Comparing Nnamdi Kanu to Buhari gives President and Biafran agitator equal status, says Yusuf Ali, SAN

 

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Yusuf Ali, speaks on the recent suspension of the micro-blogging site, Twitter, by the Federal Government in this interview with SOLOMON ODENIYI

The Federal Government said it suspended Twitter operations in Nigeria mainly because the platform was promoting fake news and misinformation in the country, what do you make of this?

The main cause is the alleged deletion of the President’s tweet on the Indigenous People of Biafra and I believe the Presidency should have handled this in a different way. Even though the platform was totally banned, Twitter is not the only online platform in the country. What will happen is that people will migrate to other platforms. What I am saying in essence is that suspending Twitter is never a solution to any retribution, because there are others with similar outreach that people can go to. I think the President should have been better advised.

The government should have engaged them and let them see the negative things they have been doing, which the government is not satisfied with and if they have explanations to offer, good and if they do not, then the government can do what it likes. But when you just take a decision like this, there are always reactions to things that are negative. They should have gone through the method of engagement and discussion.

Do you think the President should have made such a statement in the first place?

When you occupy a public position, you cannot react like a private person. He is the father of all; he has the good, the bad and the ugly under his watch. This is the number one person in the country; he has to be a super human. I expected his handles to have known better.

The Federal Government is also mulling licensing all social media operations in the country, do you see this as a way of suppressing peoples’ right of expression?