Former President of the Senate, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has expressed concerns for the youths as Twitter enters it’s 100th day of ban in Nigeria.
Naija News recalls President Muhammadu Buhari-led government had on 5 June 2021, officially put an indefinite ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria.
The government’s declaration comes after the owners of the microblogging platform deleted tweets made by the Nigerian President.
President Buhari had in the deleted post warned the south eastern people of Nigeria, predominantly Igbo people, of a potential repeat of the 1967 Biafran Civil War due to the ongoing insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria.
The Nigerian government claimed that the deletion of the President’s tweets factored into their decision but it was ultimately based on a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences.
Feeling pity for thousands of Nigerian youths who have lost their source of livelihood as a result of the Buhari government’s decision, Saraki in a video obtained by Naija News on Monday, said whatever decisions a leader will make, the people must be considered first.
Saraki stressed that the government ought to have look at Twitter ban from the point of view of how it affects the livelihood of young Nigerians before it’s verdict.
“This is a platform that is like a marketplace that people go to sell their products, market their goods and engage in business.
This is why, as a government, you have to ask yourself: ‘How does such a ban affect my people?’ And ‘how does it affect the most important part of my population, which are the young people,’ Saraki said.
Watch the video here:
This article was originally published on Naija News