Twitter Deletes Buhari’s Tweet Threatening To Treat Nigerians ‘Misbehaving’ In ‘The Language They Understand’

Twitter has deleted a tweet where President Muhammadu Buhari threatened some Nigerians “misbehaving” in “the language they understand”.

The President made the threat on Tuesday after receiving a brief from the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the series of recent attacks on the INEC facilities nationwide.

“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigeria Civil War.

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

After widespread condemnation of the tweet, Twitter deleted the message on Wednesday.

“This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules,” the microblogging site said in place of the deleted tweet.

Many Nigerians have expressed their displeasure over the tweet by the President and cited his reference to the civil war as a threat to commit human rights violations.

In his reactions on Wednesday, former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu said Buhari’s threat “is not the kind of word he should say as the president.”

Moghalu registered his reaction in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, ‘Sunrise Daily’.

“I think (your) language matters when you are a leader and when you are facing many crises because that language can be interpreted in many ways,” Moghalu said during a television interview.

Moghalu accused Buhari of “bringing up evocations that are very unpleasant” but said the president should have assured Nigerians that his government will continue to work to ensure the safety of lives and properties.

The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed in reaction to this questioned Twitter’s rules.

Addressing journalists after the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, Lai Mohammed accused Twitter of conveniently ignoring other inciting tweets and deleting that of President Buhari

He asked if Twitter which cited a violation of its rules had deleted violent tweets by Nnamdi Kano and other Twitter users during the #EndSars protest.