TWITTER BAN: Let us for once stop attacking Buhari and try to see things from his point of view.

By Lucky Okoedion

It may be wise to pause and attempt to see things from Buhari’s point of view.

Most people’s point of view which seems unfair to Buhari is that the Nigerian Government under the leadership of this General Muhammadu Buhari may well go down in history as one of the few governments that failed both in their efforts to practice democracy and in their effort to practice tyranny (knowingly or unknowingly).

Those who share this point of view that is sharply in contrast with the views held by Buhari and his core supporters have alot of reasons and questions that make them hold such views.

For example, why ban twitter while also going ahead with your planned regulation of the social media? Why not just go about the social media regulation (which is arguably undemocratic), but as a response to what you considered as twitter’s undermining of the Nigerian Government, and do not ban it outrightly knowing fully well that there is so much unemployment in the country and many people earn a living on the Twitter app by selling adverts as social media influencers?

Some Nigerians even use the app to seek for support from fellow Nigerians for things raging from food and so on. There are several other ways to get back at Twitter without banning the app outrightly. Why not try a lawsuit or etc?

Assuming we are now in a dictatorship in Nigeria, is Buhari and his team currently running this country in the way successful dictatorships have been run in other parts of the world or at any other time in history?

All dictatorships that succeed always entail some level of attempt at proving to the citizens that their lives will be better under the current regime. They always used the carrot and stick approach; while using draconian means to whip the people into line, they seemed to encourage the people to buy into their “vision” and accept them willingly by looking after the wellbeing of those who are not regarded as “Rebels”.

Such that as the people begin to see that the quality of their life is improving, alot of them soon begin to care less about their loss of freedom. They are soon happy to trade their freedom in exchange for good health care, security, quality social amenities, wealth, national pride, etc, as was the case in Gaddafi’s prosperous Libya, in Russia today, and in China today.

Hence, is it not extremely saddening to realize that even in the path of tyranny, Buhari and his Government is also already failing?

To succeed in this dictatorship, Buhari ought to give speeches in response to all the Boko Haram, Bandit, IPOB or killer herdsmen killings that happen after the Twitter ban, as his way to prove to the people that “We are in this together. I am with you. Together, you and I, and my Government will prevail over these enemies of Nigeria, including Twitter”.

That is what tyrants do to succeed. And if we are to see things from Buhari’s point of view, this is what we should be advising him to do. Unlike Buhari, successful tyrants always attempt to unite the people against a common though fictitious enemy that they made up.

This is important because even if you are a tyrant, you need the people. You cannot enforce National unity. Neither can you legislate patriotism. Russia, China and other undemocratic states are successful today because they constantly attempt to win the people over after taking their freedoms from them.

But it was extremely insensitive of Buhari’s Government to ban twitter in that manner without regards for the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who earn a living through that app. Then killings and abduction kept occuring in Nigeria after the ban that hurt Nigerian youths, yet the Buhari Government did not consider it fit to use the opportunity to speak more often to the people, to sympathize with them and to assure them that “things will get better soon”.

The question now is, “What does Buhari expect after this level of insensitivity from his Government”? Does he expect Nigerians to suddenly start loving Nigeria?

This is one question that makes everyone to wonder how the president’s mind operates and what those who he is paying as advisers and aides are doing to earn their pay check.

Again, the president’s men have accused Twitter of working to, in other words, ensure that Nigeria collapses. But then, we wonder, is it Twitter that Nnamdi Kanu is using to lead IPOB?

Was there Twitter when Ojukwu led Biafra secession in the 1960s ? Was there Twitter during the last civil war? Are we sure that banning Twitter or any social media can end secessionist agitations?

Is it Twitter that Boko Haram used to turn hundreds of thousands of Buhari’s fellow Muslims and Northerners into IDPs that are now scattered all over different states in Nigeria and rendered hopeless? Is it Twitter that Boko Haram used to bomb their mosques, slaughter their men in their farms, rape their sisters and their mothers? Is it Twitter they used to kill thousands in the North? Is it Twitter they used to make many scared to go back to their villages in the north ? Is it Twitter they used to behead parents in the presence of their children?

In the IDP camps, you see alot of children suffering from trauma because they saw their mother being raped and then slaughtered afterwards before their eyes. And after slaughtering them, they saw the Boko Haram fighters recite the Quran while doing it. Was it Twitter they used to do it?

Is it Twitter that bandits use to kidnap hundreds of school children, kill some and demand for ransome?

Twitter has only been used to expose the failures of this Government and previous Government to the rest of the world. Was Twitter not used against Late president Yaradua’s Government? Did he ban it? Was Twitter not used to expose the failures of Goodluck Jonathan ? Did he ban it?

Hence, no matter how hard we try to calm down and see reasons with the decisions of Buhari and his Government, it is extremely difficult to see any sense in their decisions and actions. The only people who seem to see sense in the decisions and actions of this Government are those who are either on their payroll or are some of Buhari’s tribemen who feel they have to praise him no matter what.

Lucky Okoedion is a believer of a new Nigeria where true democracy is practiced. He writes from Benin City, Nigeria.