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Twitter Ban In Nigeria: A Scandal To Democracy
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1.2 Statement Of The Problem
The President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration announced the suspension of Twitter on 5 June 2021, two
days after Twitter had temporarily suspended the account of President
Muhammadu Buhari for violating the social media company’s "abusive"
behaviour policy. Buhari’s account was put on hold for 12 hours after he
threatened punishment for regional secessionists blamed for attacks on
government buildings. This erratic decision has been tagged
"unconstitutional" and against the system of democracy. Social media
users in Nigeria swiftly inundated Twitter to express their shock, anger
and disappointment after the government announced the indefinite
suspension of the tech giant’s operations in the country. The most
shameful thing about the ban of Twitter in Nigeria is not even that it
was announced; "It's the realization that this government can't see the
divisiveness and irresponsibility of that Buhari tweet, and the
barefacedness with which it is going about it." (Aljazeera cites 'Fisayo
Soyombo' on June 4, 2021.)In the same vein, Clement Nwankwo on June 4,
2021, cited in Aljazeera, said the Nigerian government's suspension of
Twitter, a medium of free expression and communication, is bizarre,
unconstitutional and a violation of human rights and should be
immediately reversed. The suspension exposes Nigeria to national and
international ridicule and is unsustainable.
Irrespective of the
menace caused by the this vexatious decision, the Nigerian attorney
general’s office ordered immediate prosecution of Nigerians who try to
bypass the government’s Twitter ban after the government suspended its
operations (aljezeera news report).
1.3 Objective Of The Study
The
basic aim of this study is to critically portray the erratic decision
of twitter ban in Nigeria as a scandal to democracy. The specific
objectives include:
1. Determine if twitter ban is constitutional in Nigeria.
2. Determine if the Twitter ban was democratically executed.
3. Determine if bridging masses access to social media is democratic.
1.4 Research Hypothesis
An
hypothesis refers to an experimental statement, tentative in nature,
showing the relationship between two or more variables. It is open to
testing and can be accepted or rejected depending on whether it agrees
or disagrees with the statistical test.
The study will test the validity of the following hypothesis:
H01: Nigeria's Twitter ban is not a violation of human rights.
H02: Bridging the masses' access to social media is not a democratic thing.
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