Following the federal government’s suspension of Tweeter operations in Nigeria, the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has said tweeting is in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The clergyman stated this in a release while reacting to the controversial suspension and his alleged flouting government’s order in a statement.
“The Redeemed Christian Church of God is domiciled in more than 170 Nations & Territories. The tweets here are in accordance to Article 19 of the UN universal declaration of Human Rights,” he said.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Similarly, the general overseer of Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor Williams Kumuyi said NO to the ban because the church has a global audience.
“In view of the Twitter ban in Nigeria, please note that the content shared on this handle is targeted at a global audience in more than five continents and over 100 nations and we share the content from any of these locations.”
Recall that the federal government had last Friday clamped down on Twitter activities in Nigeria citing the alleged persistent use of the platform to promote actions capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
President Muhammadu Buhari had gone on Twitter the same day to threaten the secessionists in the southeast saying: “Many of those misbehaving in certain parts of the country were obviously too young to know the travails and loss of lives that attended the Nigerian civil war. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand. We are going to be very hard sooner than later.”
After Twitter deleted the tweet for violating its rules, the government announced the suspension and also directed the National Broadcasting Commission to commence the process of “licensing” all social media operations in Nigeria.
Yesterday, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) ordered all the broadcast stations in Nigeria to take down Ttwitter handles and desist from using twitter as a source of information gathering for news and programmes presentation, especially phone-ins.
Meanwhile, the federal government yesterday justified the ban saying Twitter constituted a threat to peace and the security of the nation.
The minister of Foreign affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama who stated this at the end of a meeting with ambassadors and representatives in Abuja, said the action was in the interest of national security and peace.
However, he called for the diplomats’ understanding of the government’s decision.
“We had very useful discussions and we just restated the security concerns of Mr. President and of all Nigerians and the very strong steps that needed to be taken to address security challenges in the country.
“They (the envoys) are all living here with us in Nigeria and have a fair view and experience of the security challenges we are facing.
“We discussed the role of social media as platforms which could be used to do good or bad.
“Unfortunately, the bad that social media is often used to commit have very dire consequences on human lives and in our case also, threatening the unity of the country.
“As the responsibility of the government is to maintain law and order, security, and to preserve human lives, we have to take every measure to ensure that all those are preserved.”
“We believe as a democracy, that there must be the right to life, the right to property ownership and we believe in human rights and freedom of speech, but the social media has to be used responsibly.
“We had detailed discussions and our partnership and solidarity with those countries were reaffirmed,” he added.
