Former Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose has mocked President Muhammadu Buhari over his ‘treat them in the language they understand’ tweet, which has now been deleted by Twitter.
The former Governor said social media giant, Twitter, should hold presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu; and Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed accountable for the controversial ‘civil war’ post on the President’s verified handle on Tuesday.
Recall that the President, on Tuesday, condemned the attacks on police stations, prisons and offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, especially in the South-East, warning that those supporting insurrection and violence in the country would be shocked.
Buhari had tweeted, “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during 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.”
The President’s tweet riled some persons who felt he was insensitive to have made an analogy of the civil war. His critics subsequently reported the tweet to Twitter and the microblogging site later deleted the post with a comment, “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules”.
Fayose, while reacting to the now-deleted tweet, alleged Buhari threatened genocide amid the rising tension across the country.
He said: “A President who cannot address his own people in time of crisis can certainly not be the one tweeting on the crisis.
“Twitter should rather hold Garba Shehu, Lai Mohammad and co accountable.
“It is obvious that those using the President’s powers for him do not know when and where to stop their power-madness.
“Regrettably, Twitter may not know that Buhari is not the one operating the handle. Can our President operate Android Phone not to talk of making genocidal tweets?
“Nigeria is boiling everywhere and all that the President can do is to be threatening genocide up and down?
“Now that Twitter has dealt with our almighty President Buhari, won’t he “deal” with Twitter too? Like Trump, like Buhari.
“When is Mr President Buhari using his power as Commander-in-chief to “show Twitter pepper” for deleting his tweets? Or Twitter will just delete our President’s tweets just like that and there won’t be consequences?”