Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida
Former military head of state, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida has warned given President Muhammadu Buhari warning following the ban he placed on Twitter.
According to IBB, Buhari cannot intimidate Nigerians.
He said this during an interview with Arise TV at his Hilltop mansion in Minna, the Niger State capital.
Babangida was asked to comment on recent developments including media repression and intimidation of journalists.
The federal authorities’ measures against press freedom, Twitter, as well as the threat to prosecute social media users triggered local and international condemnation.
The Nigerian government, on June 4, ordered internet service providers to suspend access to Twitter.
The sanction followed the deletion of the President’s tweet for violation of rules. The government later stopped broadcast stations from tweeting.
On June 22, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, in reference to the End SARS protests, accused Twitter of funding an uprising against the state.
On Wednesday, the United States of America said social media restrictions in Nigeria and the threat to sue defaulters weaken the rights of the people.
In his reaction, Babangida was short of saying the Buhari administration was wasting its time with actions targeted at free press and access to information.
“Nigerians are wonderful people, I always say this. You cannot intimidate them”, he said.
IBB, however, strongly denied the widespread view that he muzzled the media during his regime.
Babangida stressed that he deserves credit for breaking the monopoly in the broadcast industry.
“I didn’t stifle the media. I liberalized the media. That is why today you have several private media stations.”
Reacting to his nicknames, Babangida again blamed the Fourth Estate.
“I did not call myself evil genius or Maradona, the media did,” he said.
“But I am happy with the meaning of Maradona. The definition, according to the media, is someone with deep political moves.”
