Former military head of state, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida
has informed the President Muhammadu Buhari government that it 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.”
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