The former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, on Friday 13th May 2022, stated that every tweet on his official social media handles must get his approval before publication.
This came in response of his reaction towards the 200-Level student, Deborah Samuel gruesomely murdered in Sokoto State on Thursday 12th May 2022, by a mob over alleged blasphemy.
It could be recalled that Atiku had earlier condemned the barbaric killing on his Twitter handle but later deleted the post, having published a disclaimer, saying he never approved the message, hence knew nothing about it. He consequently sacked his media aide who was purportedly behind the publication.
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It’s noteworthy that the U-turn made by Atiku, which has been condemned by several Nigerians in various quarters, came as a result of the threats he received on the Twitter platform. Some seeming Sokoto indigenes had threatened failure over his presidential ambition, saying he had lost millions of votes in the said state for condemning Deborah’s killing.
Atiku, during his consultative visit to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Friday at the Government House, Benin, on Friday, same day he took the actions, disclosed that every tweet on his official social media pages must be approved by him prior to publication.
According to the erstwhile Vice-President, “Every tweet has to get my expressed approval but this one didn’t, so I asked them to take it down.
“I took a stand about Sharia law and was abused, thrown stones at, but how long did it last? Despite that, I didn’t change my position on it. I am not afraid to take a stand on critical issues.” he said.
Speaking further as regards his presidential race, he stated that investment in education was key. He said, “If you can recall what the PDP government did then while in power, we created the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
“We also set up the Primary School Education Fund and Education Tax Fund to enable us (PDP Federal Government) provide sufficient money to both state and local governments to enable them to have sufficient money to invest in primary and secondary education.
“We also passed the law to make education compulsory for every Nigerian child, from primary to secondary schools”. he said.
Responding to the issue of zoning for the PDP presidential ticket, Atiku said that zoning was not jettisoned by the party.
On the issue of getting a running mate, he responded that he would sit down with the party to agree on a running mate for the 2023 presidential election.
By this singular display, Atiku has shown and proven that he is a religious bigot. Even if the post wasn’t approved by his person, as claimed, did it call for deletion?
For the fact that the killing of Deborah by the mob was indeed condemnable, judging it from all angles, should have been enough reason to allow the post to fly as much as it could. Had it been the statement made in the post wasn’t justifiable or reasonable, then Atiku’s reaction would have been commendable.
He can scold the media aide, if truly the post never sought his approval, not to delete it outrightly, simply because he received a myriad of threats over his presidential ambition.
This action of Atiku has made Nigerians understand that many who are currently clamouring to emerge as the president of a heterogeneous country like Nigeria come 2023, do not actually deserve the honour being sought.