The United States of America has once again called on President Muhammadu Buhari to have a rethink over the banning of Twitter in the country.

The US government’s call came even as the former president of the country, Donald Trump, praised the action of President Buhari in banning the microblogging platform.

The message of the American government calling for the rescission of the ban was conveyed by a top American official and senior diplomat, who is the current administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power.

Power, in a tweet on her verified handle on Wednesday, wrote:

There are nearly 40 million Twitter users in #Nigeria, and the country is home to Africa’s largest tech hub.

This suspension is nothing more than state-sanctioned denial of free speech and should be reversed immediately. #KeepItOn.

In what seems to be at variance with his home government, former President Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, congratulated Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari for banning the microblogging site, Twitter.

In a statement, titled, ‘Statement by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States,’ he said:

Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their president.

The former president said:

More countries should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech – all voices should be heard.

Trump also urged competitors

to emerge and take hold

of the opportunity.

The former president asked:

Who are they to dictate good and evil?

He said he should have banned the social media websites while he was president, but

Zukerberg kept calling me and coming to White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?

Trump was banned by Twitter while he was still president.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.