Trump congratulates Nigeria for shutting down Twitter

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has congratulated Nigeria for blocking Twitter and he is further calling for more countries to follow suit.

"Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President. More COUNTRIES should ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing free and open speech - all voices should be heard," Trump said in a statement.

American social media companies banned former US President Donald Trump from their platforms after accusing him of spreading falsehoods and inciting the crowd which attacked the Capitol in January.

Trump holds on to the need to create another competitive social media platform.

"In the meantime, competitors will emerge and take hold. Who are they to dictate good and evil if they themselves are evil? Perhaps I should have done it while I was President," Trump added. "But Zuckerberg kept calling me and coming to the White House for dinner telling me how great I was. 2024?"

Trump is quoted to have said: “Why do we want all these people from Africa here? They’re s**thole countries … We should have more people from Norway.”

He made the comments whiles meeting a bipartisan group of senators at the White House on Thursday. He has tweeted today denying the use of the word.

Millions of Nigerians were unable to access Twitter Saturday after the government enforced an indefinite suspension of the microblogging platform’s operations in Nigeria.

The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria said in a statement that its members have suspended access to Twitter in compliance with a government directive to do so.

The Nigeria government said Friday it was indefinitely suspending Twitter in Africa’s most populous nation after the company deleted a controversial tweet President Muhammadu Buhari made about a secessionist movement.

Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed said Friday that government officials decided to suspend Twitter because the platform was being used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

Mohammed criticized Twitter for deleting the post, saying, “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious,” and that Twitter had in the past ignored inciting tweets against the Nigerian government.

In recent months, pro-Biafra separatists have been accused of attacking police and government buildings. In his tweet, Buhari vowed to “treat them in the language they understand.”

Twitter had deleted Buhari’s post on Wednesday, calling it abusive.