By Nwachukwu Egbunike /Global Voices/ – Salihu Tanko Yakasai, who until recently was the social media aide to the governor of north western Nigeria’s Kano State, was arrested on February 26 by the Department of State Services (DSS) for criticizing the country’s deplorable security situation.
Yakasai’s father told the online newspaper CableNG that his son was arrested by the DSS on his way to the barber’s, adding, “But I cannot confirm to you whether he is here in Kano or somewhere else.’
Yakasai has spoken out against President Muhammadu Buhari’s government — of which he is a member — for doing very little to address the country’s lack of security and the resulting incidents of kidnapping. In a series of tweets made on the day of his arrest, he suggested that the administration had failed the people:
Bemoaning that the kidnapping of schoolchildren has become a tragic norm in northern Nigeria, Yakasai said that even though citizens “lament, condemn, [and] create hashtag[s]”, there are “no concrete steps to prevent reoccurrence [sic], and then we repeat the process”.
He went even further, tweeting:
By February 27, Yakasi had been fired by Abdullahi Ganduje, the governor of Kano, for his “unguarded comments and utterances” which was deemed at odds with the position of the “the (APC) government which he is serving.”
Meanwhile, Nigerian netizens are already calling for Yakasi’s release, with the hashtag #FreeDawisu trending on Twitter, and journalist Omoyele Sowore stating that the DSS is “happy to pounce on Nigerians critical of the failing regime”:
Writer Demola Olarewaju added that some “political parties”, a veiled reference to the APC, “operate like a cult”:
One Twitter user found Yakasi’s arrest reminiscent of the modus operandi of Nazi Germany’s secret police:
Another didn’t fail to notice the brokenness of the system:
