CoronavirusForeign PolicyFederal Government Condemned Canada for Blocking Truckers Over COVID-19

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ABUJA — The federal government has condemned Canada for blocking truckers who were protesting over COVID-19 mandates and other restrictions in the country as rioters.

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, noted that the action of the Canadian government amounted to double standards.

“Protesters who barricaded roads had been branded as threats to public safety and subjected to a number of clampdowns by the Canadian government and private Organisations.

“The Ontario government had frozen access to millions of dollars donated through an online fundraising platform to the truckers while GoFundMe had shut down the campaign to raise funds for the protesters,” Mohammed said.

The minister also recalled that Twitter, which allegedly funded #EndSARS protesters and even helped them to raise funds, had also blocked the truckers’ accounts.

Mohammed said no one would be talking of freedom of expression or freedom of association and the likes guaranteed by the constitution if there was no Nigeria, adding that the country’s destruction would not be allowed under the guise of protest or unbridled freedoms.

He stated that Nigeria was far ahead of most countries in the world, which had now realized the need to regulate social media in the interest of their own people.

“These are the same entities that are now rushing to distance themselves from the protesters in Canada and even denying them the use of their platforms.

“This is similar to what played out during the January 6th 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. where those involved are either still being investigated or have been charged to court. I don’t blame them. Nobody wants their country destroyed under the guise of protests.

“Don’t misunderstand this intervention. We are not gloating over the unfortunate development in Canada. But we are only calling attention to the double standard involved in the way protesters deemed to be violent are perceived in Nigeria and in the West.”

He derided the double standard of those who had referred to hoodlums who destroyed public and private property in Nigeria under the guise of #EndSARS as peaceful protesters while tagging similar protesters in their own countries as “insurrectionists and terrorists,” the minister said.

Hassan Umar Shallpella (Regional Correspondent)

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