BY: News Peddlers
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| Dr. Damages, Tinubu and Hundeyin |
The Dr. Damages Show episode in which David Hundeyin discussed Bola Tinubu's diplomatic passport from Guinea has been removed from Youtube, a social media platform for sharing and streaming videos.
Rudolf Okonkwo, a professor of Post-Colonial African History at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, is the host of the Dr. Damages Show.
Peoples Gazette obtained a screenshot of the YouTube notification telling the show's host that the episode had been removed.
It reads: “Hi Dr. Damages, We wanted to let you know our team reviewed your content, and we think it violates our policy on personally identifiable information. We know you may not have realised this was a violation of our policies, so we’re not applying a strike to your channel. However, we have removed the following content from YouTube:
Video: David Hundeyin on Bola Tinubu’s scandals & the future of investigative journalism in Nigeria.”
A data page of a diplomatic passport issued to Mr. Tinubu by Guinea was uploaded on Twiter by independent journalist Mr. Hundeyin last Saturday. Later, the microblogging platform disabled Mr. Hundeyin's Twitter page due to a rule violation.
Mr. Hundeyin spoke on Dr. Damages Show on Sunday to discuss the president-elect's dual citizenship as a follow-up to the exposé that made Mr. Tinubu trend over the weekend.
The most recent controversy to affect the 71-year-old politician's life is the disclosure of his diplomatic passport for Guinea.
The president-elect's tale regarding his diplomatic passport runs counter to his sworn statement on the EC-9 form he submitted to the electoral agency INEC when he applied for office.
It wasn't the first of Mr. Okonkwo's shows to be pulled down, he said. But after hiding information on Mr. Tinubu's Guinean passport data page, he re-uploaded the show.
“This wasn’t the first time YouTube had done this. I have had videos about Apostle Suleman removed,” Mr Okonkwo said.
Expressing concern on censorship by powerful and influential persons often supported by YouTube, Mr Okonkwo said, “Here is my concern for today. Pastors, politicians, and businessmen with questionable characters have reported my channel for using their images or fair use of their sermons or videos. YouTube typically sided with them and took down the videos.
“It is becoming troubling that politically exposed people feel they can bully content producers and silence them. Some of them use lawyers to intimidate content producers. The rate of this rampant disruption may have a chilling effect on content producers, some of whom have started to self-censor. These trends make it more challenging to hold people in leadership positions accountable. And we shall all be losers if nothing is done to reverse it,” he added.