After over two months of ban on the social networking site, Twitter, in Nigeria, the government of Nigeria appears to be making plans to lift the ban soon. Nigerian government disclosed that it has reached an agreement with Twitter in most areas of misunderstanding.
The drama between the federal government of Nigeria and the owners of Twitter started on June 5, 2021, when the FG officially banned Twitter’s indefinitely, thereby restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the social media platform deleted tweets made by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), warning the Indigenous People of Biafra that they “will be treated in the language they understand”.
The FG had interpreted the deletion of Buhari’s tweets as discourteous and hinged upon “a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real-world violent consequences”.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, while fielding questions from the press at the State House after Wednesday’s FEC meeting updated Nigerians on the issue saying that progress has been made in resolving the stalemate following series of meetings.
Mohammed explained details of the conditions given to Twitter, saying that most of them have been accepted. He said the areas still pending such as Twitter setting up an office and having a Twitter staff of management cadre that will serve as the country representative, are still being discussed.
The Minister also disclosed that on the issue of a Nigeria-based office, even though Twitter has agreed to the condition, it is, however, maintaining that the earliest it can establish that is 2022. He expressed confidence that everything will be ironed out with Twitter within “matter days or weeks”, noting the anxiety that has been shown by Nigerians.
He said FG’s committee negotiating with Twitter will meet on the agreement soon to make recommendations.
