Nigerian Government says it will lift the ban on operations on microblogging platform, Twitter, “in a matter of days”.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave this update after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
This is as it said that it has reached agreement with Twitter in most areas of misunderstanding.
Recall that on June 5, 2021, the FG had officially banned Twitter’s indefinitely, thereby restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the social media platform deleted tweets made by President, Muhammadu Buhari 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”.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lal 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.
Providing updates on the government’s negotiation with the micro-blogging site, the Minister gave more details of the conditions given to the platform, saying 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, were being discussed.
Mohammed revealed in the area of a Nigerian office, even though Twitter has agreed to the condition, it is, however, maintaining the earliest it can establish it is 2022.
The Minister expressed confidence everything will be hammered out with Twitter within a few days or weeks, noting the anxiety shown by Nigerians.
He said the Federal Government’s committee negotiating with Twitter will meet on the agreement soon to make recommendations.
