Precisely nine weeks after the Nigerian government banned the use of Twitter, a social media platform in Nigeria, and after having lost close to $400 million, by this ban, the Nigerian government has announced through the Ministry of Information of its plan to rescind its decision and unban Twitter in no distant time.
The minister for information, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this on Wednesday to reporters in Abuja.
“The ban on Twitter will soon be lifted as we are getting close to reaching full agreement,” he said.
The minister said the conditions discussed included Twitter registrating locally and designating a local representative as well as paying taxes under Nigerian law.
“I just want to assure you that we have made tremendous progress,” he said. “Really, apart from dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, we’re actually almost there.”
US-based Twitter also speaking on Wednesday said it recently met with the Nigerian government to discuss the ban and how to resolve the matter.
“Our aim is to chart a path forward to the restoration of Twitter for everyone in Nigeria,” it said in a statement.
“We look forward to ongoing discussions with the Nigerian government and seeing the service restored very soon.”
“We have agreed on some areas, hopefully in the next few days or weeks we will conclude.”
It would be recalled that on June 5, 2021, the Nigerian government officially banned the use of Twitter in the country after the social media platform deleted a tweet made by the president, Muhammadu Buhari, warning the southeastern people of Nigeria, predominantly the Igbo people of dealing with them in the ‘language’ they understand, ostensibly making reference to the civil war fought in 1967, in which over one million people lost their lives.
Although the Nigerian government has repeatedly denied that the deletion of the President’s tweet was the sole reason for banning the social media platform; they claim that there were other factors chief among which was the ‘litany of problems’ with the social media platform in Nigeria and where misinformation and fake news spread using this platform had caused real violent consequences.
The ban was condemned by Amnesty International as well as the British and Canadian missions and the Swedish Embassy in Nigeria
Two domestic organizations – the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP and the Nigerian Bar Association – have indicated intent to challenge the ban in court. Twitter itself called the ban “deeply concerning”.
About 40 million people have a Twitter account in Nigeria, or around 20 percent of the population,
With reports from AFP