In the spirit of Nigeria’s 61st independence celebration, President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that the ban on micro-blogging site – Twitter be lifted but for business and positive purposes.
News of the lift was contained in Buhari’s independence message to Nigerians on Friday, 1st October.
Recall, the federation government of Nigeria had suspension the operation of Twitter in June following myriads of damaging contents which which the Buhari’s led administration considered culpable of tearing the country apart.
The site which had become a breeding platform for Nigerians to air their grievances on social issues to the world was suspended.
In the build up to the #EndSarsprotest and #EndPoliceBrutality, Nigerians had gathered enough attention from the world and use the platform to expose crimes perpetrated by security agents and the cover up by government – the sensation had tightened and shook every facade of the country before the ban.
READ FULL TEXT HERE : President Muhammadu Buhari’s 61st Independence Message to Nigerians
However, 3 months down the line, the Federal Government and the management of Twitter having reached an agreement and terms of operation have insisted the platform must be use for only positive and business engagements by Nigerians.
In the bullet points, President Buhari noted,
”Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialize, and access news and other information.
However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination.
Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.
To address these negative trends, the Federal Government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria on June 5, 2021 to allow the Government put measures in place to address these challenges.
Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.
The Committee, along with its Technical Team, has engaged with Twitter and have addressed a number of key issues. These are:
a. National Security and Cohesion;
b. Registration, Physical presence and Representation;
c. Fair Taxation;
d. Dispute Resolution; and
e. Local Content..
Following the extensive engagements, the issues are being addressed and I have directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements.
