Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, says Nigeria is better off with all its conditions agreed by microblogging platform, Twitter.
He stated this in his first tweet on Thursday after the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), lifted the suspension on Twitter after over seven months.
“For those who prioritised politics over patriotism and exhibited disingenuous righteousness on Twitter suspension, they can now see that with all the FG conditions to which Twitter agreed, Nigeria is eventually better off for it. Congratulations Nigeria,” Keyamo wrote.
Twitter had deleted a controversial civil war post by Buhari in June 2021.
Consequently, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who had accused Twitter of double standards, announced the suspension of the microblogging site on June 4, 2021, citing the “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.
According to the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool, Nigeria’s economy lost N104.02m ($250,600) every hour to the ban on Twitter as of December 2021.
But in a press statement on Wednesday signed by the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency and Chairman Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement, Kashifu Abdullahi, the Buhari regime lifted the suspension on Twitter.
“The FGN has asked Twitter to fulfil some conditions before restoring its services. These conditions addressed legal registration of operations, taxation, and managing prohibited publication in line with Nigerian laws.
“Twitter has agreed to meet all the conditions set by the FGN. Consequently, the FGN and Twitter have decided on an execution timeline, which has started this week.
“Our engagement with Twitter opens a new chapter in global digital diplomacy and sets a new operational template for Twitter to come back stronger for the benefit of Nigerians,” the statement read in part.
Nigeria had about 33 million active social media users as of January 2021. WhatsApp is the most popular platform used in the country, with over 90 million users according to Statista. According to Statista, about 61.4 per cent of Nigerian social media users use Twitter, 86.2 per cent use Facebook, 81.6 per cent use YouTube, 73.1 per cent use Instagram, and 67.2 per cent use Facebook Messenger.
