The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
The statement, signed by a presidential spokesperson, Segun Adeyemi, cited the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence as a reason for the suspension.
According to the statement, the minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the Nigerian government had locked horns with Twitter over the recent deleting of a comment by President Muhammadu Buhari in which he warned the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to desist from destroying national assets.
Reacting to the deleting of Mr Buhari’s post on Wednesday, the information and culture minister wondered why the social media giant had conveniently ignored inciting tweets by the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, and his cohorts.
Mr Mohammed had said: “Twitter may have its own rules; it’s not the universal rule. If Mr. President, anywhere in the world feels very bad and concern about a situation, he is free to express such views.
“Now, we should stop comparing apples with oranges. If an organisation is proscribed, it is different from any other which is not proscribed.
“Two, any organisation that gives directives to its members, to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centres, to kill warders, and you are now saying that Mr. President does not have the right to express his dismay and anger about that? We are the ones guilty of double standards.
“I don’t see anywhere in the world where an organisation, a person will stay somewhere outside Nigeria, and will direct his members to attack the symbols of authority, the police, the military, especially when that organisation has been proscribed.
“By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with,” he said.
