Nigeria’s Federal Government said on Wednesday that it will lift the ban it placed on Social Media platform, Twitter, in matter of days.
Saying that it has reached agreement with Twitter on most areas of misunderstanding, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told journalists at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) that that progress has been made in resolving the stalemate following series of meetings.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s government had on June 5, banned Twitter indefinitely, thereby restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the Social Media platform deleted tweets made by the President in which he warned the Indigenous People of Biafra that they “will be treated in the language they understand.”
The Nigerian government 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”.
Mohammed told the journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that the government had explained details of the conditions given to Twitter, saying that 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, are still being discussed.
The Minister also disclosed that on the issue of a Nigeria-based office, even though Twitter has agreed to the condition, it is however maintaining that the earliest it can establish that is 2022.
He expressed confidence that everything will be ironed out with Twitter within “a matter days or weeks”, noting the anxiety that has been shown by Nigerians.
He said the government’s committee negotiating with Twitter will meet on the agreement soon to make recommendations.
