The Federal Government of Nigeria has given the only condition on which it can lift its indefinite Twitter ban. Recall that the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed had announced the ban of Twitter operations on Friday 4th June and on Saturday, Nigerians could no longer assess the site.
The FG went further to giver an order to arrest and prosecute any Nigerian found using the social media platform, as well as directed all broadcast houses and the media, through the NBC, to desist from using the app.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, in a meeting with some envoy sent by the microblogging site to discuss the Twitter ban, stated that operations in Nigeria will be restored only if the platform can be used responsibly. When asked when the ban will be lifted, Onyeama said there is no definite timeline.
He, however, said the Federal Government is not of the opinion that Twitter is threatening the country or any such thing but it (the FG) had only banned the use for destabilisation and facilitation of criminality or encouragement of criminalities.
“The condition would be responsible use of the social media and that really has to be it. We are not saying that Twitter is threatening the country or any such thing; why we have taken this measure is to stop them to be used as platforms for destabilisation and facilitation of criminality or encouragement of criminalities”, he reportedly said.
