The federal government of Nigeria, through her minister for Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed announced on Friday afternoon, the suspension of social media microblogging service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
This announcement was made after the social media platform deleted President Muhammadu Buhari's tweet on Tuesday, for being against the platform's policy.
As of the time of this report, Twitter is still running in Nigeria and users have access to the platform. Though, there was no time for enacting the suspension stated in the minister's statement.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday had tweeted against the rising violence in the eastern part of Nigeria, with growing anxiety and call for a protest on June 12. The president tweeted, "Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand."
This tweet didn't augur well with many Nigerians, some Nigerians had aired their thoughts on Twitter, no longer had the tweet trended on Twitter than Twitter bringing down the post. The Presidency had earlier condemned this action by Twitter.
The Minister for Information and Culture had earlier said Twitter is trying to incite violence in the country, from their support of October's #EndSARS movement, which made the whole nation standstill from protest from the youths.
The statement titled "FG Suspends Twitter’s Operations in Nigeria" posted by the Ministry for Information and Culture handle on Twitter reads;
"The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
"The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
It will be recalled that a former presidential aspirant, who is now an aide to the presidency had sued the microblogging platform last year, after the #EndSARS protest. This is another stiffer measure by this government against the 'misuse of social media'. A bill that was passed by the Senate last year.
Funny reactions have followed this announcement, as some of the Nigerian youths are trending 'VPN' on Twitter, advising their counterparts to download a VPN app to continue operating on Twitter. Likewise, hashtag #TwitterSuspenBuharisAccount is trending, asking Twitter headquarters to suspend President Buhari's Twitter account.