The suspension of Twitter cane as a shock to most Nigeria internet users, especially the youths that have made Twitter their go-to place to access information and disseminate information.
The minister for information and culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed made this announcement via a press briefing on Friday afternoon, in Abuja. The said brief was later announced on the Ministry’s twitter page. Many thought this to be a joke, not until early hours of Saturday, when most people couldn’t access their Twitter pages. This made many to turn to Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps, to access the microblogging platform.
The suspension came at the heels of twitter deleting a post made by the account of the President, Muhammadu Buhari. Twitter had tweeted that the tweet is against their policy, hence why they deleted it.
The suspension of twitter by Nigeria neither sat well with international communities, as many see it as violation on the Nigerian people’s human right, their right to free speech.
According to Netblock, the cost of the shutdown of the social media platform is $6, 014, 390 and at N2, 177, 089,051 daily in Naira.
With the current unemployment rate at 33.3% according to Bloomberg, the rate may be looking to increase, with many of the Nigerian youths having their businesses online. The Twitter shutdown means a lost of a channel of distribution and reach for their targeted audience. This also means that for every day the app is suspended, Nigeria will be losing N2bn.
The world is fast moving businesses to the digital space, not leaving out Nigeria, who have enjoyed massive internet connectivity over the past one year, all thanks to the pandemic will see her accessibility limited. This new development will see online vendors channel of reach reduced by one and by the way twitter algorithm works, it is easier to reach a wider audience from the corner of your room on Twitter, using hashtags and keywords from trending topics.
This will also scare investors away from Nigeria, as it is a global norm for businesses to operate with social media accounts. Nigeria has seen the withdrawal of Africa’s largest retailer, Shoprite from her market last month and if this indefinite suspension of twitter is not fixed in time, many businesses may follow-suit.
This decision by the Federal Government was immediately condemned by the Oyo state Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, who sees the action as infringement on Nigerian youths human right.
Likewise Lagos state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the Federal Government could have done better in handling the situation and not suspend twitter operations in Nigeria. He said both parties can work on a rule of engagement in his interview on Arise Tv on Monday.
He said, “Federal government can handle this a lot better. Because of the number of eCommerce, the number of youths doing digital stuff on the internet, and we cannot throw that away and say it’s not happening. I believe there could be a lot of restraint and better management from both sides,” the governor said.
“On both sides, there are issues that can be resolved between Twitter and the government and I think what they’ve done is not a ban but a suspension like they said, so in the period of suspension let us sit down.
“If we have 40 million users of that micro-blogger and another country has five million and they chose to take their investment to a country that have five million compared to a country with 40 million. It speaks to the reason we need to have that conversation with them. Probably if they have an office here things would have been done a lot quicker and better.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has further ordered NBC to stop any broadcasting station within Nigeria from operating a twitter account.
Suspending twitter will cause a lot of economic havoc than the government expected, as many rely on the microblogging space for their business transactions, meeting customers and advertising their products and services.