Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who announced the suspension, cited the persistent use of the platform for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.

According to him, Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Ministry spokesperson, Segun Adeyemi.

It is not yet clear how the suspension will work but the Twitter website was still accessible from Lagos as of Friday afternoon.

‘Civil War’ Tweet
The suspension comes days after Twitter deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari’s official account.

The tweet had referenced the Nigerian civil war as the President threated to treat Nigerians “misbehaving” in “the language they understand”.

It sparked reactions from many Nigerians who interpreted the statement as a threat to commit human rights violations.

Former presidential candidate Kingsley Moghalu said Buhari’s threat “is not the kind of word he should say as the president.”

Buhari made the threat after receiving security reports from the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on the series of recent attacks on INEC facilities nationwide.

“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigeria Civil War,” the tweet said.

“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”

A video of Buhari making the remark was also deleted by Twitter from the official Presidency account on Thursday.

“This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules. Learn more,” Twitter said.

Twitter activities ‘suspicious’
Reacting to the tweet deletion, Minister Mohammed had held a press conference on Wednesday at the State House in Abuja.

He accused Twitter of being impartial in its curation and said the social media firm’s activities were suspicious.

“We have a country to rule and we will do so to the best of our ability. Twitter’s mission in Nigeria is very suspect, they have an agenda,” he said.

“The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious. Has Twitter deleted the violent tweets that Nnamdi Kanu has been sending? Has it? The same Twitter during the ENDSARS protests that were funding ENDSARS protesters, it was the first to close the account of the former president of the US, Trump.

“And you see when people were burning police stations and killing policemen in Nigeria during ENDSARS, for Twitter, it was about the right to protest. But when a similar thing happened on the Capitol, it became insurrection.”

He said Twitter had displayed bias during the #EndSARS protest which led to the looting and destruction of government and private property.

The minister asked what rule President Buhari had violated to warrant his tweet to be deleted.

“Twitter may have its own rules, it’s not the universal rule,” he said. “If Mr. President, anywhere in the world feels very bad and concerned 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 centers, 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.”

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has condemned the “illegal and unconstitutional suspension of Twitter’s Operations in Nigeria,” and called on “the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately rescind the suspension within 48 hours or face legal action.”

The Federal Government today announced that it has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria. This was announced by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Adeyemi.

But SERAP in a statement by its deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare said: “The suspension of Twitter in Nigeria is a blatant violation of Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information. The suspension has the character of collective punishment and is contrary to Nigeria’s international obligations. President Buhari must immediately rescind this unconstitutional suspension. We will see in court if the suspension is not rescinded within 48 hours.”

The statement, read in part: “Suspending Twitter in Nigeria would deny Nigerians’ access to information, and disrupt the free exchange of ideas and the ability of individuals to connect with one another and associate peacefully on matters of shared concern. It would also seriously undermine the ability of Nigerians to promote transparency and accountability in the country, and to participate in their own government.”

“We call on the Nigerian authorities to guarantee the constitutionally and internationally recognized human rights of Nigerians including online. Deletion of President Buhari’s tweets should never be used as a pretext to suppress the civic space and undermine Nigerians’ fundamental human rights.

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari for suspending Twitter indefinitely in Nigeria.

Twitter had come into the crosshairs of the Buhari government after its police deleted two tweets and a video, in which President Buhari threatened to invoke civil war treatment to arsonists, separatists and insurrectionists destroying public assets.

He spoke at a meeting with INEC officials who had complained of losing 42 properties to arson.

Buhari 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,’’ the president said.

Reacting to the ban, Soyinka said he just heard the news of Buhari’s ban on Twitter an hour or so after sending off TO SHOCK AND AWE to the print media.

He said he said he lacked surprise at this petulant gesture, unbecoming of a democratically elected president.

According to Soyinka, “if Buhari has a problem with Twitter, he is advised to sort it out between them personally, the way Donald Trump did, not rope in the right to free expression of the Nigerian citizen as collateral damage.

“In any case, this is a technical problem Nigerians should be able to work their way around. The field of free expression remains wide open, free of any dictatorial spasms!