BREAKING: President Buhari Suspends Twitter Ban

President Muhammadu Buhari has lifted ban on micro blogging site, Twitter.

The President made the announcement during his Independence Day speech on Friday.

The development is coming three months after the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed announced on June 4 that Twitter operation has been suspended.

“The Federal Government had suspended indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service Twitter, in Nigeria,” the statement had read.

But Buhari in his speech said the ban was lifted after an agreement was reached with Twitter.

He said Twitter has agreed to have a physical office in the country.

The company will also function in line with Nigeria’s local content policy.

He said, “Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialise, and access news and other information.

“​However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination.

“​Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.

“To address these negative trends, the Federal Government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria on June 5, 2021 to allow the Government put measures in place to address these challenges.

“Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.

“The Committee, along with its Technical Team, has engaged with Twitter and have addressed a number of key issues. These are:

“National Security and Cohesion; Registration, Physical presence and Representation;Fair Taxation;Dispute Resolution; and Local Content.

“Following the extensive engagements, the issues are being addressed and I have directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements.”