The Federal Government of Nigeria has indefinitely suspended the operations of microblogging site Twitter, in the country.
The suspension of the operations of the social media giant in the West African nation follows the deletion of a post made by President Muhammadu Buhari.
President Buhari on Tuesday, June 1, 2021, made a twitter post condemning attacks on police stations, prisons and offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, warning that those supporting insurrection and violence in the country would be duly punished.
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, tweeted President Buhari referring to the brutal two-year Nigeria-Biafra war, which killed an estimated one to three million people, mostly from the Igbo tribe in the eastern part of the country between 1967-1970.
Twitter, following the president’s tweet deleted the post citing it as offensive and a violation of its policy.
The suspension of the microblogging platform was announced by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, via a statement issued on Friday, June 4, 2021.
The Minister, via the statement also accused Twitter of supporting insurrection in Nigeria last October during the #EndSARS protests which ended in the destruction of lives and properties all over the country.
Meanwhile the Nigerian government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all social media operations in Nigeria.
“The Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria,” the statement read.
