Billionaire Ned Nwoko has announced his support for the Twitter ban in Nigeria by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
Nwoko, married to popular actress, Regina Daniels, was reported to have made the assertions while speaking at a June 12 lecture organised by the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Abuja Council had said, “on the current issue with Twitter in Nigeria, I wholeheartedly support the position of the Federal Government.”
Nwoko maintains that social media needs to be controlled and regulated in countries.
“There should be a measure of control and regulation for social media in countries where they have a presence,” he said.
PM News quoted him as saying, his reason for his support of the Twitter ban in Nigeria, Nwoko stressed that the social media platforms must pay taxes to governments and provide employment for some Nigerians for the over 100 million population that subscribed to their services.
The Buhari-led government had suspended Twitter indefinitely in Nigeria citing the persistent use of the platform for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
The government also noted that social media platforms must register and obtain licences to operate in Nigeria.
He is not the first person to back the ban of twitter in Nigeria, Former US president Donald Trump praised Nigeria’s government for banning Twitter after it deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s post for breaching its rules.
“Who are they to dictate good and evil, if they themselves are evil?” Mr Trump said in a statement.
He urged other countries to ban Twitter and Facebook for not allowing “free and open speech”.
Mr Trump was banned from both platforms after the US Capitol riot in January. On 5 June 2021, the Nigerian government officially put an indefinite ban on Twitter restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the social media platform deleted tweets made by the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari warning the south eastern people of Nigeria predominantly occupied by the Igbo people of a potential repeat of the 1967 Biafran Civil War.
The ban was condemned by Amnesty International as well as the British and Canadian missions and the Swedish Embassy in Nigeria.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed says the ban will be lifted when once Twitter submits to local licencing, registration and conditions, the government. “It will be licenced by the broadcasting commission, and must agree not to allow its platform to be used by those who are promoting activities that are inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria.”
