#TwitterBan: ‘We will lift suspension if Twitter is used responsibly’ – Federal Government

The Nigerian Government on Monday gave conditions to lift its indefinite suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.

According to a Cable report, Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a meeting with some foreign envoys said that Twitter’s operations in Nigeria would be restored only on the basis that the platform would be used “responsibly.”

“The condition would be responsible use of the social media platform and that really has to be it,” he said when asked when the ban would be lifted, adding that there is no definite timeline for the suspension of the ban.

“We are not saying that Twitter is threatening the country or any such thing; why we have taken this measure is to stop them from being used as platforms for destabilisation and facilitation of criminality or encouragement of criminalities,” the Minister added.

Recall that on Friday last week, the Federal Government put a ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria barely a day after the microblogging site deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s controversial tweet referencing the Nigerian civil war.

Thereafter, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Saturday ordered the prosecution of Nigerians defying the government’s ban on Twitter without stating what law was being violated.

“We will invite journalists at the time of prosecution, and they will know which laws are used to prosecute. The point is Twitter has been banned. Anybody should not try to use Twitter,” he said.