Twitter Ban In Nigeria And The Many Implications

Any responsible government would do everything doable to protect its corporate existence and the safety of its citizens; and so, when the Nigeria Federal Government suspend the use of the microblogging social media, Twitter in Nigeria on the premise of “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”, many elder statesmen that has foresight and or had worked for the unity of the country welcome it.

This is not the first time a government is banning or suspending a tech company that is perceived as hostile and so Nigeria is not the only country that has slammed a kind of restriction on tech companies for the reason of protecting citizenry and corporate existence.

Recently in February 2021, the India government release new intermediary Guidelines for social media platforms and asked all platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to follow these rules. They were given three months to comply with the rules or risked being suspend.

Also In recent episode of the US-China geopolitical showdown, President Joe Biden is enforcing a new executive order that bans investment in 59 Chinese companies including Huawei effective from August 2. The new decision prevents US investments in Chinese companies with suspected ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

Joining Huawei on the list is chip maker SMIC, telecom operator China Mobile, video surveillance company Hikvision, and a plethora of Chinese defense sector companies, . A senior US official confirmed that about 58 and that more Chinese companies will likely be added to the list in the months to come.

According to gsmarena.com President Joe Biden was quoted as saying, “I find that the use of Chinese surveillance technology outside the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and the development or use of Chinese surveillance technology to facilitate repression or serious human rights abuse constitute unusual and extraordinary threats, which have their source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and I hereby expand the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13959 to address those threats.”, to that effect.

The core issue with Huawei has been concerns about its coziness with the Chinese government and fears that its equipment could be used to spy on other countries and companies.

Why the twitter ban, first of its kind in Africa’s most populous country strange is because it came two days after the social media giant deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari’s account for violating its rule

However, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, while maintaining the stand of the FG at the investigative hearing organised by the House of Representatives joint committees on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values alongside the National Security, Justice and Commerce, on the controversial ban, had argued that the Nigerian government relied on the constitution, National Security Act, the Cybercrime law and Companies and Allied Matters Act, (CAMA) before it decided to suspend Twitter’s operations.

Alhaji Mohammed cited the activities of the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, during the EndSARS protests as one of the reasons for the ban. It further said that Twitter also allowed it platform to be used by the proscribed Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) to promote seditious and terrorist activities.

At the hearing, the minister decried the role played by Twitter during the EndSARS protests last October, saying that it did not only retweet the messages of the protesters but also raised funds for them.

“During the EndSARS protest, the same Twitter played an unsavoury role, by making its platform to retweet, and not just retweet the messages of the EndSARS protesters, but raising funds for the EndSARS protesters, before it was hijacked by hoodlums,” he said.

Twitter has not come out publicly to refute all these claim!

The EndSARS protest caused wanton destruction and looting of properties running into billions of Naira across the country, with accompanying loss of live and perpetration of more criminal activities of varying degree; such as jail break.

However, some Nigerians are not seeing it that way. Unfortunately, Immediately after Twitter’s suspension, Twitter users in the country, through VPNs, flooded the platform to express their anger and disappointment, prompting the Nigerian attorney general’s office order for immediate prosecution of Nigerians who try to bypass the government’s Twitter ban after the government suspended its operations.

Other advocates call on the FG to lift the suspension immediately takuing into cognizance the negative effect of the Twitter suspension on Nigerians who depend on the platform for their livelihood,

Engr. Benjamin Femi however has divergent opinion. He said that, “Individual benefits from a use of a particular social media that has been proved to be causing more harm than good may not be significant considering the collective disadvantages and national interest in the long run.”

“There may be more to this. Aside the initial claim that twitter platform is being used for activities inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria. Nigeria that has been celebrated as one of the few African countries attracting investment into its tech ecosystem was shunned when Twitter chose mere Ghana for its first African headquarters, which country will take that?” Benjamin further querried.

About 39 million Nigerians have a Twitter account, more than Ghana’s entire population of 32 million.

And so, one of the conditions given social media operating in the country is to establish office in Nigeria.

Twitter’s decision to choose Ghana over Nigeria was evident in a statement where the organisation described Ghana “as a champion for democracy, a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet”, and analysts said that this is a confirmation of Twitter’s decision not to choose Nigeria in the first place.

In 2021, as Nigeria ranked 120th out of 180 countries in the Reporters without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, Analysts expressed fear that Buhari’s administration is reminiscent of his 1984 military regime. That He imposed draconian legislation that allowed the government to imprison any journalist or civil society member guilty of “embarrassing” the country’s military leader.

Many are afraid that the FG is removing freedom of speech by gaging the social media platforms. Aljazeera quoted Alumona, a 24 year old Nigerian as saying that, “The way things are going, I’m scared as a Nigerian because we don’t know what’s coming next,” he said.

Aside this, there is nothing wrong in the FG protecting 39 million Nigerian twitter users and regulating the activities of social media platforms, just the way traditional media are regulated in the country. The FG also directing social media to also establish office in Nigeria if they want to continue their business in Nigeria does not look like a bad idea.

Social media should show a little more respect for their customers in Nigeria. Twitter for instance, does not prioritize their customer base in Nigeria when it took it Africa Head Office to Ghana. This is because a customer base of over 39 million users may need to be travelling to Ghana to resolve social media account issue if need arise. That is a substantial loss of revenue!

According to, Tom Chukwudili, “The current stand of the FG would sanitise the social media scape by eliminating fake news, hate speech and entrenching cultural value into social. It would also create opportunity and avenue for homegrown social media that truly understand Nigeria cultural value to thrive.”

“As a software developer, if you have any problem with integration of some of the social media components, it take months, if not years to fix. Because they are not here in Nigeria where you can easily go and complain to them in their office.”, Tom lamented.

As debate rages on activities and regulation of social media, we hope that the authorities come out with framework that would engender safe social media for all.