By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
The Federal Government of Nigeria has said that a lot of progress has been made in the ongoing dialogue with the microblogging giant, Twitter, assuring that the ban would be lifted in the coming days.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, gave this assurance when he spoke with journalists on Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja.
The Minister raised hopes of Nigerians, who have not been able to use the bird app without a proxy of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) since June 2021 because of the ban on Twitter, assuring them that very soon, the embargo would be removed as talks were now at an advance stage.
“I think even Twitter itself two days ago gave what I will call a progress report on our talks with them, and I think if I want to quote them rightly `it has been productive and quite respectful’.
“And as to the qualifying word for when or how soon, I want to assure you that the time that Twitter operation has been suspended, (I meant) between the time it has been suspended, and when it will be restored is by far, much, much shorter.
“That I can assure you, that it is by far in other words, if the operation has been suspended for about 100 days now, I can tell that we’re just actually talking about a few, just a few more days now,” he said.
According to Mr Mohammed, the federal government was concerned about the anxiety of the Nigerian populace over the situation, and both parties (Twitter and the federal government) were close to drawing a conclusion on the matter.
In his words, “What we’re trying to do is the changes that have been going on, but we need to dot the ‘i’s’ and cross the ‘t’s’, but I can assure us that we’re not unmindful of the anxiety of Nigerians and both parties are working very hard to put a closure on the matter.
“And like Twitter itself said the changes have been very, very productive on both parties. It has not been advisory at all. And it’s quite respectful.’’
It is over 100 days since the Federal Government placed an indefinite suspension on the operation of the social media platform across the country, precisely on June 4, alleging that this is a result of the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
It is no news that some businesses and individuals who solely depend on the platform have been able to snake through the restriction by resorting to the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
However, various reports have reflected the alarming impact of the ban on the nation’s economy within the period.
