President Muhammadu Buhari has announced the ban on Twitter in Nigeria, according to a statement by minister of information, Lai Mohammed.
The ban follows the decision of the microblogging app to delete Buhari’s tweet and video which appears to be threatening a reenactment of the civil-war-kind of destruction if IPOB separatist do not stop ‘causing trouble.’
In addition to the ban on Twitter, Lai Mohammed also said the Nigeria Communications Communications (NCC) has been directed to issue licenses to other social media companies operating in Nigeria.
With the ban, the Nigerian government is expected to block Twitter from being accessed in Nigeria, although it can still be accessed through Virtual Private Network (VPN), a server that is not controlled by the Nigerian government, but has to be paid for to access.
The irony of the Twitter ban was when the announcement was being made by Lai Mohammed, one of Buhari’s aides on social media, Lauretta Onochie, was at the same time using the same Twitter to advertise the effort of Customs in seizing some illegal imports into Nigeria. Another Buhari’s social media aide, Bashir Ahmad, used Twitter to advertise his other social media accounts – Facebook and Instagram. .
The most curious of them all is the Federal Ministry of Information whose minister, Lai Mohammed, just announced the ban on Twitter. The ministry’s Twitter handle used the same Twitter to tweet the speech of Lai Mohammed.
