Breaking! Nigerian Govt Lifts Ban On Twitter After 222 Days

The ban on Twitter operations in the country, has been lifted by Federal Government after 222 days, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s approval.

Twitter operations in Nigeria were suspended in June 2021, days after Buhari’s tweet was deleted.

The announcement lift the ban was made in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, by the Chairman Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE.

Kashifu explained that the approval was given following a memo written to Buhari by his Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim.

The memo reads “The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) directs me to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria effective from 12am tonight, 13th January 2022.

“The approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim.

“In the Memo, the Minister updated and requested the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation.”

Federal government had insisted that the social media giant must register as a business and open an office in Nigeria, a demand that was rejected by Twitter. It was not immediately clear why the government backed down, with Mr Abdullahi saying the president only acted on a recommendation to lift the suspension.