- PDP: Under Buhari, Nigeria’s global economic competitiveness bas been ‘Degraded’
- Stop Bordering Nigerians ‘It’s a no issue’, APC Lampoons PDP
- Twitter Chose Ghana Due To Unpatriotism Of Nigerians — Lai Mohammed
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has criticized President Buhari for not meeting the requirements to house the maiden headquarters of Twitter despite the huge participation of the Nigerian youths on the microblogging site.
PDP in a statement released by its spokesperson, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, claimed President Buhari has dwindled Nigerian youth opportunities in the tech industry.
According to the PDP, Buhari and his party should have taken the necessary proactive steps to ensure that Twitter brought this huge investment to Nigeria.
The party added that the decision to locate twitter headquarters in Ghana is affirmation that “Nigeria which was hitherto a global investment hub under the PDP, has now been so degraded in global economic competitiveness under the APC.”
“This is in addition to infrastructural decay, massive corruption and manifest failure of the Buhari Presidency and the APC to address the escalated insecurity brought upon our nation by their incompetent watch,” Ologbondiyan added, noting “it is indeed disturbing that the Buhari administration is taking no decisive steps to address the worsening situation in our country, which has become the world’s poverty capital under their watch.”
In a counter-reaction, APC in a statement by the National Secretary of its Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe on Thursday, Abuja said Twitter’s action was purely a business decision by a private organization and it is not something that Nigerians should be bordered about.
“Flowing from a statement by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), our response to Twitter’s decision to cite its African operations in Ghana is simple. The decision or rationale of private concerns, particularly businesses on where to cite their operations is their exclusive preserve. It is a no issue!
“However, for the PDP that mocks the country and its citizens over what it celebrates as missed ‘business prospects’, such political party does not mean well for the country and should definitely not be considered as a governance option. It is exhausting and depressing highlighting PDP’s ignominious past. The APC will rather consolidate and focus on how Nigeria is finally getting it right under President Muhammadu Buhari”, APC stated.
The ruling party said what the PDP termed as the present “misrule” has not stop multinational technology companies, Facebook and Google from opening offices in Nigeria.
“Neither did it stop the world’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev and multinational food manufacturing giants, Kellogg’s from establishing their multi-billion Naira brewery and factory in Nigeria?
“Despite uncertainties over the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria earned $2.6billion of the global volume of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), surpassing major competitor South Africa ($2.5b), according to the latest 2020 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Investment Trends Monitor.
“Nigeria’s current status as Africa’s largest economy was achieved under the President Buhari-led APC administration and our industrious citizens are the ultimate beneficiaries.”
“Nigeria is doing a lot through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) which was set up by this administration to remove bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria and the ongoing implementation of Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). Nigeria is on the right trajectory and the PDP cannot wish away these solid achievements.
“Finally, we use this opportunity to remind Twitter and other frontline social media platforms of their important responsibilities to curb fake news, disinformation and hate speech. In the last US presidential election, the proactive roles played by social media operators in checking fake news and divisive rhetoric is a solid pointer to how proper social media usage ultimately benefits society. We expect no less in Nigeria from social media operators”. The APC said.
Also, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said Twitter chose Ghana as the headquarters for its African operations, due to the unpatriotism of Nigerians.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, Mohammed said: “The reasons cited by Twitter for citing the headquarters in Accra, Ghana is that Accra is a champion of democracy and there is rule of law in the country, among other reasons. This is what you get when you de-market your country,” the minister stated.
Going further, Lai Mohammed bemoaned the media for championing the course of devaluing Nigeria by fervently putting out negative reports and painting the country as a hell on earth.
“The media is more to blame for this which most times exaggerates the challenges in the country.
Mohammed added that the media had denied Nigeria the chances of living by showing the world her potentials with the way it was badly portrayed as a hell where nobody should live.
His word reads, “At no time was this worse than during the #EndSARS protested when Nigerian journalists both traditional and new media were trying to outdo themselves in painting Nigeria as a hell where nobody should live.
“When they all conspired to vilify not just the government but the people of Nigeria. We are not saying that you should not criticise the country but be fair and patriotic. When you destroy your own house, where are you going to live? He added.
Lamenting the loss of opportunities that accompanied not citing Twitter headquarters in Nigeria, the Minister of Information said, Nigerians and the media destroyed it by what we said about the country.
“You can imagine the kind of job opportunities that citing that headquarters in Nigeria would have generated, the kind of visibility it would have given Nigeria but we destroyed it. It is what the insiders say about their country that the outsider will use to judge and condemn the country.”
Moreover, the minister argued that the natural expectation is that Nigeria with a 25 million Twitter user population should have been the hub of twitter business in Africa, as against Ghana with only eight million Twitter users.
He urged Nigerians to be more patriotic, stressing that the continuous push to put the nation in a bad light has now cost the country a great opportunity that would have benefitted the youths and the nation at large.
Recall that Twitter had on Monday stated that Ghana will house the Africa headquarters of its platform.
In his words, Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, noted that Ghana’s free speech and online freedom, Open Internet and its recent appointment to host the Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area informed its decision to establish twitter Africa headquarters in the country.
The statement partly reads, “today, in line with our growth strategy, we’re excited to announce that we are now actively building a team in Ghana,” the social media giant said.
“To truly serve the public conversation, we must be more immersed in the rich and vibrant communities that drive the conversations taking place every day across the African continent.”
“As a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate. Furthermore, Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa.”
