The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr. Festus Keyamo revealed in an interview with Channels Television on Sunday that the social media giant, Twitter, whose platform was banned by the Federal Government in June 2021 has agreed to conditions laid out by the government.
Keyamo, who is also a member of the committee set up by the Federal Government to review the operations of the microblogging platform, said the committee has made significant progress. He made this known on Sunday during an interview with Channels Television.
According to the Minister, the Federal Government suspended the social media giant, in order to recalibrate the relationship between both parties.
He says, “The reason the president took that step is to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter and not to drive them away from our country. That recalibration, we have started it and the President graciously added me to the committee.”
“We also set up a technical committee to interface with Twitter and come up with a lot of conditions for them to fulfill for us to lift the suspension.
He further added that “It was Twitter that reached out to the Federal Government to say they want to know what and what they can do to straighten up the relationship with the Federal Government and so, we have gone far but I may not, at this forum, let out a lot but we gave them a lot of conditions and they have agreed to all the conditions,”
On 5th June 2021, the Federal Government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter for allegedly allowing some contents capable of threatening the corporate existence of the country on its platform according to them.
The government also alleged then that the self-acclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was using the platform to incite violence in the country prior to his rearrest.
Recall that the suspension also came a few days after Twitter deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s controversial post against the people of the Southeastern region.
