Explainer: What Does Nigerian President Buhari Mean By Conditional Lifting Of Twitter’s Ban?

The President of the Federal republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has ordered the conditional lifting of the indefinite suspension of Twitter activities in Nigeria.

The President made this known to Nigerians in a televised broadcast speech to mark Nigeria’s 61st Independence Day celebration to Nigeria. 

Here’s what he said 

In his words, “Social media is a very useful platform that has enabled millions of Nigerians to connect with loved ones, promote their businesses, socialise, and access news and other information. However, recent events have shown that the platform is not just an innocuous platform for information dissemination. Rather some users have misused the platform to organise, coordinate, and execute criminal activities, propagate fake news, and promote ethnic and religious sentiments.

“To address these negative trends, the Federal Government of Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter in Nigeria on June 5, 2021, to allow the Government to put measures in place to address these challenges. Following the suspension of Twitter operations, Twitter Inc. reached out to the Federal Government of Nigeria to resolve the impasse. Subsequently, I constituted a Presidential Committee to engage Twitter to explore the possibility of resolving the issue.”

On lifting the ban, Buhari said, “Following the extensive engagements, the issues are being addressed, and I have directed that the suspension be lifted but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens to continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements. As a country, we are committed to ensuring that digital companies use their platform to enhance the lives of our citizens, respect Nigeria’s sovereignty, cultural values and promote online safety.”

Does this mean the Twitter ban is over?

Despite Buhari’s Independence Day speech, the ban is still on. In order for the ban to be removed, Twitter must meet the Nigerian Government’s conditions. 

Once these are met, then the ban will be lifted. However, if Twitter chooses to run policies or activities within the app that go against the conditions mentioned earlier, the suspension will be back in full effect. 

The social media platform has not responded to this new development.

The cause of the Ban

On June 4, 2021,  the Federal Government of Nigeria indefinitely suspend Twitter, because the government questioned the motives of the social media giant and claimed continued use of the app undermined Nigeria.

This was after the Jack Dorsey-led company deleted a controversial tweet posted by President Buhari’s account. The tweet in question had threatened a group of Nigerians with a reminder of the gruesome Civil War of the late ’60s. The tweet, in a nutshell, threatened to mete out severe treatment to  “those misbehaving today” in “the language they will understand.”

Several Nigerians were upset and subsequently reported the tweet, which Twitter took down. The Federal Government accused Twitter of double standards, insisting the President was well within his remit to air his views, especially as it concerned national security.

Not too long after, the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) followed the federal government’s orders, and Twitter was taken down from Nigeria’s network. Nigerian citizens (about 39 million) have been restricted from expressing their views since then despite pressure from the international community.

At this rate, it is still unclear when the ban will be lifted.