The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government on the 4th of June, 2021 suspended the operation of the microblogging platform, Twitter in Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement released through his media aide Segun Adeyemi.
The minister cited the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
Following the decision of telecommunication companies to hinder access to Twitter, Nigerians resorted to the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to continue their online activities.
Some politicians in the country have taken to the platform to tweet despite the threat by the federal government to prosecute violators.
The likes of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, the governor of Kaduna State, have violated the directives of the Nigerian government.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in a post on his Twitter account on Friday wrote, “Hopefully, this isn’t my last tweet.”
Fayose who had probably accessed the platform through VPN wrote, “Good morning Nigerians. Like Buhari, no President elected by Nigerians can be a law unto himself. It is our right to use Twitter and other social media platforms and we’ll keep tweeting. I’m tweeting and so are many other Nigerians.”
“Anyone they arrest will only end up being celebrated. No one should be moved by empty threats of arrest. Certainly, what has a beginning must have an end. This dictatorial govt came and shall go. No shaking! Good days ahead.”
On the part of the Kaduna State Governor, he wrote “Based Nigeria: African country teaches US lesson in how to handle Big Tech tyranny.”
A Lawmaker, Akin Alabi who represents Egbeda/Ona Ara Federal Constituency under the APC through his Legislative Page also Tweeted “I am unhappy and uncomfortable about the current suspension of twitter’s operations in Nigeria. The suspension is a violation of rights & I implore the Federal Government to immediately reverse what is an affront to the principles of freedom of expression & democracy.” #KeepitOn
This article was originally published on Nigeria News