From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja.
The Federal Government has hinted that the over two months suspension of Twitter’s activities in Nigeria will soon be lifted following agreement that has been reached in most areas of contention with the platform.
The government had on June 5, 2021, officially put an indefinite ban on Twitter, restricting it from operating in Nigeria after the social media platform deleted tweets made by the President Muhammadu Buhari warning the Indigenous People of Biafra that they will be treated in the language they understand.
The government had claimed that the deletion of the President’s tweets was based on “a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences”.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lal Mohammed, while responding to questions to give update on the face off, told State House Correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the presidential villa, Abuja, that progress has been made in resolving the impasse following series of meetings.
Mohammed gave more details of the conditions given to the platform, saying that most of them have been accepted.
Mohammed said the areas still pending such as Twitter setting up an office, and having a Twitter staff of management cadre that will serve as the country representative, are still being discussed.
He revealed that in the area of a Nigerian office, even though Twitter has agreed to the condition, it is however maintaining that the earliest it can establish it is 2022.
The minister expressed confidence that everything will be ironed out with Twitter within a few days or weeks, noting the anxiety that has been shown by Nigerians.
He said the federal government’s committee negotiating with Twitter will meet on the agreement soon to make recommendations.
Mohammed said: “The question I think has to do with the status of the conversation between us and the Twitter company. I want to say that the end for an amicable solution is very much insight. We quite appreciate the anxiety of Nigerians who have been worried that two months after the suspension, we’ve not been able to finalise talks, but I just want to assure you that we have made tremendous progress. And when I say tremendous, I really mean tremendous. We’ve engaged Twitter both in writing. We’ve engaged Twitter, we set up a technical committee to engage Twittter, they set up their own committee too. They have met virtually, and have exchanged correspondents about three times.
“Really, apart from dotting the i’s and crossing the T’s, we’re actually almost there. I don’t want to say that the engagement has been extremely positive, devoid of any acrimony. As a matter of fact, is to the credit of Twitter that they admitted that they’ve never received any kind of informed or detailed or professional communication from any country as they have received from us. Not only did they promise that they were going to look into it, but we made very clear what we wanted from Twitter.
“Even though our report is not ready, even though we’re still expecting more clarifications around some conversation with Twitter, I think I can share with you some of our conditions for reopening for Twitter operations to resume in Nigeria. I’m glad that both the honourable Minister of Works who is a member of the Ministerial Team, Tolu Ogunlesi, who also serves on the technical committee, they are both here. So, if I’m wrong they’d correct me. But I know that one of the conditions that we set was that Twitter, in line with Nigeria’s Companies and Allied Matters Act, Twitter should establish presence in Nigeria with registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission. And we think it is only thing, that if you want to do business in Nigeria, you must register first, a Nigerian company and of course, you must have an address. That’s one of the conditions we gave Twitter.
“We also asked that Twitter shall be mandated to employ a designated country representatives. As of today, we are not aware of any Twitter representative in Nigeria, and we say that that representative shall be a staff of Twitter so that he can have access to global management of Twitter. So that he can serve as a liaison between Nigeria and Twitter so that we can be able to, the company representative should also have a physical office address in Nigeria. As well as access to the Global Management. so that it can serve as the liaison between Nigeria and Twitter. Also have a physical office address in Abuja and offices outside the capital. But we believe that it’s important that Twitter should have a company representative who is high up. So that he can take directly complaints from Nigeria to Twitter. We also asked Twitter, in addition to registering the Nigerian company, must also register with relevant regulatory authorities like National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), like Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), National Broadcasting Commission.
“Fourthly, we asked that Twitter shall be mandated to retain designated local agents to manage its engagement with federal government operations in Nigeria. We also asked Twitter to commit itself to working with the federal Inland Revenue Service, you know, understand that if you make money from Nigeria, you pay taxes according to Nigerian laws. Of course, start paying VAT and other tax liabilities of any company resident in Nigeria. We also proposed to Twitter that we should agree on a charter of online conduct for content management. So that this charter will guide both of us, we will agree on which content would be acceptable, what’s not acceptable.
“So, the two parties would, because we are very concerned about contents that are liable to jeopardise the security, unity and safety of Nigeria. We also asked that we agree on what is publishable and when such is cited and brought to the attention of Twitter, Twitter to remove or delete such a publication.”