By Adetokunbo Abiola

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The federal government indefinitely suspended Twitter’s operations in the country last week, according to the Ministry of Information and Culture in an announcement.
“The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria,” it read.
The statement, which was posted on the ministry’s official Twitter handle, accused the American social media company of allowing its platform to be used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
However, many say the ban is another method of cracking down on the social media, especially as the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has began the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
Olumide Akpata is the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA. He said that Nigeria was operating a democracy, which stipulates that every action of the government must be backed by the law, to prevent accusations of a social media crackdown..
“This is another disguised attempt to regulate social media, restrict freedom of speech and shrink the civic space,” he said.
As of the third quarter of 2020, WhatsApp was the most popular social media in Nigeria. The platform was mentioned by 93 percent of internet users aged 16 to 64 years. Facebook and Youtube followed, being used respectively by 86 percent and 82 percent of the individuals with access to the internet. In 2020, the number of social media users in Nigeria reached roughly 28 million, with Twitter users among them. With the ban on Twitter, questions will be raised about government’s disposition to social media, its commitment to freedom of speech and its willingness to accommodate the civic space.
Last week, Twitter deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet threatening genocide against the people of Igbo-dominated South-East.
In the tweet, the president boasted about the role he played alongside other Nigerian military officers in the Nigerian civil war of 1966-70, during which over three million Igbo civilians were killed, many of them rounded up and shot at close range or starved to death.
In a reaction to the Twitter’s move, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, accused Twitter of double standard, saying the social media giant had conveniently ignored inciting tweets by Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and his cohorts, which supported the Igbo to secede from Nigeria.
He said Twitter may have its own rules, but that it was not the universal rule.
“If Mr. President, anywhere in the world feels very bad and concern about a situation, he is free to express such views,” he said.
Since Twitter supports an organization that gives directives to its members to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centres, to kill warders then it’s guilty of double standards?
According to a data presented in Digital Report 2021 for Nigeria, there are over three million Twitter users in Nigeria, meaning most of them will prevented from airing the views, meaning a kind of social media crackdown.
Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), says the decision of the Federal Government to suspend Twitter shows that the president has suspended Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution.
Falana said, “This act has confirmed the suspension of Chapter IV of the constitution.” Very soon, he said, Nigerians will be restricted to NTA and the FRCN as the only source of information. Media like Channels TV and others had been fined for embarrassing the government and they may be proscribed soon. This hints at a media crackdown.
“The decision of the NBC to impose fines on media houses based on an illegally amended code of the Broadcasting Code. It is a rehearsal of the imminent proscription of local media organisations that publish anything considered defamatory or seditious by the government,” Falana said.
Former Presidential Candidate and APC member, Adamu Garba has defended the Nigerian Government’s decision to suspend all activities of Twitter in Nigeria.
He alleged that the website is an online machine for proscribed pro-secessionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
“Twitter is behind them,” he said. Twitter is like a kind of IPOB online machine, he said, because what they do more is supporting IPOB much more than the government. “Everyone knows that IPOB is anti-Nigeria, their target is to destroy Nigeria,” he said.
Adebayo Ogundeyi was born and bred in Nigeria, though he lives in the United States. He notices that Nigerians use Twitters a lot to air their views and that a ban on its could be like a crackdown on their freedom of expression.
“I’ve noticed that different issues in Nigeria tend to trend quite well on the main timeline here, sometimes in the top ten,” he said. “So, I would say quite a lot of users but I’m not sure as to a particular number. I personally think there’s more Twitter users in Nigeria than other forms of social media. This may be due to unique style of hashtag that makes it viral and easy to follow.”
On June 5, telecoms operators said they received instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to effect suspension of services of micro blogging platform Twitter.
The carriers, acting under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), conducted assessments of the request.
Its Chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, in a statement, said: “We, the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wish to confirm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator to suspend access to Twitter.”
ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the request in accordance with internationally accepted principles, he said.
Based on national interest provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates, its members have acted in compliance with the directives of the NCC the industry regulator by restricting Twitter coverage in the country.
At the same time Twitter users have been struggling to access site after government suspension. For instance, access to Twitter through Nigeria’s main phone providers has been blocked, according to reports from Lagos and the capital, Abuja, though it’s still accessible on some wi-fi works. Many feel other social media in the country will also suffer from a crackdown by the federal government, raising questions of its commitment to freedom of expression.
Dialpad is a blogger on Nairaland, and he has a dim view about the future as regards the social media.
“Nairaland (Nigeria’s premier website) should be careful, the hammer may be coming soon,” he said.