Twitter Ban Will Be Lifted in Few Days, Says FG

Pat Stevens/

The federal government has given indication the ban on microblogging platform, Twitter, will be lifted in a matter of days.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the indication while answering questions from State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, today, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mohammed described the ongoing discussions between government and Twitter as “productive” and “respective.”

Asked about the latest update on Twitter ban in the country as he had promised on August 11 that the ban would be lifted very soon, t

The minister said, “I think even Twitter itself two days ago gave what I will call a progress report on our talks with them, and I think if I want to quote them rightly, it has been productive and quite respectful.

“And as to the qualifying, when, how soon is soon, right? I want to assure you that the time that Twitter operation has been suspended, between the time it has been suspended, and when it will be restored is by far, much, much shorter.

“In other words, if the operation has been suspended for about 100 days now, I can tell that we’re just actually talking about a few, just a few more days now.

“What we’re trying to do is the changes that have been going on, but we need to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, but I can assure us that we’re not mindful of the anxiety of Nigerians and both parties are working very hard to put a closure on the matter.

“And like Twitter itself said, the changes have been very, very productive on both parties. It has not been advisory at all, and it’s quite respectful. Thank you very much.”

When asked further to be specific on when the matter would be resolved, Mohammed said: “Honestly, we have gone very far, I won’t be specific, but we have gone very far, and honestly, it’s just going to be very, very soon, just take my word for that.

“Honestly, I can’t be more specific than what I’ve told you that it is going to be very soon,” he added.

The Federal Government had said Twitter was suspended because it provided an avenue for people threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.

It had on June 9  listed conditions that must be met by the microblogging platform, including registering as a business entity in Nigeria.

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