Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture
The Federal Government has reassured Nigerians that the faceoff with micro-blogging Twitter is almost over and the ban on its operation will soon be lifted.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed after the week’s virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
On August 11, 2021, Mohammed, during a post-FEC briefing, had assured Nigerians the ban on Twitter would be lifted in a matter of days as both Nigeria and the company had already made considerable progress in their discussions then.
This is even as the ban entered 100 days on Tuesday with the economy reportedly losing as much as N246 billion.
Twitter had also said it had reached out to the government, assuring Nigerians that it had not stopped engaging the authorities on ways to resolve its ban in the country.
“Thank you very much. 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.
“As to how soon is soon, right? I want to assure you that between the time that Twitter operation has been suspended, and when it will be restored is by far, much, much shorter.
“That I can assure you that it is by far. In other words, if the operation has been suspended for about 100 days now, I can tell (you) 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.
“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,” he said.
Asked further to be specific on when the matter would be resolved, he 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”.
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