Queen Nwabueze
It is exactly one week today and President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to tweet after lifting the ban, which his administration placed on twitter, mid-last year.
Every other aide of the President, including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has resumed using the microblog since the ban was lifted last Thursday. But a quick visit to Buhari’s official handle “@MBuhari” did not show, the president would be tweeting any time soon.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelRecording exactly 3,108 Retweets; 3,981 Quote Tweets and 7,255 Likes, Buhari’s very last tweet read: “I receive daily security reports on the attacks on critical national infrastructure, and it is very clear that those behind them want this administration to fail. Whoever wants the destruction of the system will soon have the shock of their lives. We’ve given them enough time.”
Since the president’s last tweet, dated June 1, 2021 at 5:30pm and tweeted from an iphone, Nigerians are yet to read from the president this new twitter era.
It will be recalled that the Buhari government suspended Twitter operations in Nigeria on June 4, after it argued that Twitter was being used to undermine “Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
It will also be recalled that the ban actually came closely after Twitter took down a controversial tweet by His Excellency, which was widely adjudged as a threat against Ndigbo.
Days after the suspension, the government directed broadcasting stations to suspend “patronage” of the platform, saying the company would be given new rules which they would have to abide by if Nigerians must use Twitter.
January 12, Wednesday last week, the Nigerian government announced it had lifted the ban so Twitter could continue operations in the country from Thursday 12am.
But this did not come free. Among other gags, the federal government said the company is also expected to give its officials the ability to take down any tweet, government considers a threat to the country’s security or existence.
On the price the Nigerian economy had to pay due to the ban, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry revealed that the cost of the seven-month Twitter ban in Nigeria was estimated at a whooping N10.72 trillion.
“In business terms, the cost of the seven-month shutdown of Twitter operations in Nigeria is estimated to be N10.72 trillion (26.1billion dollars) according to Netblock’s Cost of Shutdown Tool,” Dr Chinyere Almona, Director-General, LCCI disclosed in a statement.
