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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
Other African nations are eager to emulate how Nigeria handled the conflict with Twitter and replicate its regulations on the social media platform, according to Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
Early June 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter after the platform deleted one of his tweets and temporarily suspended his account.
On 13th January, Nigeria lifted the ban on Twitter, restoring access to millions of users, seven months after it shutdown down on the social media site.
The government said the company had agreed to its conditions regarding the control of illegal content, the registration of its operations in Nigeria, and a new tax arrangement.
Speaking to journalists at the maiden Digital Economy Regional Conference held recently in Abuja, Pantami said:
“They are willing to adopt most of our policies that we have been implementing in Nigeria. They appreciated them, the commended our modest efforts of producing the policies and particularly how we have diversified the country through the ICT sector and Digital services. And the last one they requested, was the way and manner the Nigeria government dealt with the issue of Twitter. They are willing to learn how they can also get a copy of some of our agreements with them so that they can also adopt and they are also looking for the possibility where the conditions can be accepted and adopted by African continent so that we can have more converged efforts to addressing the challenges.
“So some of the areas which they are so much worried about are, One; hate speeches. Two; fake identification, where people will go online, adopt your name, create an account and start abusing your name or looking for money and many more. This is another issue. Three; even though I am shy to say it, but they think it is another avenue for revenue generation. They think they can also benefit even if their population is not that high but definitely, they can leverage on that. So, they have been engaging me about our efforts, negotiations with Twitter, the agreement we reached and how can this agreement be extended to a least west Africa sub region or at least within the African continent. It is an ongoing discussion and all of them appreciated the boldness of Nigeria as a government. We are a sovereign country. And we cannot be intimidated. So, they were all appreciative that Nigeria was bold to take a very decisive decision.
The Minister stated that the Nigerian government and the microblogging site now have improved ties as a result of the conflict.
“To be fair with you, this issue brought about even more understanding. Today, the new media company that has the best relationship with Nigeria arguably, is Twitter. Because sometimes, conflict brings about understanding. When there is conflict you are going to sit down and discuss the issues and that will bring more understanding. So today, Nigeria government and Twitter doesn’t have any problem.”
He further asserted that the conference which had in attendance, 15 countries and many ministers, was to promote partnership to achieve an all inclusive digital economy in Africa.
“All over the world, there is no country that will develop digital Economy without collaboration and partnership.
That is key to the success. Particularly, digital inclusion cannot be achieved. You have to partner, collaborate with others , allow knowledge transfer, technology transfer, come up with regulatory instruments that will cover the entire continent or subregion.
“Secondly, the communique that the conference produced. If you go through the communique, indeed it is very comprehensive. Many issues that will bring win-win situation have been outlined in the communique for implementation by west African countries and thirdly, don’t forget that this is the first regional digital conference in the entire West African region. There are so many gains.” Pantami added.
