Despite the cries of Nigerians 100 days after the embargo placed on Twitter use in the country, and the many negative effects of the prohibition on citizens, both home and abroad, the Federal Government is still very undisturbed about the effects of the ban on its citizen even with the intervention of foreign personalities, adding their voices for the lift in the ban.
Recall that, in earlier June, precisely on June 5, 2021, the FG announced the ban in the use of Twitter, a microblogging platform in the country, on the grounds that, the platform deleted the President’s tweet which according to Twitter, ‘violated the platform’s rules.’
However this excuse, from the FG, Nigerians are still not sure of the actual reason behind the ban. Public affairs analysts, rather see the decision as a means to gag the media, and the Nigerian masses from freely venting their opinion about President Buhari’s led government. But this controversies between the Nigerian government and its people about Twitter, is without its dare consequences, ranging from political, economic, and/or other constitutional rights infringement of its citizens.
Nigerians who use the Twitter platform for businesses, networking, education and/or other entertainment ventures are all greatly affected without the government being perturbed by their groans.
Economic analysts therefore, in a recent business report from Ripples Nigeria, the NetBlocks Cost of Shutdown Tool, estimated that, “Since the ban, the Nigerian economy has lost N103.17 million ($250,600) every hour…
The reports also added that,
“It has been 2,400 hours since the FG banned Twitter, which puts the total amount lost at N247.8billion ($601,439,044) using the exchange rate of N412/$
Nonetheless, while some Nigerians have fast forgotten about Twitter, others are still eagerly waiting for the lift in the ban, as recently promised by the FG and communicated to citizens through the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
As a result, lovers of Twitter, have thus, forgetting there is a prohibition on the blog, taken to the use of Virtual Private Networks, (VPN), as the avenue to access the microblog; causing as much as ‘200% web traffic’ for VPN.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had lately, said the FG is close to an agreement with Twitter and would soon lift the ban.