President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the lifting of the suspension of the Twitter operations in Nigeria.
The lifting will be effective from midnight January 13, 2022, according to a statement from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The government announced the suspension of the social media platform in June 2021, after it deleted a controversial tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari. The government also accused Twitter of working against Nigeria’s interest.
The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, announced the lifting of the suspension in a statement, The Nation newspaper reports.
Mr Abdullahi was also involved in the Nigerian government’s negotiation with Twitter.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) directs me to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria effective from 12 am tonight, 13th January 2022,” The Nation newspaper quoted the official as saying in the statement.
“The approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim.
“In the Memo, the Minister updated and requested the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation.”
Since the suspension, millions of Twitter users have been unable to use the social media platform in Nigeria unless they use a Virtual Private Network.
