Twitter begged Nigeria before suspension was lifted—Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that , there were series of painstaking negotiations between Twitter and the Nigeria before the micro blogging media was allowed to resume operations in the country last year. The Minister made the clarification while reacting to claim by a former senior Twitter official that there was no negotiation between the company and Nigeria to rescind its suspension on Twitter. Mohammed, who spoke at a news conference in Abuja said the attempt to deny what transpired between the two parties was ludicrous. He said “This claim is so ludicrous that one could just have ignored it. But the claim has continued to make the rounds online, hence our decision to clarify things, after all, it is said that if a lie is repeated often enough, people will believe it.

“Without mincing words, let me say that there was a long-drawn negotiation between Nigeria and Twitter, at the instance of the latter, following the suspension of the platform on June 4th 2021 because of its persistent use for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence. Seven days after the suspension, precisely on June 11th 2021, we received a letter, addressed to Mr. President, from Twitter’s Vice President in charge of Public Policy, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Sinead McSweeney, seeking to meet with us on the Twitter suspension. That letter kick-started a number of activities that culminated in the extensive negotiation. After the letter, the Federal Government announced its team to discuss with Twitter. The team, chaired by the Minister of Information and Culture, also comprised the Attorney General of the Federation and Honourable Minister of Justice, Honourable Ministers of Communications and Digital Economy; Foreign Affairs as well as Works and Housing, Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Employment and the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency.

“Following the composition of our team, we received another letter from a group, Albright Stonebridge Group, which apparently was working at the behest of Twitter. The letter (which is also projected on the screens and is available to the media), named the Twitter team to enter into discussion with Nigeria. The team was headed by Sinead Sweeney, Twitter’s Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, whom I mentioned earlier; Karen White, Senior Director, Public Policy, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa; Ronan Costello, Senior Public Policy Manager, Africa, Europe, Middle East; Emmanuel Lubanzadio, Head of Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa; Jim Baker, Deputy General Counsel and Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Senior Adviser, Albright Stonebridge Group. The back-and-forth negotiation culminated in a series of agreements that paved the way for the lifting of the Twitter suspension in January this year. Gentlemen, with the facts that we have supplied, you can now see that the fellow who reportedly alleged that Twitter did not negotiate with Nigeria is either being economical with the truth or didn’t even understand the workings of the company where he worked,” Mohammed said.

It will be recalled that Nigeria has suspended the operations of the micro blogging site on June 4, 2021 after it suspended President Muhammadu Buhari’s account, claiming it did not know who the owner was. In announcing the suspension of Twitter’s activities in the country, the Minister of Information, accused the social media of persistently using the medium to engage in activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”. The operations of the company in Nigeria only resumed on January 12, 2022 when it is said to have complied with the conditions slammed on it by the Nigerian Government. However, a recent report by Twitter’s former Vice President in charge of Public Policy, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Sinead McSweeney, claimed that there was no negotiation between the company and Nigeria before the resumption of operations, a development which led to Mr. Mohammed’s reaction on Monday with copies of the exchanges that preceded the negotiations between the two parties.