Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed has shaded the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other countries that criticised Nigeria for the ban on Twitter.
According to Lai, the critics from the countries are based solely on what they stand to lose on economic reasons and not because they love Nigeria at heart. He made the submission on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme.
He said: “The EU has recommended the same thing and Britain only on Wednesday spoke about a law that would regulate the social media. This is why I say they are being hypocritical. Like I said, I don’t like commenting on issues that have to do with relations with Nigeria and other countries but clearly speaking, they are being less than honest.”
“We have seen so many foreign missions come up to condemn the action of Nigeria. Nigerians, please, make a distinction between countries that are trying to protect their economic and commercial interests from those countries that genuinely love you and talking about freedom of speech and don’t forget for one minute that it is because there is a country called Nigeria that there is freedom of speech.”
“People have tried to say Twitter was suspended because they deleted the president’s message. I think that is very unfair. We were very clear in what we said. We were very unambiguous that if any platform continues to promote the views of those who want Nigeria to be divided, we will suspend their operations.
“Secondly, we went ahead to say that henceforth, all OTT — over the top — and other social media platforms operating in Nigeria will have to first register with the Corporate Affairs Commission then apply for licensing with the NBC, that is the broadcasting commission. he added.
