Nigerian govt to lift ban on Twitter soon – Minister

Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s minister of arts and information: says FG will soon lift suspension on Twitter

The Federal Government says the ban on microblogging giant Twitter will soon be lifted.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, confirmed this development when he fielded questions from State House correspondents on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to him, a lot of progress has been made in the ongoing dialogue with Twitter.

“I think even Twitter itself two days ago gave what I will call a progress report on our talks with them, and I think if I want to quote them rightly `it has been productive and quite respectful’.

“And as to the qualifying word for when or how soon, I want to assure you that the time that Twitter operation has been suspended, (I meant) between the time it has been suspended, and when it will be restored is by far, much, much shorter.

“That I can assure you that it is by far in other words, if the operation has been suspended for about 100 days now, I can tell that we’re just actually talking about a few, just a few more days now.”

The minister stressed that both parties were focused on reaching a conclusion on the matter.

“What we’re trying to do is the changes that have been going on, but we need to dot the ‘i’s’ and cross the ‘t’s’, but I can assure us that we’re not unmindful of the anxiety of Nigerians and both parties are working very hard to put a closure on the matter.

“And like Twitter itself said the changes have been very, very productive on both parties. It has not been adversary at all. And it’s quite respectful,’’ he said.