Story from Kenneth AFOR, Lagos
Despite the suspension of the microblogging platform from the country’s internet space in June, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila was spotted on the platform.
President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Twitter in June, with Minister of Information Lai Mohammed submitting that the microblogging platform “was undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”
The Twitter ban was effected after the social media firm took down one of the president’s tweets for violating its rules.
The suspension led to a boycott from top government officials, agencies, ministers, legislators, state governors, legislative aides, members of the APC and the Presidency.
However, Gbajabiamila was on Sunday, August 8, seen on Twitter’s Spaces room at an interactive forum to discuss the state of the nation and why voting matters, alongside thousands of Nigerians.
Thousands of young Nigerians have been using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to circumvent the ban, with telecommunication companies turning off Twitter since the ban took effect.
According to reports, Buhari’s decision to suspend the operations of Twitter in Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy has cost the federation more than N150.46 billion ($366.88m) and left the coffers reeling.
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