The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, has claimed that there were a series of painstaking negotiations between Twitter and the country before the micro-blogging media was allowed to resume operations in the country last year.
He made the clarification while reacting to a claim by a former senior Twitter official that there was no negotiation between the company and Nigeria to rescind its suspension on Twitter.
The attempt to deny what happened between the two parties, according to Mohammed, who addressed at a news conference in Abuja on Monday morning, was absurd.
The Minister 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 extensive negotiation.