By Chioma Iruke
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has been asked by the United States of America to revoke the suspension of micro-blogging platform, Twitter, in Nigeria.
Current Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, made this plea using her verified Twitter handle.
Samantha argued that there are nearly 40 million users in Nigeria using the platform, as the country is home to Africa’s largest tech hub.
She maintained that the suspension was nothing more than a state-sanctioned denial of free speech and should be reversed immediately.
Recall, the Nigerian government had over the weekend placed an indefinite suspension on the social media app days after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet was deleted.
Although the government claims the suspension was made following concerns of tensions, fake news, many diplomatic missions had condemned the move by the Nigerian government.
Following the ban, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had criminalised anyone accessing the microblogging site through other means, although he logged on to Twitter to deactivate his account on Tuesday, after an outcry by users that many top government officials were yet to deactivate their accounts.
Meanwhile, prominent Nigerians had continued to use the platform, saying the ban is against freedom of speech and fundamental human rights.
