Foreign Ministry Says FG Didn’t Give Condition to Lift Twitter Ban

Foreign Ministry says FG didn’t give condition to lift Twitter ban, and that he was misquoted. He said this at a briefing press on Monday the 7th of June, 2021.

The Federal Government has denied that it gave any conditions to lift the ban placed on Twitter operations in Nigeria, stating that the Foreign Minister was quoted out of context by the media.

While briefing the press Monday after a meeting with five foreign envoys over their combined statement on Twitter ban, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, had said Twitter operations in Nigeria will be restored on the condition that the social media platform can be used responsibly.

Based on the minister’s statement, media outlets had reported that government had given condition to lift the ban on Twitter.

However in a response to the media reports on Monday, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ferdinand Nwonye claimed that the Minister did not give any condition as regards lifting the ban on the microblogging platform.

The statement read: “The attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been drawn to misleading reports by several media outlets published today, Monday, 7th June 2021, in which the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Geoffrey Onyeama was misquoted as giving conditions for lifting the Twitter suspension.

“The Honourable Minister after a meeting with some Heads of Diplomatic Missions resident in Nigeria was quoted to have said that “Twitter’s operations in Nigeria will be restored only if the platform can be used responsibly”. This statement by the Honourable Minister has been quoted out of context.”

Nwonye also said: “Contrary to the publications, the Honourable Minister was speaking generally about the responsibilities that go with freedom of speech, stating that platforms that have the power to instantly disseminate information among billions of people have the added responsibility to exercise that power responsibly.”

He said: “The Ministry wishes to state categorically that the Honourable Minister did not give any conditions regarding lifting the Twitter suspension.”

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