₦airaland Forum

Following the lifting of the Twitter ban by the Buhari regime on the midnight of January 13, 2022, the All Progressives Congress has urged its supporters to return to the platform and continue to spread the achievements of the President and the Party.

This is as it charged Nigerians to create homegrown social media applications that could rival the micro-blogging platform.

National Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, John Akpanudoedehe, disclosed this on Friday in a statement titled ‘APC hails President Buhari, Nigerians for standing against Twitter interference’.

Akpanudoedehe wrote, “The All Progressives Congress salutes President Muhammadu Buhari and the patriotic citizens of our nation for standing firm against the interference of Twitter Inc. in Nigeria’s internal and national security affairs.

“Mr President indeed stood up for the sovereignty of our nation until Twitter acceded to all six demands of the Federal Government of Nigeria concerning their practises in matters concerning our country.

“We also applaud Twitter for allowing good reason and common interest prevail by agreeing to open their office in Nigeria. This is a win-win for all parties and will create jobs and gainful opportunities for Nigerians in the global digital space.”

By also agreeing to enroll Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals, the APC said that Twitter had demonstrated its commitment to help Nigeria fight crime and criminals on their platforms who violate both Twitter rules and Nigeria’s laws.

The Party, therefore, applaud the decision by the President to lift the suspension on Twitter’s activities in Nigeria saying, “We encourage our supporters to return to the platform and continue to spread the achievements of President Buhari and our great Party.

“Still, we should not rest on our oars. Russia has VKontakte, China has Weibo, among several homegrown social media platforms. Nigerians talented in developing social media/software applications are challenged to develop homegrown applications that can rival existing social media platforms and meet the needs of Nigerians.”

The APC charged operators of social media pages to use their platforms to check divisive and inciting rhetoric, particularly in Nigeria as they have an important responsibility to curb fake news, disinformation, hate speech, among others.