CAUSE BEHIND THE BAN
On 4 June 2021, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced that it had suspended, indefinitely, the social network service Twitter. The Twitter ban was imposed following a statement issued on the same day by Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in the State capital Abuja. Mohammed cited the “persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” as the reason behind the controversial suspension.
Coincidentally, the ban was announced just two days after a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari was deleted by the platform. The Nigerian president had, in the tweet, threatened to “deal” with the people of the country’s southeast, mainly pro-Biafra groups who are blamed for several attacks against public authorities that occurred this year. Buhari alluded to giving them the same treatment that mostly the Igbo tribe in the eastern part of the country had suffered during the 1967-1970 Nigeria-Biafra war. This “treatment” culminated in over a million deaths.
Offended by the insensitive nature of the tweet, many Nigerians flagged it to Twitter and the platform confirmed that it violated its policy on abusive behaviour. Minister Mohammed criticised Twitter’s action and accused it of “double standards”. According to Mohammed, Twitter had ignored tweets from Nnamdi Kanu, the exiled leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group, which were described by Mohammed as encouraging the killing of the police.
PUBLIC RESPONSE AND BACKLASH
The government ban was swiftly implemented, as the Twitter site became inaccessible to Nigerians from the early hours of Saturday 5 June 2021. This caused Twitter to express its deep concern for Nigerians whose access to a free and open internet, which is an essential human right in modern society, had been denied. Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, expressed that the platform would work to restore access for all those in Nigeria who rely on it to communicate and connect with the world.
The Nigerian Bar Association through its President Olumide Akpata, threatened to take legal action against the Nigerian government if the ban was not “immediately reversed”. Akpata stated that the ban impedes “the right of Nigerians to freely express their constitutionally guaranteed opinions through that medium”. Furthermore, Lagos-based civil rights group the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) sued the Nigerian government over the suspension, tagging it illegal. The ban also attracted international dissent as Amnesty International, the Embassy of Sweden in Nigeria, and the British and Canadian missions in the country have spoken out against the Twitter suspension.
In defiance to the government policy, Nigerian Twitter users circumvented the ban using virtual private networks (VPNs). The government responded by threatening the arrest and prosecution of anyone violating the ban. This was endorsed by Attorney General Abubakar Malami, who expressed that the violators of the ban would know what offence they are charged of once arraigned in court. Some believe that due to the wide powers given to the police under national security legislation, the police were able to arrest alleged violators of the ban. Whilst some other legal experts claimed that there existed no law making it strictly illegal to tweet.
On 22 June 2021, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), restrained the Nigerian government from “unlawfully” prosecuting citizens for their use of Twitter. This is pending the court’s consideration of the legal action brought by SERAP activists seeking to reverse the ban on the social media giant.
Anita is an aspiring Barrister who has recently completed her Bar Vocational Studies at City Law School, London. She currently works as a County Court Advocate, and has volunteered with the Freedom Law Clinic and the Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union in anticipation of pupillage. Her goal is to build a public law practice, to make society better for everyone by upholding their human rights.