It has been over 200 days since President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration prohibited Nigerians from accessing Twitter and the prohibition has cost the economy of Nigeria N506.4 billion.
On June 4, the Nigerian government announced the suspension of Twitter after President Buhari’s tweet was deleted by the social media platform.
In the wee hours of June 5, 2021 telecommunication companies blocked all their subscribers from accessing the platform in compliance with the directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
However, NetBlocks, a website that monitors the cost of shutdown in any economy, revealed that since Twitter was banned, Nigeria’s economy had lost N104.02m ($250,600) every hour to the ban on Twitter.
It has been over 4,800 hours (200 days) since the social networking site was banned; the loss totals over N506.4 billion.
It should also be recalled that President Buhari hinted that the ban would persist until Twitter registered in Nigeria, had a physical presence, and representation while giving his Independence Day speech.
Not too long ago, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, said Twitter had agreed to Nigeria’s conditions for the suspension to be lifted.
He said: “The reason why the President took that step is to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter and not to drive them away from our country.
“That recalibration, we have started it and the president graciously added me to the committee.”
But Twitter has not disclosed whether it had agreed to the conditions or not.
