Nigeria lifts ban on Twitter after 7-month

Nearly seven months after clamping down on Twitter, the Nigerian government has lifted the ban on the micro-blogging platform. The decision comes after Twitter agreed to open a regional office, apart from complying with all conditions set by the West African nation’s government.  

Twitter, according to a Reuters report, has also agreed to meet local tax obligations and will act with a “respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history”.   

The recent announcement now allows millions of people in Africa's most populous nation to use the platform again.  

“Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history on which such legislation has been built...,” Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency said in an official statement to the media.  

Nigeria had indefinitely suspended Twitter on June 4 last year after the platform temporarily froze the account of the country’s President Muhammadu Buhari.   

The social media platform even deleted a tweet in which the President made a reference to the country’s 30-month civil war in 1967-1970. Media reports suggested that the Nigerian President had warned certain tribes of a possible civil war due to the insurgency in certain parts of the country.