By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Apparently aware of the legal, diplomatic and economic implications of the Nigeria’s government suspension of the operation of the microblogging giant, Twitter in Nigeria last week, a legal luminary, Ahmed Raji has admonished the Federal Government to trade with caution.
Raji, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) also advised the Federal Government to embark on constructive engagement with Twitter to resolve the issue between the two rather than suspend their operations in Nigeria.
Speaking on Monday on Channels Television breakfast programme Sunrise Daily on the recent face-off between FG and Twitter, the respected lawyer warned government not to take a decision that will be counter productive.
According to him: “Federal Government should not have taken the part of banning Twitter from operating in Nigeria. There are more diplomatic ways to go about it.
“I am not making excuses for Twitter, they should be held accountable but there are ways to deal with the situation.
“Nigerian government should not be seen to be fighting the United States of America (USA) interest. Twitter is not only a private firm, it is an American interest and fighting Twitter is like fighting US interest which will be counter productive”, Raji insisted.
The legal luminary therefore admonished government to opt for constructive engagement with Twitter to resolve whatever issues they have, adding that “anything order than an amicable resolution of the matter will be counter productive In the long run”.
Meanwhile, Raji argued that President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged offensive tweets may have been misinterpreted, pointing out that his choice of words were directed to the “misbehaving people”.
Said he: “I don’t believe that Mr. President’s words on the day and occasion he made it in the presence of his guests from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a threat. He spoke to national television on the back of the security situation in Nigeria, television stations have carried it and it would have ended there.
“I blame Mr. President’s media handlers for further tweeting the words on Twitter knowing that it has its own rules. Anyone who wants to tweet should be conversant with its rules and regulations or terms and conditions”, Raji concluded.
Prompt News reports that the Federal Government had last week through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of the operations of Twitter in Nigeria following the deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweets by the microblogging giants on the ground that he tweeted genocidal contents against a region of Nigeria.
