Twitter negotiated with FG, Minister clarifies

*As Women Affairs Minister lists achievements

The federal government yesterday refuted claims that Twitter did not negotiate with the Nigerian government in the wake of the suspension of the microblogging site.

The Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the clarification yesterday at the presentation of Buhari’s administration scorecard in Abuja. Describing the claim as ludicrous, the Minister said the government could have simply ignored it if not for the generated speculations.

“Without mincing words, let me say that there was a long-drawn negotiation between Nigeria and Twitter, at the instance of the latter, following the suspension of the platform on June 4, 2021 because of its persistent use for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence

“Seven days after the suspension, precisely on June 11, 2021, we received a letter addressed to Mr President from Twitter’s Vice President in charge of Public Policy, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Sinead McSweeney, seeking to meet with us on the Twitter suspension.

“That letter kick-started a number of activities that culminated in extensive negotiation. A copy of that letter is displayed on the screens here and will be made available to gentlemen of the press.

“After the letter, the federal government announced its team to discuss with Twitter. The team, chaired by the Minister of Information and Culture, also comprised the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Ministers of Communications and Digital Economy; Foreign Affairs as well as Works and Housing Ministers, Minister of State for Labour and Employment as well as the Director General, National Intelligence Agency.”

The Minister added that following the composition of the federal government team, another letter was received from a group called Albright Stonebridge Group, which was working on behalf of Twitter.

“The letter named the Twitter team to enter into a discussion with Nigeria. The team was headed by Twitter’s Vice President, Sinead Sweeney. The back-and-forth negotiation culminated in a series of agreements that paved the way for the lifting of the Twitter suspension in January this year.

“Gentlemen, with the facts that we have supplied, you can now see that the fellow who reportedly alleged that Twitter did not negotiate with Nigeria is either being economical with the truth or didn’t even understand the workings of the company where he worked”, the minister stated.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Dame Pauline Tallen, in her presentation, expressed displeasure with political parties for pushing women out of the race after obtaining forms. This development, she said, has limited the number of women at the decision-making table in the country.

Tallen maintained that a lot of qualified women were deliberately struck out by their male counterparts with the intent to deny them access to power. The Minister further described men as difficult, domineering and self-centred.

Speaking on the scorecard of her ministry, Tallen said that the ministry has so far reactivated a total of 144 women development centres across the country from 2015 to date.

“We also trained 1185 female artisans in different skills, 430 gender start-up support schemes for female entrepreneurs in some states, training and empowered 200 rehabilitated female drug users across the six geopolitical zones. A total of 82,722 were empowered in different vocational skills between 2015 till date across the country”, she noted.