The Nigerian government says it has "indefinitely suspended" Twitter's operations in the country, the Ministry of Information and Culture announced in a statement on Friday.

"The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria," it read.
The statement, which was posted on the ministry's official Twitter handle on Friday evening, accused the American social media company of allowing its platform to be used "for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence."

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension "citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence", the statement added.

    The ban on Twitter, notably, comes two days after the microblogging site deleted an "abusive" tweet of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, and suspended his account for 12 hours.

    In the now-deleted tweet, Buhari had warned secessionist elements in Biafra - blamed for the attack on the country's security personnel - of a befitting crackdown.

    After several users reported the tweet, Twitter decided to delete the post, and suspend Buhari's account for 12 hours. The company defended its action claiming that the President's account had violated its policy on "abusive behaviour".

    The Nigerian government, apart from announcing the ban on Twitter, has also directed the country's broadcast commission to commence the process of "licensing" all social media operations in Nigeria. The move is expected to regulate the use of social media platforms in the African nation.

    In a retaliation act, Nigeria has proceeded to suspend the platform’s operations in the country. While Twitter doesn’t have any offices in the country, this announcement can still play out. And although there hasn’t been any social media ban yet, Nigeria’s current administration is no stranger to making ploys to restrict access to the internet, certain websites or social media. It was one of the tactics used during the EndSARS protests that rocked the country in October 2020. Given past events in other African countries where the internet has been restricted or banned in one form or another, this is an obvious ploy by the Nigerian government to double down on these tactics and use telecoms operators to repress free speech.