An academic, Dr Presly Obukoadata of the University of Calabar says lifting the ban on the social networking platform, twitter in Nigeria is a welcome development.
Obukoadata, of Department of Mass Communication, was reacting to the unbanning of twitter in Nigeria on Thursday in Calabar.
The academic, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the Federal Government had on June 5, 2021 banned twitter after the social networking platform deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet on security issues in South East Nigeria.
He said although lifting the ban was a victory for the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, it boils down to the point that government still had a powerful influence on the management of information in the nation.
According to Obukoadata, it is not a good sign for the nation’s democracy because one of the major hallmarks of democratic rule is freedom of expression, though with responsibility.
“The present government of Nigeria came to power using twitter hash-tag and so, it understands the power of twitter.
“If people are not free to express whatever legitimate opinions they have in a legitimate way, it is wrong.
“When a platform like twitter is banned, people are driven to use unorthodox mode to access their accounts like the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to bypass the normal service providers, which is dangerous.
“Today, some of us may say that twitter has the capacity to undermine our security but that is not our problem, particularly because our politicians such as governors still have policeman securing them.
“Security should be for everyone and not for a select few who are public office holders,’’ he maintained.
Dr Stanislaus Iyorza, also of the Department of Mass Communication, who also spoke to NAN, said if there was any issue on security with the use of twitter, we could find our way around it.
“We should not just ban platforms out rightly because of some issues, when there are many positives to gain from such platforms,’’ he said. (NAN)
