Twitter Ban Was My Hardest Call As Minister – Lai Mohammed.

Former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said that suspending Twitter’s operations in Nigeria was one of the hardest decisions he made during his time in office.

Mohammed explained this on Wednesday while answering questions during an interview on Prime Time, a programme aired on Arise Television.

He said the step was taken in the national interest because Twitter eventually became the preferred platform for individuals attempting to destabilise the country.

“One of the multiple and most difficult decisions I took was suspending Twitter’s operation in Nigeria.”

He stated that the decision was based solely on national interest, noting that there was a period when Twitter served as the major platform for people “who are destabilising the country”.

“So there are some decisions like that that you have to take, not because you like them.
“The trigger for that decision was not because the late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet was deleted. I went to President Buhari, and I asked him, Sir, we need to suspend the services of Twitter.”

According to him, the former president sought clarity on the reason for the move. “And he asked why? Is it because they deleted my tweet? I said no, sir. And I gave him instances and examples.”

Mohammed noted that he had consistently advocated for the regulation of social media. “You see, I have been an advocate of regulating social media for a very long time. I started by visiting media houses. I started by trying to work with them, but it was clear in my mind that an unregulated social media could be a disaster.”

He said anyone who followed his activities from 2016 to 2023 would remember his repeated warnings about unregulated online platforms. “If you monitored me between 2016 and 2023, I was always on the issue of social media, and I kept saying, I’m not trying to stifle free press, but we must regulate the social media,” he said.