As we near the March 2022 deadline, will Twitter still open shop in Nigeria?

Per the conditions by the federal government, Twitter must open a local office in Nigeria within the first quarter of 2022. But Twitter also has conditions before opening shop anywhere. Has Nigeria fulfilled those demands? Will Twitter comply? Or do we brace up for another ban?

On June 5, 2021, the federal government banned Twitter’s operations in Nigeria. Although the ban came days after the microblogging platform deleted provocative tweets made by President Muhammadu Buhari, the federal government said it was only trying to curb Twitter’s activities that undermine Nigeria’s corporate existence.

Buhari would not be the first head of state to have his Tweets taken down, and he won’t be the last. Six months prior, in January 2021, former US President Donald Trump’s account was “suspended indefinitely”. Trump’s ban follows a series of tweets in which he encouraged a raid on the US Capitol building in the same month and declared that he would not be attending the inaugural ceremony of his successor, Joe Biden. Trump and Twitter have a rough history, and Trump’s suspension was only a last resort.

As though waiting for Twitter to take the first step, other social media platforms followed suit; Facebook, Instagram, Shopify, Reddit, Pinterest and a host of others. If anything, the clampdown on Trump showed the power of big-tech and new media over the most powerful political leaders.

The Nigerian case

For Nigeria’s President Buhari, however, it wasn’t a suspension. It was a deletion of a tweet that, according to Twitter, violated its community rules. In his controversial tweet, the president recounted the gory details of the 30-month civil war between 1967 and 1970; warning the separatist group, Indigenous People of Biafra, against reenacting those horrible days.

Although IPOB has been clamouring for secession for several years now, the group has turned violent. By attacking government facilities and security agents in the country’s southeast, the group has added its fair share of stress to the country’s creaking security architecture.

Responding to that, the president tweeted that “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand”.

That sounds harmless, does it? But there was a subtle threat of meeting violence with violence. For one, the southeast, owing to the unrest, now hosts a heavy military presence. But while the guns try to keep the peace, they also impose fear and terror. IPOB have mounted offensives against the military and civilians are often caught in the crossfire.

Asides from that, there are reports of human rights violations where the Nigerian army ransacked villages, burned buildings, raped women and forcefully broke into homes of normal citizens who had nothing to do with the conflict. In August 2021, the country director of Amnesty International, Osai Ojigho, noted that: “The evidence gathered by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of ruthless excessive force by Nigerian security forces in Imo, Anambra and Abia states”.

For a region decrying injustice and marginalisation, Buhari’s tweet only hinted that there are worse days ahead. With a collective memory of the military’s show of force, Nigerians descended on the president and called on Twitter to delete the post and ban his account. It worked. Twitter did delete the post. But who could have known what would follow?

On June 5, 2021, Nigerians woke up to the news that will remind them that they were dealing with a leader with dictatorial instincts. And when provoked, that instinct can be brought to bear, whether it’s 1983 or 2021. With Twitter banned, the government directed all its ministries, departments and agencies to switch correspondence to other social media platforms. The ministry of communications and digital economy directed all mobile network operators to restrict access to Twitter’s site within Nigeria.

Explaining the drastic move, information minister, Lai Mohammed, argued: “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very very suspect. Has Twitter deleted the violent tweets that Nnamdi Kanu has been sending? Has it? The same Twitter that was funding #EndSARS protesters, it was the first to close the account of the former president of the US, Trump”.

More so, the Nigerian government argued that Twitter had become a platform of choice IPOB and its outspoken leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who constantly uses the platform to direct his loyalists to kill Nigerian soldiers and policemen, attack government structures and destroy all symbols of Nigeria’s sovereignty. It said every attempt to persuade Twitter to deny its platform to this separatist leader was not taken seriously.

The aftermath

The reaction from Nigerians was twofold; outrage and shock. Outrage because, at the time of deep economic hardship, the government was cutting off the last resort of millions of online vendors who market their products and services on Twitter. Even though many Nigerians later boycotted the ban using virtual private networks, millions more who couldn’t scale the extra layer of restriction naturally stayed away from Twitter.

For Nigerians who are too young to relate to the realities of Buhari’s regime in 1983, the ban came as a shock. Yes, the shooting of young protesters at Lekki toll gate in October 2020 would have opened their eyes to what a provoked Buhari can do. But many still thought a total Twitter ban wasn’t in the realm of possibility.

Seven months later…

After several months of negotiations with Twitter, the federal government, on January 13, 2022, announced that it would lift the ban.
A statement made by the director-general of the Nigeria National Information and Communication Agency, Kasifu Inuwa Abdullahi, read: “The Federal Government of Nigeria lifts the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria midnight of 13th January 2022. This is a deliberate attempt to recalibrate our relationship with Twitter to achieve the maximum mutual benefits for our nation without jeopardizing the justified interests of the company. Our engagement has been very respectful, cordial, and successful”.

This meant Twitter has chosen to comply with the government’s condition to open a local office. But being the global business entity that it is, Twitter would only comply when Nigeria meets some conditions. The conditions include:

• Appointment of country representatives: According to the FG, Twitter has agreed to appoint a “designated country representative to relate with Nigerian authorities”. NITDA’s DG said that a global public policy team is available to interface with Twitter via a dedicated communication channel.
• Law enforcement portals: Twitter will also enrol Nigeria into its partner support and law enforcement portals which provides unlimited access to both the Nigerian government and Twitter staff to manage prohibited and unlawful content that goes against Twitter community rules. The DG explained that this provides a channel for “Law enforcement agencies to submit a report with a legal justification where it suspects that certain content violates Nigerian laws”.
•  Respect for law, culture and history: The DG added that “Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history upon which such legislature has been built and work with the FGN and a broader industry to develop code of conduct and with global best practices available in almost all developed country.” Nigeria is a nation with diverse languages, cultures and tradition that informs our decisions politically and otherwise. Therefore, it is understandable to demand regard from foreign entities who may likely meddle in the nation’s affairs in the future.
• Open a local office in the first quarter of 2022: For accountability and control, the government also demanded that Twitter establishes a legal presence in the country and registers with the Corporate Affairs Commission before the end of the first quarter of 2022. This, for Nigeria, can be an assurance of a long-lasting commitment by the social media giants. Also, the government has obliged their taxes are to be paid when due to the government.

What would it take for Twitter to open shop in Nigeria?

About the last demand, Nigeria must play its role to make it practicable for a global business to set up shop on its soil. For all I know, the government still has a lot to do in this regard. It is not enough for the government to do what it feels would make Twitter feel at home in Nigeria, it must study what drives Twitter to open shop in non-US locations. We mustn’t look too far.

When it opened its first Africa office in Accra, Ghana, in April 2021, Twitter explained why. According to an article published on its site, Twitter said: “As a champion for democracy, Ghana is a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate. Furthermore, Ghana’s recent appointment to host the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa. Whenever we enter new markets, we work hard to ensure that we are not just investing in the talent that we hire, but also investing in local communities and the social fabric that supports them. We have already laid foundations through partnerships with Amref Health Africa in Kenya, Afrochella in Ghana, Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI) in Nigeria, and The HackLab Foundation in Ghana. As part of our long-term commitment to the region, we’ll continue to explore compelling ways we can use the positive power of Twitter to strengthen our communities through employee engagement, platform activation, and corporate giving”.

Asides from the economic opportunities which Twitter, as a profit-making entity should prioritise, the company also prioritises some social and regulatory factors such as “free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet”. This perhaps explains why economic reasons are not enough for Twitter to open a Nigerian office. This deflates arguments that Twitter is supposed to open its first Africa office in Nigeria, not Ghana, simply because it purportedly has more active users here.

Perennial challenges such as insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, business-choking regulatory requirements, high sense of entitlement, soaring business running cost, corruption and the current macroeconomic uncertainty are enough to put off any right-thinking business.
I believe that regulatory stability and security of life and assets trumps profit. In the 21st century, simply being a big market does not entitle you to foreign investors’ attention. We must do more.

As the Q1 2022 deadline races to a close, we hope Nigeria will not only impose its demand for a local base on Twitter but also back that demand with the corresponding action that makes it viable for Twitter to do so. After all, you cannot demand planes to land on your turf if you don’t have an airport or at least, an airstrip to accommodate them.

Owonikoko writes from Lagos, Nigeria