House fails to lift suspension placed on Twitter

The House of Representatives has thrown its weight behind the decision of the federal government to suspend the operation of micro-blogging company, Twitter in the country indefinitely.

The Speaker of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, had pre-empted the opposition lawmakers when he mandated the House Committees on Communication, Justice, Information and Culture, and National Security and Intelligence to immediately commence investigation into the circumstances of the decision by the federal government to suspend the operations of Twitter in Nigeria and the legal authority for the ban on the operations of the micro blogging platform.

However, Gbajabiamila and his deputy, Hon. Idris Wase were yesterday sharply divided during the debate on the recommendations of the committee.

Wase has insisted that the committee should be able to explore all avenues before coming back to the floor, stressing that there should be a provision in the report that should have said the government acted in good faith or not.

But the committee insisted that it did not make any judgment based on the recommendations.

Contributing, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, stated categorically that the committee has not done a prudent work.

It was at this point that Gbajabiamila rose in defence of the committee, saying it was uncharitable to condemn its work.

In the report, the joint committee noted the pros and cons of social media but was silent on whether the suspension should be lifted or not.

The recommendations are: “That time be allowed for the Federal Government of Nigeria and Twitter to enter into the dialogue process that is already ongoing, so as to create room for amicable settlement on the matter;

“That relevant Government Institutions such as National Broadcasting Commission, Nigeria Communication Satellite, etc., should be alive to their mandate by doing the needful to avoid future occurrence of this nature;

“That the federal government should take into cognisance the negative effect of the Twitter suspension on Nigerians who depends on the platform for their livelihood;

“That federal government should be proactive in their interface with Twitter so as to come up with timely resolution on the matter;

“That freedom of expression is not absolute anywhere in the world. This is because security and freedom of expression sometimes present contending interests. Therefore, national security must be guaranteed at all times as much as the right to free speech must be protected; and

“That government should always have communicated better with Nigerians when critical decisions are to be made.”