Nigeria’s premier association of new media and online new publishers, Online Publishers of Nigeria (OPAN), has urged the Nigerian Government to immediately reverse the ban on Twitter operations in the country and stop infringing on the rights of citizens to freely express themselves.
In a statement signed on Monday by OPAN President, Austyn Ogannah and General Secretary, Daniel Elombah, the association said “the reasons adduced for the suspension or ban of Twitter have remained unconvincing because the Federal Government failed to exhaust other channels of communication with the social media giant.”
OPAN lamented that “The action of the Federal Government amounts to killing an ant with a sledge hammer, and has given Nigeria a very bad image in the eyes of the international community.”
The association further decried the clandestine effort to gag social media voices in Nigeria and called on the Nigerian Government to “exercise restraints in dealing with issues that affect the youths, freedom of expression, media freedom, and those actions that could directly or indirectly widen the unemployment gap in the country.”