The All Progressives Congress (APC) says the suspension of Twitter, a US-based microblogging platform, in Nigeria will unleash the potentials of youths in the country.
Twitter’s suspension came after a post by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 1967 civil war was deleted by the social media service.
In a statement on Saturday, John Akpanudoedehe, national secretary of the APC caretaker committee, said the country has the potential to develop competitive applications.
“Twitter’s suspension will trigger the creative potentials of Nigerians in the global digital space,” Akpanudoedehe said.
“The APC urges Nigerians talented in the development of social media/software applications to seize the opportunity of the suspension of Twitter operations in the country to develop homegrown applications that can rival existing social media platforms and meet the need of Nigerians.
“Russia has VKontakte (VK), China has Weibo, among several homegrown social media platforms. The APC believes that the country has the potentials and talents that can develop alternative and competitive applications to existing platforms in the world.
“Twitter’s suspension will undoubtedly serve as a positive trigger to unleash the creative potentials of Nigerians in the global digital space.
“This is a challenge to our vibrant youths with such talents. They will get support in the exercise from relevant federal government agencies as well as the numerous ICT training and research establishments in the country.”
The APC secretary said the recent announcement by the ministry of communications and digital economy that Nigeria will soon start the production of smartphones and subscriber identification module (SIM) cards is an indication that “the country has what it takes to make a deep and strong foray into the global ICT industry.”
“The APC had earlier released a statement asking Twitter and other operators of social media pages to use their platforms to check divisive and inciting rhetoric, particularly in Nigeria,” Akpanudoedehe said.“We tasked them on the important responsibilities to curb fake news, disinformation, hate speech, among others. Evidently, Twitter failed to do this and even allowed their platform to be used by arsonists, insurrectionists and separatists in the country.
“We are a democratic and independent nation. Citizens should defend our sovereignty by suporting the federal government’s Twitter suspension. It is in our national interest.”