The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mike Ozekhome yesterday opposed the federal government’s indefinite suspension of the operations of micro blogging and social networking service Twitter.

They advised the government to immediately reverse itself on the ground that the suspension contravened Nigerians’ constitutional right to freely express their views via Twitter.

In the alternative, NBA President Olumide Akpata threatened legal action against the government on behalf of Nigerians.

Akpata said: “The Nigerian Bar Association has noted with great concern the extraordinary decision of the Federal Govt to suspend the operations of Twitter in Nigeria and, by necessary implication, the right of Nigerians to freely express their constitutionally guaranteed opinions through that medium.

“The NBA finds no constitutional or legal authority to support the peremptory action of the Federal Government to suspend the operations of Twitter in Nigeria.

“Beyond the dent on our constitutional democracy, at a time when the Nigerian economy is unarguably struggling, the impact of arbitrary decisions such as this on investor confidence is better imagined.

 

Consequently, if this decision is not immediately reversed, the NBA will have no choice but to challenge same in the interest of the public and for the sake of our democracy.”

Dr Ozekhome slammed the government in a statement ‘When a toterring government twiddles Twitter’

He said:”What does Nigerian government think Twitter loses by being suspended? It is just the Nigerian people that will suffer, in the same way the government has been punishing Nigerians in the last six years.

“Twitter will not even bother whether Nigerians use Twitter or not. We are 210 million people in Nigeria. Of this number, only about 33 million Nigerians are active on social media. Less than 15 million of these are on Twitter.

“On the other hand, there are well over 300 million people across the world that use twitter. So Twitter will not feel it. It is just like a drop of water in an ocean. Twitter will not even know that a country has suspended it.

“So, it is the same beleaguered Nigerian people that will suffer, not the Federal Government or Twitter, because the Federal Government is a minute minuscule aspect of the Nigerian society, made up of only a few selected elite that do not care about the common man.

 

This is the same government that undeservedly rode to power using the same twitter and other social media platforms it now detests….I am very ashamed.”