By Ngozi Onyeakusi—The Federal Government has finally lifted the ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria,  following 222 days and economic losses of about N546.5 billion.

The lifting of the suspension was announced yesterday, via a statement by the Chairman Technical Committee, Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi.
Abdullahi said the Federal Government directed him to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the lifting of the ban effective from 12:00 a.m. this morning.
He said the approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim. In the Memo, he said the Minister updated and requested the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation.

Recall that the Federal Government had announced the suspension of Twitter operations on June 4, 2021, after the social media giant deleted a post by President Buhari for “violation of the company’s abusive behaviour policy.”
By June 5, 2021, the suspension was effected by telecommunications companies as Nigerians woke up to a Twitter shutdown across all platforms.