Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa covering President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. government, UN, IMF, World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington and New York.
Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) said on Sunday that it has filed a lawsuit against President Muhammadu Buhari over “the failure to publish copy of the agreement the Federal Government recently signed with Twitter, Inc, and the failure to publish the details of the terms and conditions of any such agreement.”
Joined in the suit filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos is Nigeria’s minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed.
The Federal Government of Nigeria had in January lifted the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria, saying that “Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history.”
SERAP asked the court to “direct and compel President Buhari and Alhaji Lai Mohammed to release and widely publish copy of the agreement with Twitter, and the terms and conditions of any such agreement.”
“It is in the interest of justice to grant this application. Publishing the agreement would enable Nigerians to scrutinize it, seek legal remedies as appropriate, and ensure that the conditions for lifting the suspension of Twitter are not used as pretexts to suppress legitimate discourse,” SERAP wrote. “Publishing the agreement with Twitter would promote transparency, accountability, and help to mitigate threats to Nigerians’ rights online, as well as any interference with online privacy and freedom of expression.”
It said, “Any agreement with social media companies must meet the constitutional requirements of legality, necessity, proportionality and legitimacy. Secretly agreed terms and conditions will fail these fundamental requirements.”