It was not surprising that supporters and agencies of the federal government of Nigeria started using Twitter following the lifting of an eight-month-old ban by the federal government on Wednesday.
Government organisations stopped using the app in June 2021 and returned with different welcome-back tweets hours after the ban was removed, but Nigerians welcomed them with damning remarks.
Here are some ways the organisations got back on Twitter after a long break.
NTA
The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) was the first to tweet.
“We Are Back After #TwitterBan Lifted,” NTA tweeted at 7:27 am on Thursday, but the reactions that followed showed that Nigerians were not happy with the organisation.
NCDC
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was mute on Twitter until Thursday.
Nigerians gave the NCDC a piece of their minds when it tweeted “#Twitter is back! And so are we!”
Staying off Twitter was not a wrong move for a health agency. See NCDC’s tweets and the reactions of Nigerians below:
NPF
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was ‘dragged’ for tweeting without a “welcome back” greeting. See reactions below:
CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not exempted from the wrath of Nigerians.
“It’s good to be back,” the bank had tweeted.
“You were not missed,” someone replied. “We did our thing regardless of the ban.”
Here are other reactions:
EFCC
It appeared Nigerians were ready for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to tweet about corruption. The EFCC’s first tweet after the ban was “#SayNoToCorruption” and “TowardsABetterNigeria”.
Nigerians immediately asked the EFCC for an update on Ibrahim Magu, its former chairman, whose reign as head of the antigraft agency was marred by corruption.
The federal government had lifted the ban on Twitter, exactly 223 days after imposing an indefinite ban on the micro-blogging website in Nigeria.
READ ALSO: From Ogunlesi to Bashir, Five Govt Supporters Worst Hit by Twitter Ban
Inuwa Abdullahi, chairman, Technical Committee, Nigeria-Twitter Engagement, and Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), announced the president’s decision on Wednesday.
Although the lifting was to take effect from 12 am on Thursday, Nigerians could not access Twitter until much later.
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