Lai Mohammed, minister of information, has blamed the media
and “unpatriotic” Nigerians over Twitter’s choice of Ghana as its headquarters
in Africa.
On Monday, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive officer,
had announced that the microblogging platform will set up its Africa head
office in Ghana.
The announcement had generated reactions from some Nigerians
on Twitter over the company’s choice of Ghana.
In an interview on Thursday in Abuja, the minister said the
development would serve as a lesson for Nigerians to be patriotic in managing
the image of the country.
The minister said it was expected that the microblogging
platform would site its headquarters in Nigeria with about 25 million Twitter
users against Ghana’s eight million users.
“The reasons cited by Twitter for citing the headquarters in
Accra, Ghana is that Accra is a champion of democracy and there is rule of law
in the country, among other reasons. This is what you get when you de-market
your country,” Lai said.
“The media is more to blame for this which most times
exaggerate the challenges in the country.
“At no time was this worse than during the #EndSARS protest
when Nigerian journalists both traditional and new media were trying to outdo
themselves in painting Nigeria as a hell where nobody should live.
“When they all conspired to vilify not just the government
but the people of Nigeria. We are not saying that you should not criticise the
country but be fair and patriotic. When you destroy your own house, where are
you going to live?
“You can imagine the kind of job opportunities that citing
that headquarters in Nigeria would have generated, the kind of visibility it
would have given Nigeria but we destroyed it. It is what the insiders say about
their country that the outsider will use to judge and condemn the country.”
He said the development would serve as a lesson for people
to be patriotic and manage the image of the country better.
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