A federal high court in Lagos has ordered Lai Mohammed, a former minister of information, and the ministry to disclose the details of the agreement between the federal government and X, the micro-blogging platform, formerly known as Twitter.
In June 2021, the former minister announced the “indefinite”
suspension of Twitter’s operations in the country.
Six months later, the federal government approved the
lifting of the suspension after giving several conditions to the micro-blogging
platform.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a
civil society organisation (CSO) holding the government accountable, then
instituted a freedom of information suit marked FHC/L/CS/238/2022.
Delivering judgment in the suit in May 2024, Nnamdi Dimgba,
the presiding judge, ordered that the details of the agreement should be
released to SERAP to assess whether it complied with the exercise of Nigerians’
human rights online.
The judge held that the former minister failed to show the
court how disclosing the agreement would be prejudicial to national security,
as he had claimed.
Dimgba held that “the former minister and the ministry of
information are directed and compelled to provide a copy of the agreement
between the Nigerian government and Twitter to SERAP solely to ascertain its
impact on the protection of fundamental human rights of Nigerians”.
“Disclosing the details of the agreement between the
Nigerian government and Twitter is in the public interest and does not affect
Twitter’s business interests as a third party. It is also not prejudicial to
Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security,” the judge said.
“The agreement between the Nigerian government and Twitter
must still be disclosed, irrespective of the harm to Twitter, if it would be in
the public interest to make sure disclosure.
“The minister has failed to prove that the president has
followed due process of law to designate Twitter as a critical national
information infrastructure upon the National Security Adviser’s recommendation
and issued an order in the Federal Gazette in that regard.
“Therefore, I hold that the disclosure of the Twitter
agreement is not prejudicial to Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security or
protected by the Official Secrets Act, as the minister has failed to prove the
same.
“The first question that needs to be answered is how the
need to disclose the agreement is outweighed by the importance of protecting
the commercial interests of the third party, Twitter.
“The former minister has unequivocally argued that the
disclosure could harm Twitter’s business interests in other jurisdictions,
potentially with Twitter’s contractual negotiations.
“However, this defence is hypothetical and does not point to
the specific business or contractual interests of Twitter that could be
affected.”
“It is my view that the disclosure of the details of the
agreement as requested by SERAP will not interfere with the commercial interests
and trade secrets of Twitter or lead to financial losses to it, as the former
minister has failed to prove the same.
“Besides, Section 15(4) of the Freedom of Information Act
envisages only real and not hypothetical financial loss or gain to or prejudice
to the competitive position of or interference with contractual or other
negotiation of a third party like Twitter which could be affected by the
disclosure.”
“No evidence was placed before this court pointing to the
fact that Twitter has an agreement with another country as a precondition for
its operation in such jurisdiction as obtainable in Nigeria.”
In July 2022, the court of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) ruled that the banning of Twitter by the Nigerian
government was “unlawful”.
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