The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed on Thursday attributed the choice of Ghana for Twitter new African office as the handiwork of saboteurs and unpatriotic Nigerians.
Mohammed emphasised that the recent action of Jack Dorsey, Chief Executive Officer of the platform clearly shows how the citizens, especially those on social media space, has succeeded in demarketing the country.
“I hope this will serve as a lesson to Nigerians because all the reasons cited by Twitter for siting its headquarters in Accra, Ghana is that Ghana is champion of democracy, rule of law among other reasons.
“This is what you get when you demarket your own country. The fine time especially for the media is to find fault in their own country, most times exaggerate the challenged the country is facing,” he said.
The minister berated the media for cheering on youths and protesters to attack the government for selfish desire.
While condemning the unpatriotic attitude of the Nigerian press, Mohammed disclosed that the media have always struggle to outdo one another in painting Nigeria as a place where no one can live.
“And at no time was this better seen as during the ENDSARS protest, where Nigerian journalists both traditional and new media were trying to outdo themselves in painting Nigeria as a hail, where nobody should live.
“They tried to vilify not just the government but the country. I thank God that the last US report vindicated the government that there was no corroboration to the claim that people were killed at Lekki Toll gate as against what majority of the media were championing.”
“I think this will teach all of us a lesson that we have no country than Nigeria. We are not saying you should not criticise the government but be fair and patriotic. When you destroy your own house, where are you going to live?
“You can imagine the job opportunities that citing that Headquarters in Nigeria would have created, you can imagine the kind of visibility it would give Nigeria.
“But we destroyed it. Don’t forget that it is what insiders do that outsiders would use to judge us. Nigerians should learn better to manage the image of the country,” he added.
Mohammed argued that the natural expectation is that Nigeria should have been the hub of Twitter business in this part of Africa, given the fact that it has about 25m twitter users against 8m in Ghana.
“The natural expectation is that Nigeria should have been the hub of Twitter in this part of Africa, given that the fact that we have about 25m twitter users against 8m in Ghana.
“Clearly, the decision was not a commercial and business one. But, I think Twitter has the prerogative and exclusive rights to decide where to site its headquarters.
