24th June, 2021
Human rights activist, Femi Falana has said the Federal Government’s planned meeting with Twitter is like putting the cart before the horse.
FG banned Twitter in Nigeria last month, drawing criticism and anger of Nigerians.
Falana, in an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today said the federal Government should have met with Twitter in the first instance before clamping down on microblogging platform.
“The Federal Government meeting with Twitter is a good development but in many instances, they put the cart before the horse. I feel this should have been done earlier.
“The government protested when it was dissatisfied with certain developments. This kind of meeting would have been called much earlier and the embarrassment and inconvenience that Nigerians were subjected to would have been totally avoided.
“But I think it is a good development that both sides are going to meet,” he said.
Falana also said ECOWAS’s involvement in the matter was legal.
He said in the 60s and 70s it was convenient for dictators in Africa to plead sovereignty that nobody should interfere with their internal affairs but that in these days and times, one countries have submitted part of their sovereignties to international bodies.
”In this case of ECOWAS, Nigeria has ratified the protocols establishing the court as well as the supplementary project, it is therefore too late to rush back home and say we are independent, we are sovereign nation,” he said.