The Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed says Twitter chose Ghana as the headquarters for its African operations, due to the unpatriotism of Nigerians.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, Mr Mohammed said the tech giants chose Accra over Nigeria because the nation’s West African neighbours are champions of democracy and abide by the rule of law.
“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,” the minister stated.
He further blamed the media for championing the course of devaluing Nigeria by fervently putting out negative reports and painting the country as a hell on earth.
“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.”
The minister argued that the natural expectation is that Nigeria with a 25 million Twitter user population should have been the hub of twitter business in Africa, as against ghana with only eight million Twitter users.
He urged Nigerians to be more patriotic, stressing that the continuous push to put the nation in a bad light has now cost a great opportunity that would have benefitted the youths and the nation at large.