Twitter’s Decision To Locate African Hdqrs In Ghana Not Commercial One- Minister
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alh Lai Mohammed has reacted to the choice of Ghana as the location for Twitter’s new African office over Nigeria and other countries.
The Minister said the decision by the US-based social media company to locate its African headquarters in Accra, Ghana was not a commercial and business one.
But he was quick to condemn the unpatriotic attitude of some Nigerians, especially the media who he said have always struggle to outdo one another in painting Nigeria as a hail where no one can live.
Mohammed argued that the natural expectation is that Nigeria should have been the hub of Twitter business in this part of Africa, given that 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 fact that we have about 25m twitter users against 8m in Ghana.
“Clearly, the decision was not a commercial and business one. But, in think Twitter has the prerogative and exclusive rights to decide where to site its headquarters.
“I hope this will serve as a lesson to Nigerians because all the reasons cited by Twitter for sitting 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.
“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.
