The Federal Government has blamed the media and unpatriotic Nigerians for being the reason why Ghana was chosen as Twitter headquarters in Africa over Nigeria.
Recall that Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer, Jack Dorsey had announced via his twitter handle that Ghana was chosen as the location for its headquarters in Africa.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed in an interview on Thursday said the development would serve as a lesson for Nigerians the country to be patriotic in managing the image of the country.
According to him, with Nigeria having 25 million Twitter users against Ghana’s eight million users, it was a natural expectation that Nigeria would have been chosen by Twitter for the continent.
He said: “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 media is more to blame for this which most times exaggerates 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,’’ he said.
The minister also noted that he was pleased with the U.S. report which vindicated the Nigerian government that no single life was lost at the Lekki Toll Gate as opposed to what the majority of the media reported.
“We are not saying that you should not criticize 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,’’ he said.
“It is what the insiders say about their country that the outsider will use to judge and condemn the country.”
NAN
