The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged Nigerians talented in the development of social media/software applications to seize the opportunity of the suspension of Twitter operations in the country to develop homegrown applications that can rival existing social media platforms and meet the need of Nigerians.
Russia has VKontakte (VK), China has Weibo, among several homegrown social media platforms.
According to the party, Nigeria has the potential and talents that can develop alternative and competitive applications to existing platforms in the world.
It further stated that twitter’s suspension will undoubtedly serve as a positive trigger to unleash the creative potentials of Nigerians in the global digital space.
“This is a challenge to our vibrant youths with such talents. They will get support in the exercise from relevant federal government agencies as well as the numerous Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training and research establishments in the country.
“The recent announcement by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy that Nigeria will soon start the production of smartphones and Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards for the African market is evidence that the country has what it takes to make a deep and strong foray into the global ICT industry,” the party said.
Recall that the APC had earlier released a statement asking Twitter and other operators of social media pages to use their platforms to check divisive and inciting rhetoric, particularly in Nigeria. We tasked them on the important responsibilities to curb fake news, disinformation, hate speech, among others.
