Twitter announced on Monday it has finally decided to set up its African office in Ghana.
Twitter Co-founder, Jack Dorsey, announced the plan to make Ghana its African headquarters.
He tweeted, “Twitter is now present on the continent. Thank you Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo.”
In reaction, the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, thanked Twitter for its decision, adding that he had met with Dorsey over the development.
“The choice of Ghana as HQ for Twitter’s Africa operations is excellent news.
“As I indicated in our virtual meeting of April 7, 2021, this is the start of a beautiful partnership between Twitter and Ghana, which is critical for the development of Ghana’s hugely important tech sector. These are exciting times to be in, and to do business in Ghana,” he tweeted.
This has however sparked reactions from Nigerians with some blaming Dorsey’s decision on Nigeria’s “misuse of social media” and the country’s stiff economy.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had in recent times sought stiffer penalties for persons who “misuse social media” and the Senate is currently deliberating on Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019 commonly known as the Anti-social media bill.
Reacting to this development, Adamu Garba, a member of the All Progressive Party (APC) tweeted, “I pray Ghana would not allow their country to be used as a platform for the orchestration of nuisance on the African internet space.
“Nigeria is safer with the hypocrisy of Twitter. We shall have to improve on our methods for the elimination of fake news on the information space.
“They just hate Nigeria because they know that the only country that can be the next African superpower, fully democratic, highly mobile population and good working-age population is Nigeria
“Twitter came to Ghana to target the Nigerian market. They won’t admit they need us, but we know.”
Also, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Oke Umurhohwo tweeted, “Another Big L for Nigeria who despite having the biggest active social media users, we got overlooked for Ghana. This is obviously because of the anti-business policies of APC and Buhari. Shameful!”
@opeyemifolarin1 tweeted, “Leadership is everything. Democracy is thriving in Ghana and it’s evident in the peace and stability witnessed in the country and it has contributed significantly to the productivity level and boosting investors’ confidence in Ghana economy.”
@ananabannamdi tweeted, “Largely based on textbook definition Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and probably the largest social media engaging ecosystem in Africa as well. Sadly, the nature of political hijacking, state capture, bad governance and more decadence has made us chop another “L” again!”
“But Jack, Nigeria has one of the biggest Twitter presence in Africa. Don’t worry, FG will make ease of doing business much better,” @Morris_Monye tweeted.
However, Buhari’s aide, Tolu Ogunlesi, downplayed the development, saying Facebook had also announced that it would be opening an office in Lagos.
“Ghana got Twitter, Nigeria got Facebook (operational H2 2021). God be praised. Let’s be happy for each other. Not everything is a fight, dears. Ghana, congratulations,” he tweeted.
