By EMMANUEL MOGBEDE

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged talented Nigerians to develop alternative social media applications, following the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria.

Sen. John Akpanudoedehe, National Secretary APC Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) said this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.

He said such applications should be able to rival existing social media platforms and meet the demands of Nigerians.

“Russia has VKontakte (VK) China has Weibo among several homegrown social media platforms.

“The APC believes that Nigeria has the potential and talents that can develop alternative and competitive applications to existing platforms in the world.

“Twitter’s suspension will undoubtedly serve as a positive trigger to unleash creative potentials of Nigerians in the global digital space, this is a challenge to our vibrant youths with such talents,” Akpanudoedehe said.

He assured that interested youths would get support from relevant Federal Government agencies and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training and research establishments in the country.

He recalled the announcement by the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami that Nigeria would soon start production of Smartphone and Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards for African market.

This, the APC scribe said was evidence that the country had what it takes to make a deep and strong foray into the global ICT industry.

He said 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 rhetorics, particularly in Nigeria.

“We tasked them on the important responsibilities to curb fake news, disinformation and hate speech among others.

“Evidently, Twitter failed to do this and even allowed their platform to be used by arsonists, insurrectionists and separatists in the country.

“We are a democratic and independent nation, citizens should defend our sovereignty by supporting the government’s Twitter suspension. It is in our national interest,”Akpanudoedehe said. (NAN)

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