Court orders Lai Mohammed to disclose FG agreement with X

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has compelled the former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to disclose details of the agreement between the Nigerian government and microblogging site, X.

In a landmark judgement delivered in May 2024, Justice Nnamdi Okwy Dimgba ruled in favour of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in a Freedom of Information suit against the erstwhile minister.

The certified true copy of the judgment was obtained last Friday.

Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP’s Deputy Director, disclosed in a statement on Sunday, July 14, 2024, that the order was to assess whether the agreement complies with the exercise of Nigerians' human rights online.

Recall that on June 4, 2021, the Federal Government suspended X (known as Twitter at the time) after the platform removed a post from former President Muhammadu Buhari's account.

However, the government lifted the suspension on Twitter operations in Nigeria in January 2022, seven months after the ban.

In a statement issued on January 13, 2023, the Federal Government claimed the microblogging platform agreed to certain conditions leading to the lifting of the ban.

“Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history,” the statement read partly.

Court orders Mohammed to disclose X agreement

Meanwhile, Justice Dimgba directed and compelled the former minister and the Ministry of Information to provide a copy of the agreement between the Nigerian government and X to SERAP solely to ascertain its impact on the protection of fundamental human rights of Nigerians.

“Disclosing the details of the agreement between the Nigerian Government and Twitter is in the public interest and does not affect Twitter’s business interest as a third party. It is also not prejudicial to Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security,” the Justice held.

“The agreement between the Nigerian Government and Twitter must still be disclosed irrespective of the harm to Twitter if it would be in the public interest to make sure disclosure.”

Justice Dimgba dismissed the objections raised by the minister’s counsel and upheld SERAP’s arguments. Consequently, the court entered judgment in favour of SERAP against the minister.

“The minister has failed to prove that the President has followed due process of law to designate Twitter as a Critical National Information Infrastructure upon the National Security Adviser’s recommendation and issued an Order in the Federal Gazette in that regard.

“Therefore, I hold that the disclosure of the Twitter agreement is not prejudicial to Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security or protected by the Official Secrets Act, as the minister has failed to prove the same," Justice Dimgba further said.

The former president was joined in the suit as Co-respondent but the court gave the orders against the minister.