Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and the Ministry of Information to disclose the details of the agreement between the Federal Government (FG) and X, formerly Twitter, to assess whether the agreement complies with the exercise of Nigerians’ human rights online.
The judge took this decision following a Freedom of Information (FoI) suit marked FHC/L/CS/238/2022, instituted by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
Delivering judgment, Justice Dimgba declared, “The former minister and the Ministry of Information are directed and compelled to provide a copy of the agreement between the Nigerian government and Twitter 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.”
Justice Dimgba who further stated that the agreement between the FG and Twitter must still be disclosed irrespective of the harm to Twitter if it would be in the public interest to make such disclosure, dismissed the objections raised by the counsel for the former minister and upheld SERAP’s arguments.
The judge equally said, “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.”
Justice Dimgba’s judgment, dated May 28, 2024, read in part: “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.
“The first question that needs to be answered is how the need to disclose the agreement is outweighed by the importance of protecting the commercial interests of the third party, Twitter.
“The former minister has unequivocally argued that the disclosure could harm Twitter’s business interests in other jurisdictions, potentially with Twitter’s contractual negotiations.
“However, this defence is hypothetical and does not point to the specific business or contractual interests of Twitter that could be affected.
“It is my view that the disclosure of the details of the agreement as requested by SERAP will not interfere with the commercial interests and trade secrets of Twitter or lead to financial losses to it, as the former minister has failed to prove the same.
“Besides, Section 15 (4) of the Freedom of Information Act envisages only real and not hypothetical financial loss or gain to or prejudice to, the competitive position of or interference with contractual or other negotiation of a third party like Twitter which could be affected by the disclosure.
“No evidence was placed before this court pointing to the fact that Twitter has an agreement with another country as a precondition for its operation in such jurisdiction as obtainable in Nigeria.
“I am of the view that SERAP has a legitimate reason to wish to be availed of the agreement, which is to understand how the agreement affects them and other Nigerians as far as the protection of the human rights of Nigerians is concerned.”
It would be recalled that the FG had suspended Twitter on June 4, 2021, after it removed a post from former president Muhammadu Buhari.
The former president was joined in the suit as co-respondent, but the court gave the orders against the minister.
