By Ngozi Onyeakusi— The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers,GOCOP has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to rescind his government’s decision to suspend Twitter in Nigeria.

GOCOP made this call in a statement signed by its President,Mr Dotun Oladipo and General Secretary,Mr Danlami Nmodu, mni on Monday.

According to GOCOP, the suspension of Twitter is a major setback for online publishing and other businesses which rely on the social media platform for mass circulation and marketing of their businesses.

“We believe this suspension will ruin our businesses and shrink the democratic space.

“Even more, this action will leave many social media handlers who work full time doing legitimate businesses jobless.This will compound the already troubling unemployment situation in the country.

“We believe this action is more injurious to the survival of Nigerian young business entrepreneurs who rely on Twitter.”

Also, government’s move is a major setback for information dissemination, growth of the media, information technology sectors among others in Nigeria.

“We note that there are also millions of Nigerians who use Twitter to ventilate their democratic right of freedom of expression responsibly.The suspension clearly shrinks the democratic space.

GOCOP advised the President to explore alternative means of relating with Twitter to resolve whatever difference that have arisen.

“Once again, we call on government to lift the order suspending Twitter in Nigeria immediately”, GOCOP said.