The Senate has floated a bill designed to gag the social media in Nigeria which has passed a second reading on the second day of December, exactly a week after it had received first reading. The urgency with which the bill, intended to pave way for an ‘Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and Other Matters Connected Therewith’ was passed clearly suggests the intent of its sponsors led byThe Senate has floated a bill designed to gag the social media in Nigeria which has passed a second reading on the second day of December, exactly a week after it had received first reading.
The urgency with which the bill, intended to pave way for an ‘Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and Other Matters Connected Therewith’ was passed clearly suggests the intent of its sponsors led by Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah from Kebbi state.
Many Nigerians were disturbed by the relevance and suitability of that bill coming at a time when the nation is facing serious economic crises, infrastructural decay, corruption and grievous security threats from insurgents. This is more so as our senators who have been branded as unserious jokers were busy chasing harmless social media users.
Gagging the social media by imposing stiff penalties on both the users and operators will do more harm than good. At best it will help polarize an already fragile nation the more. It is not certain if the sponsors of the bill have ever hesitated to consider the consequences of their action. They may even fail to take into consideration the fact that the more people are pushed to the wall the more aggressive they become.
Nigeria is a unique country where its teeming youths face bleak future with no prospects of securing a satisfying job, no access to reliable and affordable internet facilities, unstable supply of electricity, and yet their elected representatives in the hallowed chambers, responsible for making life better and meaningful for them, are busy doing the opposite.
Proponents of the bill claim that it was aimed at protecting persons or government institutions from baseless and unmannerly statements in the social media. But they need to be reminded or referred to an extant legislation and regulations that take care of libel, defamation and similar offences under the Law of Tort.
In that case they do not need extra legislations in that regards by hiding under the guise of sanitizing the country’s opinion pool. After all, who is afraid of the social media? The Senate shouldn’t arrogate to itself the onus of deciding which piece of information is false or correct. Is the Senate fully aware that it could be possible for criminals to hack the accounts of government critics and post incriminating materials?
Nigerians cherish their right and freedom of speech and expressions and are always ever ready to let their legislators know that they will always try to thwart their efforts at emasculating liberty by disallowing their obnoxious schemes to succeed.
They have, in the past, succeeded in their sustained campaigns against impunity and related acts that had threatened the growth of democracy. Therefore, opposition to the retrogressive Social Media Bill will not be an exception, while everywhere in the world Human Rights bodies and activists will join hands with similar bodies in a spirited campaign to deal the repulsive bill a stunning blow.
As a matter of fact, the Nigerian National Committee of the International Press Institute, IPI notes with concern the Senate’s bill to criminalize social media practice in this country. The committee noted that the deceptive bill was actually targeted at muzzling free speech and has no intrinsic value whatsoever. It is noteworthy how the International Press Institute was quick to commend President Muhamadu Buhari’s anticipatory move to stifle the bill in the event of its passage in both chambers of the National Assembly by withholding his assent to make it a law.
Although President Buhari and his ruling party, the APC have been victims of opposition’s calumny in the social media before and after the presidential elections, yet he had resisted the temptation to be part of those advocating the gag of the social media and would not allow himself to be lured into unpleasant anti-media trap.
Now, with President Buhari’s seeming disregard for any attempt to silence the media, as initiated by the National Assembly’s Red Chamber, the House of Representative is being implored to ignore the bill whenever its gets to its domain. Nevertheless, like the mainstream media, the social media platforms are in need of self regulation and should embrace the best practice and imbibe the ethics of their profession.
Distinguished members of the Senate and the Honorable members of the House of Representatives should realize that the right to free speech of the people that sponsored them to those hallowed chambers is sacrosanct and could not be infringed. There are already existing laws to deal with media imperfections which do not need any amendment. Accordingly, the anti-media bill should be discarded altogether in the interest of peace and progress in the country. The bill is substantially faulty and constitute an open insult to the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression.
Many Nigerians were disturbed by the relevance and suitability of that bill coming at a time when the nation is facing serious economic crises, infrastructural decay, corruption and grievous security threats from insurgents. This is more so as our senators who have been branded as unserious jokers were busy chasing harmless social media users.
Gagging the social media by imposing stiff penalties on both the users and operators will do more harm than good.
At best it will help polarize an already fragile nation the more. It is not certain if the sponsors of the bill have ever hesitated to consider the consequences of their action. They may even fail to take into consideration the fact that the more people are pushed to the wall the more aggressive they become.
Nigeria is a unique country where its teeming youths face bleak future with no prospects of securing a satisfying job, no access to reliable and affordable internet facilities, unstable supply of electricity, and yet their elected representatives in the hallowed chambers, responsible for making life better and meaningful for them, are busy doing the opposite.
Proponents of the bill claim that it was aimed at protecting persons or government institutions from baseless and unmannerly statements in the social media. But they need to be reminded or referred to an extant legislation and regulations that take care of libel, defamation and similar offences under the Law of Tort.
In that case they do not need extra legislations in that regards by hiding under the guise of sanitizing the country’s opinion pool.
After all, who is afraid of the social media? The Senate shouldn’t arrogate to itself the onus of deciding which piece of information is false or correct. Is the Senate fully aware that it could be possible for criminals to hack the accounts of government critics and post incriminating materials?
Nigerians cherish their right and freedom of speech and expressions and are always ever ready to let their legislators know that they will always try to thwart their efforts at emasculating liberty by disallowing their obnoxious schemes to succeed. They have, in the past, succeeded in their sustained campaigns against impunity and related acts that had threatened the growth of democracy.
Therefore, opposition to the retrogressive Social Media Bill will not be an exception, while everywhere in the world Human Rights bodies and activists will join hands with similar bodies in a spirited campaign to deal the repulsive bill a stunning blow.
As a matter of fact, the Nigerian National Committee of the International Press Institute, IPI notes with concern the Senate’s bill to criminalize social media practice in this country. The committee noted that the deceptive bill was actually targeted at muzzling free speech and has no intrinsic value whatsoever.
It is noteworthy how the International Press Institute was quick to commend President Muhamadu Buhari’s anticipatory move to stifle the bill in the event of its passage in both chambers of the National Assembly by withholding his assent to make it a law.
Although President Buhari and his ruling party, the APC have been victims of opposition’s calumny in the social media before and after the presidential elections, yet he had resisted the temptation to be part of those advocating the gag of the social media and would not allow himself to be lured into unpleasant anti-media trap.
Now, with President Buhari’s seeming disregard for any attempt to silence the media, as initiated by the National Assembly’s Red Chamber, the House of Representative is being implored to ignore the bill whenever its gets to its domain. Nevertheless, like the mainstream media, the social media platforms are in need of self regulation and should embrace the best practice and imbibe the ethics of their profession.
Distinguished members of the Senate and the Honorable members of the House of Representatives should realize that the right to free speech of the people that sponsored them to those hallowed chambers is sacrosanct and could not be infringed. There are already existing laws to deal with media imperfections which do not need any amendment. Accordingly, the anti-media bill should be discarded altogether in the interest of peace and progress in the country. The bill is substantially faulty and constitute an open insult to the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression.