Section 39 of the Nigerian
Constitution 1999 is unequivocal in its provision that: “Every person shall be
entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions, and to
receive and impart ideas and information without interference.” Although the
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki,
explained that senators were mindful of fundamental rights provisions in the
constitution and would do nothing to contravene them, the Senate might have
stirred the hornet’s nest by fiddling with a bill that seeks to gag the press,
be it on-line press. The upper house legislators will nevertheless be held
accountable for its leader’s pledge. Freedom of expression is a constitutional
and fundamental right; inviolable under any democratic tradition.
The Senate, or any other
legislative body for that matter, must be careful in how it goes about the bill
in order to avoid undue heating of the already tense polity. Previous attempts
to gag the press in Nigeria, even under military regimes, met with stern
resistance; and only succeeded in pitching government against the people and
the press, and creating social unrest.
The “Bill for an Act to
Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and other matters Connected Therewith, 2015
(SB.143)”, has, within eight days, reportedly, passed through second reading in
the Senate. The bill targets on-line media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, Whatsapp, on-line blogs and the like, which are said to be
growing exponentially.
According to Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, Deputy
Senate Leader, who sponsored the bill, the aim is to bring sanity into the
system and make way for “credible and verifiable” petitions. Na’Allah’s grouse
is to stop the risk of writing “frivolous” petitions against public officials.
For him, public officials should be shielded from scrutiny.
The bill provides inter
alia: “Where any person in order to circumvent this law
makes any allegation and or publishes any statement, petition in any paper,
radio, or any medium of whatever description, with malicious intent to
discredit or set the public against any person or group of persons,
institutions of government, he shall be guilty of an offence and upon
conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment term of two years or a fine of
N4 million.”
Furthermore, the bill
stipulates that “where any person, through text
message, tweets, Whatsapp or through any social media, posts any abusive
statement knowing same to be false, with intent to set the public against any
person and group of persons, he shall be liable to an imprisonment for two
years or a fine of N2 million or both.”
The Senate has widely been
criticised with a wave of protests, resentments and condemnation from across
the civil society and the media. Already, the On-line Publishers Association of Nigeria (OPAN) has sued the
Senate at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking declarations and injunctions
to stop the legislative organ from proceeding with an enactment on the bill.
Public disenchantment over
the bill is to be appreciated against the fact that the social media phenomenon
has become a strong cultural tool and an irrepressible part of the new
technological age propelled through the Internet and mobile telephony. The
development is worldwide. Social media is versatile and ubiquitous, which gives
it edge over traditional media. How do you tackle a negative anonymous tweet
that goes viral on the Internet without trace?
Available statistics
indicate that Nigerian Facebook users currently stand at over seven million and
Nigeria leads with the highest number of Internet penetration in Africa. As at
July 2014, Nigeria reportedly had a 16 per cent Internet user growth with
67,101,452 users, which is the platform for social media access. Most of these
Internet users are active members of one social media platform or the other,
where they carry out formal and informal activities on-line.
Granted that, like the
traditional media platforms, there could be abuses, which invariably calls for
some regulations. But given the inherent character of social media, extreme
care must be taken to prevent the child of social media being thrown away with
the bath water. The largely unsuccessful experience of some developed countries
that have attempted to curtail social media excesses in some aspects must be
cultivated. The Western world for instance, is preoccupied with sexual issues
on social media, because of its pervasive cultural reality in their
environment.
With corruption endemic in
Nigeria, lawmakers must ensure that the bill is not self-serving, or designed
to unduly protect public officials from public demand for accountability. In
any event, there are enough existing laws in the country’s statute books on
defamation, privacy, libel and slander to protect public and private
individuals ordinarily. Care must be taken to ensure that enacting another law
on similar issues does not amount to overkill.
Social media platform has a
great future and has undoubtedly come to stay. Rather than waste precious time
attempting to stifle its growth, the Senate and other arms of government should
seek to harness its potential for public interest and developmental purposes. In fact, social media could serve as a
veritable tool for fighting corruption. (Guardian)
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