Any attempt to crush or stifle the people of a free and fair society from freely expressing their views on any platform such as Facebook, Twitter and the likes will always be met by a strong opposition. For the avoidance of doubt, members of the National Assembly are there to do the bidding of Nigerians and not the other way round. The proposed Social Media Bill currently generating controversy will further portray the lawmakers as desperate individuals who seek to oppress the truth by intimidating those who elected them to make laws for them.
Nigeria is a free society where anyone or everyone has the right to freely express his views through any platform. While abuse of free speech by any individual for the purpose of using the opportunity presented by the social media to dish out information is not acceptable, it behoves the victim of such abuse to go to the court to seek redress.
You do not assume the role of a master over people who have sent you to perform a task on their behalf, which is what the National Assembly members have been trying to do this past 16 years of democracy in Nigeria.
Nigeria cannot afford to be different from other civilized societies where the National Assembly is subject to the people. Power resides in the electorate and not the reverse as we are being made to witness in this country. Nigerians are already out on the streets protesting and kicking at the proposed bill. A wise government will ONLY do the bidding of those who have elected them and not try to repress the people.
Recently, Nigerians have been using the social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter to fight bad government and corruption; so it is easy to see exactly where the National Assembly is heading to in the light of the proposed bill.
It is rather unfortunate that the same party that used the social media to get itself into power during the last general election is now working against the same platform. Twitter in particular, was used by the current government to fight the last government. The Dino Melayes and the Ben Bruce of this world used the microblogging platform to great advantage during the last election; so why are they joining forces against the people by debating such a repressive bill?
Nigeria cannot afford to disintegrate into dictatorship…
