We’ll oppose anti-social media bill at public hearing – Ohanaeze, IYC, others

We’ll oppose anti-social media bill at public hearing – Ohanaeze, IYC, others

Sociopolitical groups, including Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Ijaw Youth Congress on Friday condemned the bill in its entirety, vowing to attend the public hearing to oppose it.

The President, IYC, Mr Eric Omare, said the public hearing on the bill would serve as an opportunity for the group to reject it.

He said, “With it (public hearing), we would have the opportunity to attend and disapprove of the law.

“I do not support the attempt to regulate social media by the Nigerian parliament because if that is done, it will only succeed in suppressing the ability of Nigerians to express themselves.”

The National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Prince Uche Achi-Okpaga, also said the Igbo apex body was against any bill that gagged the freedom of expression of Nigerians.

He said, “It was a former President of America, Thomas Jefferson, who said if he was to choose between a government without the press and a press without government, he would go for a press without government.

“So, the idea of trying to gag the people through the social media bill is outrageous. It is illegal and unobtainable anywhere in the world. The freedom of the press is the freedom of the world.”

Also, PANDEF Secretary-General, Dr Alfred Mulade, said the Niger Delta political pressure group would attend the public hearing and would not support any law that did not promote development, peace, stability and dignity of human existence.

Senate would destroy itself if it passes bill, Afenifere warns

Although the Afenifere said it would not appear at the public hearing, it insisted that the proposed law was meant to “cow the society into submission, remove Nigeria from the list of open society and drag us back to the Stone Age.”

“We would never dignify them (NASS) with such an opportunity (of attending the hearing). Let them go ahead and pass the law. What hearing? You want us to dignify them with our presence there? It’s beneath us,” Yinka Odumakin, the group’s National Publicity Secretary, said.

He challenged the Senate to go ahead and pass the bill, stating that the upper chamber would destroy itself if it did so.

“This Senate is about to destroy itself if it goes ahead with this cruel, obnoxious and wicked bill which is meant to crystallise dictatorship and censorship of opinion in Nigeria,” he said.

Odumakin said many leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress would have been hung had the law on social media regulation been in existence in 2014.

But the President General, Tiv Youth Organisation Worldwide, Timothy Hembaor, on Friday declared support for the bill to regulate social media.

Hembaor said he would gladly mobilise the Tiv youth in Benue State to attend and support the bill when the call for its public hearings was due.

Youths phone, e-mail senators over social media bill

Meanwhile, several Nigerian youths have made telephone calls and sent text messages and e-mails to their senators in protest against the much-debated social media bill.

A Twitter user with the handle, @VillageParrot, took to the social media platform on Friday, calling on Nigerians to contact their senators over the bill, with “#SayNoToSocialMediaBill” trending number one on Twitter as of Friday evening.

In a series of tweets, which included the contact information of most senators, the user said, “Below are the contact details of the 109 senators. Don’t just retweet, but also take action. Send an email! Send text messages! Call them! Tell your friends and families to do the same! Talk to your senators!”

As of 6.45 pm when this report was filed, the post had been retweeted over 7,710 times with 261 comments, some of which described the bill as “undemocratic.”

One user, @Alvinuzor, said, “I just called the senator representing my district – Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. My call was ‘busied’. Well, I trust him on this one. I’m sure he is against this bill.”

@Bkaybubu said, “I just called Senator Mustapha representing Ogun State. I heard him telling someone ‘bami ka owo yi…’ (help me count this money). I wanted the money too, but I told him social media is our safe haven!”

Another Twitter user, Ayoade Damilare, said, “(I) just reached out to (the) senator representing Oyo Central. He responded well, only if we youths or (the) electorate, in general, know our rights, we would get there one day.”

Meanwhile, @AEjodamen said, “My senator is not picking (up).”

@A_Obimma stated, “(I) just spoke to Senator Ifeanyi Ubah of @YPPNational. (I) confirmed he is not in support of the bills and he is on the side of no to both bills.”

@lagosbelz said, “I just called Senator A Yisa from Kwara State. He said senators would not support it and he personally didn’t support it. Some of them are responding, please let’s keep calling.”

Nigeria must fight bill with all energy –Kukah

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, has asked Nigerians to fight the Social Media Regulation Bill with all their energy, saying the bill is “redundant, stale, superfluous and a fraud.”

In a piece made available to Saturday PUNCH on Thursday, Kukah explained that a people who suffered poor governance would use different avenues to express their frustration, which he said had made everyone victims of hate speech.

He added, “The greatest expression of hate is those who use the power in their hands to divide us by favouring or excluding others based on religion, gender, political affiliation or social class.

“Surely, unscrupulous and immoral theft of humungous resources belonging to all of us by our politicians is more damaging to our society than any hate speech. The government has all the laws it needs to fight any form of crime and individuals can fall back on it.

“This bill is redundant, stale, superfluous and a fraud. We must fight it with all our energy. It is rotten yoghurt being marketed beyond its expiration date. We should reject it as a totalitarian attempt to circumscribe our hard-earned freedom.”

PUNCH