There is the mistaken impression that the social media was unnecessarily deployed against President Goodluck Jonathan. The truth remains that political awareness and participation reached a crescendo during his tenure. However, the benefits of the social media cannot warrant the barrage of abuses by the users in the name of politics. The integrity and credibility of the social media are fast becoming the subjects of debate everywhere.
By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan
We have maintained that if all a man has is the hammer, everything he sees will look like a nail. For too long, the press has been gagged by various governments.
That explains the mutual suspicion existing between the press and the government, to the extent that any move by the legislature is quickly seen as another attempt to gag the press.
We notice that the stiff resistance from the press is, perhaps unwittingly, beginning to produce the opposite effect – the press is now gagging the legislature. As it were, the tail now wags the dog. This, too, is undesirable.
If there are lessons to be derived from the recent gubernatorial election in Kogi State, they include the fact that in a nation, laws can hardly be too many.
Rather, they can only be inadequate; and when it concerns the law, it is better to err on the side of superfluity than to err on the side of inadequacy. Within the surplus age, there might be buried, some innocuous words for now, which could give meaning and expression to some future questions.
In the Kogi State example, our founding fathers foresaw that a duly elected official could die before the date of his inauguration and they provided for that in the Constitution. The Sixth National Assembly also envisaged that a duly nominated person could die before the date of his election and provided for that in the Electoral Act.
But there was still a lacuna because there was no provision in the event of a candidate dying during the election. Before the Kogi election saga, if a Bill had been presented to the National Assembly, which innocently touched on the few hours during voting, such a Bill could have been thrown out as being overkill on electoral deaths.
At least, we now know that duplication of laws is not an offence. If anything, it could enhance the value of the duplicated law. As they say in local parlance, the more the merrier.
There is no denying the fact that social media is the best thing that has happened to Nigeria’s democracy in recent times. Among other benefits, social media has opened up the political space, thus raising political awareness and citizen participation in government. It has encouraged debates, promoted accountability; and established serious synergy between the leaders and the led.
There is the mistaken impression that the social media was unnecessarily deployed against President Goodluck Jonathan. The truth remains that political awareness and participation reached a crescendo during his tenure.
However, the benefits of the social media cannot warrant the barrage of abuses by the users in the name of politics. The integrity and credibility of the social media are fast becoming the subjects of debate everywhere.
In the aftermath of what happened in Tunisia and Egypt, which subsequently led to the popular Arab Spring, countries like Turkey and Bangladesh have partly tampered with access to social media platforms in their countries.
Now to the Bill titled “Prohibition of Frivolous Petitions and other matters” sponsored by Senator Bala Ibn Na’ Allah (APC/Kebbi State). This Bill has received unwarranted attacks in all fronts.
Contrary to the notion that the Bill is another attempt to gag the Nigerian press, we see in the various attacks on the Bill, an attempt by the press to gag the legislature and prevent it from carrying out its constitutionally- assigned responsibilities to the people.
Clause 3(4) of the Bill, which has been most ferociously attacked stipulates, “Where any person through text messages, 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/or group of persons, an institution of government or such other bodies established by law, shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction shall be liable to imprisonment for two years or a fine of N2,000,000 or both such fine and imprisonment”.
Opponents of this Bill see it as a duplication of our existing law on defamation, which prohibits malicious publications. They are also quick to mention that the Seventh National Assembly promulgated the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, which makes it a crime to send a message by means of computer systems, knowing that such is false, grossly offensive and for the purpose of causing hatred and any other misdemeanor….” Truly, all the measures are mutually enhancing.
Opponents also maintain that the Bill is self-serving for the politicians. What is wrong with that? Should politicians just keep quiet and watch on while you browbeat them left, right and center?
Anyone who refuses to use what he has to get what he wants would be a moral idiot. After all, how is the action of the legislators any different from what the press is doing – inundating the entire print and electronic media with its opposition to be Na’ Allah measure?
It should dawn on the press that no right is absolute. In our pluralistic society, your right to swing your arm ends where your neighbor’s nose begins.
The constitutional guarantee of free speech contained in Section 39(1) of the 1999 Constitution is not a license to haul abuses on your neighbor. And it is a common African phenomenon that you don’t quarrel with a man who says, “If you abuse me, I will jail you.” If you don’t want to be jailed by him, you simply refrain from abusing him. That is what the Na’ Allah measure seeks to do.
That Bill deserves accelerated attention! Let everyone be up and doing. Those who have amendments that could enhance the Bill should send same to the relevant Committees through their elected Representatives.
The Nigeria police must re-invigorate its cyber unit to live up to its responsibilities of professionally monitoring activities online in just the same way as they police our streets so that offenders could be promptly apprehended and brought to book. After all, a crime offline is also a crime online.
Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan is a public affairs analyst and Chairman, Board of Directors, Edo Broadcasting Service. He can be reached at: joligien@yahoo.com
