Centre Cautions Against Regulating Social Media

By Ayodele Oni

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has observed that social media has nothing to do with insecurity in Nigeria and cautioned against any attempt to regulate it.

Rather, it  urged government officials to focus on addressing insecurity, poverty, and unemployment instead.

The group was reacting to a recent call by Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, who, during the presentation of nomination forms to Governor Biodun Oyebanji in Ekiti State, described social media as a threat to Nigeria’s peace.

In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Y.Z. Ya’u, CITAD said the senator’s remark was part of a recurring pattern of government officials scapegoating social media for the country’s challenges.

It added that such a call must not be taken as an accidental statement stressing “It is part of the growing mindset within government that clamours for the derogation of freedom of expression online.”

Coming from a high-ranking senator and against the background of heightened clampdown on freedom of expression online, Ya’u argued that insecurity across Nigeria was not caused by social media but by the government’s inability to address fundamental issues fueling unrest.

“This country has been witnessing increasing high levels of insecurity with violence visiting innocent people almost on a daily basis.

“This high level of insecurity has nothing to do with social media but results from the failure of government to address the root causes of insecurity and communal tensions.”

Ya’u identified injustice, poverty, unemployment, and poor conflict resolution mechanisms as the major drivers of insecurity. Nowhere in the world has reality shown that social media is responsible for the lack of peace.”

He stressed that instead of clamping down on digital expression, the government should “rethink its policies, which are generating poverty, unemployment, misery and hopelessness, all of which feed into discontent that results in youth restiveness.”

He also described social media as a democratic necessity, noting that “access to and use of social media has become a fundamental right of citizens as it is the means for the people to receive and share information and express themselves, a foundational requirement for any democracy worth its name.”

Ya’u therefore urged Senator Bamidele to retrace his steps and lend his voice to efforts geared toward solving the country’s pressing socio-economic problems.

“Social media regulation is a euphemism to curtail the right of expression of citizens online which has no place in our democracy and therefore must not be allowed,”

“CITAD calls on the Senate Leader to retrace his path, as a former respected activist for social justice, and add his voice to the demand that government should address the hunger, joblessness, insecurity and social injustice in the country.”