Ahead of the 2019 General election and with the image of President Muhammadu Buhari led- APC government continuously sliding in the eyes of Nigerians, the government is said to have begun the process enforcing a comprehensive clampdown on perceived unfriendly online newspapers and social media. Also to be affected by the pending clampdown are blogs and websites.
According to findings, the federal government has reportedly directed the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to enlist a Lagos-based firm to execute the blocking of some websites considered a threat to national security.
The Office of the National Security Adviser is said to have drawn a list of 21 “unfriendly websites” to the NCC to forward to the Information Technology firm contracted to block the operations of the said social media websites.
In a memo from NCC dated October 20, 2017, and entitled Re: Request to Prevent the Commission of an Offence under Section 146 of the Nigerian Communications Act 2003” which was signed by Yetunde Akinloye, Head Legal and Regulatory services and co-signed by an official on behalf of Engineer Haru Alhassan, Director New Media and Information Security.
The Communication regulatory body reminded the firm of its previous memo dated September 27, 2017 directing it to take steps to restrict access within the Nigerian cyberspace the 21 websites identified by the Office of the National Security Adviser as threatening national security. The directive emphasised on the firm blocking the domain names of the listed websites.
Although President Buhari leadership has come under intense criticism by Nigerians in the past one year for not living up to the campaign promises, but what is said to have primarily influenced government’s decision to clampdown on the social media is their exposure of the behind the scene occurrence as it affected the President’s health challenges which confined him to a London hospital for over three months.
Security agencies especially the Department of State Security (DSS) were particularly angered by the trending reports from the social media that the President was incapacitated and that his life was hanging on a thin line. Also linked to government’s decision to gag the press is the negative reports awash on the social media daily on the government war against corruption which is seen as selective.
Sources pointed out that as unpopular as this action is bound to be, it was a necessary evil to check the excesses of the social media because of its potent power if the government wants to make any head way in the forth coming election considering the obvious threat by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Apart from this, recent actions, policy decisions and plans towards regulating the press according to observers paint a clear picture of the resolve by President Buhari government to gag the press
For instance, the recent recommendation by the National Council on Information (NCI) that government will set up a council whose duty will be to regulate the use of social media in Nigeria
The recommendation was part of a communiqué issued at the end of Extraordinary Meeting of NCI on Hate Speeches, Fake News and National Unity held in Jos, Plateau state recently.
The Council, presided over by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had recommended the use of stringent measures to check conventional media and their programmes.
The Council also suggested that information managers at the state level should open a website that would immediately counter report any misinformation posted on social media.
It further recommended the killing of whatever is assumed or presumed to be hate speeches or fake news or misinformation by the information managers in various states on social media.
NCI said social media might take over the 2019 elections because Nigerians have come to rely on whatever they find on social media than on conventional media.
Before the recommendation of the NCI, it could be recalled that Vice-President Professor Yemi Osibanjo and the Information Minister have in recent times been quoted at several fora canvassing for the setting up of special courts to try those that make hate speeches.
Similarly, Benjamin Dikki, Director General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has also hinted about plans to roll out policies and the legal frame work to regulate the social media. Dikki reportedly said such regulation was inevitable to check what he termed unregulated posting of offensive materials on various social media network sites. “As it now obtains, all manner of things are uploaded on the various platforms of the social. Media without recourse to age and sensibilities of the users, this is not good enough”, he said.It could be recalled that in order to fuel the objective of gagging the media with focus on the social media, a bill aimed at achieving that called ‘ Social Media Bill is still with the National Assembly. The draft bill is an act to prohibit frivolous petitions and other matters connected with it. The bill would require any person submitting a petition to the government to have accompanying affidavit and imposed stiff penalty of N2million fine or two years imprisonment of offenders for tweets or text messages that convey false statements about individuals, group of persons and institutions of government. The bill targets WhatsAPP, which is the private messaging application and Twitter. Instructively, these communication platforms have now become familiar working tools for Nigerian journalists.
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According to one section of the bill, anyone who makes any abusive statements made against a public official in the social media, which the author knew was false, could face up to two years imprisonment or two million Naira fine.
The bill has been a subject of controversy as many Nigerian have condemned it. The common argument is that the bill if allowed will infringe on the rights of people to express themselves which resides in the Nigeria constitution as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ which Nigeria is a signatory.
Joseph Daudu (SAN), former president of Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, said the President Buhari –led administration has no justification to either gag the press or Nigerians from freely expressing themselves on the various social media platforms because it was a beneficiary of freedom of speech that was the hallmark of former President Goodluck Jonathan government.
The legal luminary who commented at a law seminar recently, maintained that it would amount to injustice for government to contemplate or attempt to clampdown on free speech in the country in the current democratic dispensation.
“It is no news that many Nigerian leaders have military background and are oftentimes overwhelmed by their autocratic styled training. It is, therefore, not surprising that from time to time, Nigerian leaders in total disregard to the constitution, read ‘riot act’ to either warn or threaten the people to mind their utterances or face harassment,” Daudu said.
He said the autocratic attitude does not only affect victims negatively but sends a negative message of impunity to the society.
He noted that the President had on return from the long medical trip abroad made no pretentions about his anger with the social media as he frowned at some comments on the media platforms which he said was a step taken too far. He also recalled that the President comment was followed by a warning from the military that it had put measures in place to monitor all anti-government and anti-security expressions deserving appropriate responses.
Daudu stressed that a truly democratic society should provide a level playing ground for all schools of thought to express, impart and debate their ideas in any manner whatsoever and through whatever means it deems appropriate. He warned that the foundation of democracy in Nigeria would be destroyed if free speech is restricted in any form whatsoever.
Daudu maintained that contrary to the argument that social media has created numerous agents of harmful speech, it merely provide Nigerians platforms to air their views on issues affecting them
Like Daudu, many Nigerians have the popular view that it would be the highest level of injustice for a government that rode to power on the back of Freedom of Speech and expression promoted by the previous government to turn around and contemplate gagging the press or freedom of expression.
.Stephen David, an engineer want to know what government calls hate speech considering what the APC did to former President Jonathan. “Buhari government is talking about hate speech, but while they were in opposition the same Buhari and his party chieftains said they would make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan won and even promised to form parallel government apart from calling the then president all manner of derogatory names. Now they are talking of hate speech and want to clampdown on the press,” he said.
He said the government disposition to gag Nigerians and the press is a sad reminder of 1984 when the current president, then a military Head of State promulgated Decree 4, which led to the imprisonment of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor of the Guardian Newspaper for writing a story that government was planning to close 11 foreign missions. A story government claimed was false but findings showed the decision was actually in the pipeline.
Critics also see the plan to clampdown on the media by Buhari government as running at variance with the Freedom of Information Bill, which is a tool to promote freedom of speech, expression and liberty to seek for information from government and its agencies.
However, a stakeholder in the social media circle who refused to be named said in as much as he does not support any clampdown whatsoever on social media or internet users, but some players should cross check what comes out on their platform most of which are very inflammatory, while some even carry news that turns out to be false. He said in as much as the advent of social media has cause revolution in information dissemination; they should be decorum in its usage.
Perhaps in furtherance of President Buhari’s government move to clampdown on the media the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC last month sanctioned 23 broadcasting stations for breaching the Nigeria Broadcasting code. The broadcasting stations were fined a total of N2.849 million. According to Mrs Maima Jimada, Head Public Affairs of the Commission, the media houses were fined for various breaches ranging from, Use of hateful speech, Use of indecent musicals, Unverifiable claims and Unprofessional broadcast. Those fines ranged from N50, 000 to N200,000 included, and those fined included Harmony FM in Abuja, ABS FM in Enugu, Radio Continental and Bond FM in Lagos, Rainbow FM Ibadan, ITV Jos, EBS Radio Benin, Family Love FM Uyo and Express FM radio in Kano.
Significantly many stakeholders see the advent of social media platform as a veritable tool to check the government especially with the glut hitting the conventional media market in Nigeria that has seen news magazines like Newswatch, TELL, TheNews, TheWeek and The Source noted for investigative stories going into oblivion. These major magazines had since seized to publish hard copies because of unfavourable operating climate which worsened since the inception of this government.
It could be recalled that Sahara Reporters and Elendusport set the pace for online media in Nigeria about 10 years ago. Since then, the industry has swelled in number with credible ones like The Cable, The Next Edition, News Express, Premium Times, RealNews , The Eagle, Citizen, among others.
Findings show that barely 10 years of social media acceptability in the country, Nigeria currently has 15 million Facebook users and about 97 million mobile internet subscriptions, a development that could be liken to the rapid growth of GSM market in Nigeria.
