This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.
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“As a key component of democratic principles, the president acknowledges that people in democratic societies are so emotionally attached to free speech and they would defend it with all their might”, Shehu added.
Jennifer Cooke, director of Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Baba Adam, a leading Nigerian academic and policy advocate in the United States, Reed Kramer, chief executive and co-founder of AllAfrica.com and other speakers at the event variously described the anti-social media bill as a distraction from urgent issues affecting governance.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, if passed into law, would makes it an offence for anybody to malign the integrity of any person, group of persons or an institution of government through publication of any false statement, petition or complain in any medium, be it the traditional media or social media. Last week the Diaspora of Nigerian Nationals Network (DNN) threatened Senate President Bukola Saraki and others with travel bans should they continue to support the bill.
The bill provides for N2m or N4m fine or six years imprisonment for offenders.
The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) demands, unconditionally, that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria suspends all proceedings with respect to a proposed Bill, “FRIVOLOUS PETITIONS (PROHIBITIONS ETC) BILL, 2015”.
One of the protesters who identified himself as Nnamdi told DAILY POST that the Senators were obviously out to gag the press, something he likened to Decree 4 of the past Military era, stressing that they would do everything they can to resist it.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) have distanced themselves from such move, urging the Senate to unconditionally suspend proceedings on the bill.
President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the commitment of his administration to the protection of free speech in keeping with democratic tradition. Appallingly, the Bill has also included as its target very personal and private means of communication such as SMS or text messages and WhatsApp, among others.
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The organisation also said that, “By initiating this bill, the National Assembly is impermissibly restricting the ability of the citizens to use these tools to communicate, connect, and seek independent sources of information”.
