Bishop Augustine Akubueze, CBCN President
The Catholic Church in Nigeria is opposed to government's move to enact legislation against use of social media in Nigeria.
The controversial anti social media bill has been with the national legislature since 2019, when first attempt was made to pass it for Presidential assent.
Nigeria’s Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, citing China as justification, says the government is not trying to regulate social media but to “dominate” control of what Nigerians post on social media.
Government is proposing to introduce legislations on hate speech and the use of social media, a move which has drawn sharp criticisms from Nigerians and the civil society groups. Previous attempt to pass the bill alongside other bills seeking to regulate fake news and hate speech had been successful. In November 2019, two Nigerian senators at the National Assembly from the ruling party, APC, introduced bills that would regulate the use of social media in the country and fight fake news and hate speech on the internet.
The two bills, “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill” and the “National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech Bill” generated intense debates among Nigerians and civil society groups.
The Catholic Church has been at the forefront in condemning the proposed social media bills which it says are an “attack” on fundamental human rights, especially freedom of expression, provided first by God, then the constitution and other international legal documents and conventions such as the United Nations' Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
“The government should not think of regulating social media. They should be very careful. You cannot regulate what you are not in control of. The best thing to do is for you to check yourself and re-focus, if the social media messages are against you,” said Fr. Mike Nsikak Umoh, the director of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria.
Fr. Umoh said government should rather concentrate more on the formation of the characters of the youths, since there were so many social and behavioral problems caused by wrong use of social media which the government could correct for the general good of the society.
Umoh noted that the plan to regulate social media would be unsuccessful in the end. He asked the government to instead focus its energy in development initiatives and social reformation rather than thinking of regulating the social media which has provided a platform for the exchange of ideas and giving voices to voiceless communities.
He described the recent #Endsars protest against police brutality across the country as a revolution and a phenomenon. "It is a revolution that is bigger than any government and it is a phenomenon that will outlive any government,” Umoh said.
Calls for the regulation of social media became intense among government circles during the protest. Government officials say social media helped in mobilizing the protesters and inciting negative tensions in the country.
It will be recalled that in 2019 the highly vocal Bishop of Sokoto diocese, His Lordship Matthew Hassan Kukah, condemned the Nigeria's social media bill, describing it as a "totalitarian attempt" and "rotten yogurt."
“This Bill is redundant, stale, superfluous and a fraud,” fiery Bishop Hassan Kukah said, expressing his outright rejection of the proposed bill in a statement published by the Catholic News Service of Nigeria.
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah
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