President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, has come under fire after he opined that social media has become a societal menace and must be regulated.

 

 

Gbajabiamila said this while representing President Tinubu at the public presentation of a book, “Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole” written by a former Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in Lagos.

 

 

According to Gbajabiamila, “The social media has become a societal menace and must be regulated. As many people do not understand that once the send button is hit, there is a potential to reach millions of people around the world which is capable of causing a great danger not just in the society but even unintended consequences to the individuals that are receiving information which may include security of life,”

 

 

Following this statement, some social media users have started to bare out their minds calling the president’s chief of staff “anti-social”

 

Emma IK Umeh (Tcee) on the X Platform said, Any attempt at social media siege will be FULLY RESISTED.

 

It is quite painful and disturbing that a former Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila will speak in this manner.

 

Nigeria already have adequate laws that deals with issues around personal injury or infractions using social media.

 

Social media is not the problem, poor leadership and bad governance is! Rather than pitching social media regulations, political actors harness should sort means to maximise opportunities around social media access, and address the growing social and economic inequalities in the country.

 

Shatima MD said,  the APC administration is in total desperation. The president doesn’t have the power to regulate food crisps but has the power to regulate social media.

This is ridiculous

 

Dara Pamdusu in his reaction said, I am really interested in the thinking process of these our leader, to be honest how is SM your problem at this critical point in time?

 

It would be recalled that in October 2023, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project urged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Speaker, House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, “to reject the recently reintroduced social media regulation bill.”

 

SERAP noted that the passage of the bill “would unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and privacy,” and urged Tinubu’s administration to stop its efforts to compel technological firms like Google and YouTube to restrict such “fundamental human rights.