A controversial bill which prescribes severe punishment and stiff penalties for any person who makes “false allegation or publishes any statement or petition in the newspaper, radio or medium of whatever description against another person, institutions of government or any public office holder”, recently passed second reading in the Senate. Titled “A bill for an act to prohibit frivolous petitions and other matters connected therewith, 2015” and sponsored by Kebbi South Senator Ibn Na’allah, the bill also “seeks to prohibit frivolous petitions intended to report the conduct of any person of an investigation, inquiry, or inquest without a duly signed affidavit.”
Not surprisingly, the bill has been denounced by the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and several civil society groups. President Muhammadu Buhari has also dissociated himself from the proposed legislation by restating his commitment to the protection of free speech as a veritable tool for constitutional democracy and in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended) which he swore to uphold and protect.
According to his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Public Affair, Mallam Garba Shehu,“the president said free speech is central to democratic societies anywhere in the world. The president explained that without free speech, elected representatives won’t be able to gauge public feelings and moods about governance issues. As a key component of democratic principles, the president acknowledged that people in democratic societies are so emotionally attached to free speech that they would defend it with all their might”.
We have little to add to such apt summation by the president. However, we also believe it is not too late for the Senate to retrace its steps by withdrawing the bill. Expunging some sections as the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, is suggesting is not enough. Whatever may have been the motivations, there are enough legal and constitutional safeguards in our laws to protect innocent citizens from the fears expressed by the promoters of the bill.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi, has argued that the bill was written “to protect all individuals and institutions, including journalists and social media users.” But such assurance flies in the face of the provisions of the bill which seem targeted not only at free speech but also at the whole essence of whistle blowing, especially in our kind of environment where transparency and accountability are not strong points of people in public offices.
In case the senators still don’t get it, what is being defended stoutly is the freedom of Nigerians to explore possibilities in any and every mode of communication to advance their freedom of expression. It is also an affirmation that our people have a right to, by way of petition, hold those in public offices to account.
There is of course a lot to be said against sundry abuses of freedom in the social/new media. This is perhaps inevitable and inherent in its very nature. Once a form of expression is open and unregulated, people, including miscreants and plain vagabonds, who hitherto had no voice, would find their tongue. More often, people who encounter a new language or new freedom first learn how to curse and abuse or be vulgar with it. But we are also of the strong opinion that what is being proposed by the Senate is not in good faith and critical institutions of state should not enact legislations out of malice or to target specific people.
For sure, there are by far too many infractions of national security travelling through the Internet in Nigeria that should attract the attention of a more responsible legislature. And they can do that by helping to strengthen the judiciary to begin to play their roles. Writing petition against public officials and practicing online journalism do not qualify for the urgency of a rushed and patently self-serving legislative bill.
