The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, on Sunday said that social media must be regulated to protect national interest.
This was as he assured Nigerians that the amendment to the Electoral Act will be passed by the lawmakers before its summer break in July.
The Speaker, who spoke on a television programme monitored by THISDAY, hinged his assertion on the belief that everything in life has to be regulated.
Gbajabiamila said: “The social media is the most potent weapon for good and for evil. While we welcome the good, we must prepare over the evil. You cannot use the idea of free speech to destroy me. Most democracies in the world today are making efforts to regulate the social media and the National Assembly has been considering regulating the social media for long. But each time the issue comes up, Nigerians kick against it. It is something we need to do because we have a responsibility to protect every single citizen in this country and that is what we must do.”
He however said the House was yet to take any position on the suspension of micro blogging platform, Twitter, by the federal government.
The Speaker while stressing that the lawmakers need to hear from all sides in the matter before arriving at a position, assured Nigerians that whatever position the National Assembly takes would be in the overall interest of the Nigerian people.
According to him, “We are elected by the people to represent them and ordinarily, we should be on their side. But this is not a beauty contest. You must listen to all sides. Government says Twitter poses threat to national security. What are the information available to them that we are not privy to? They have also said that it is not about the president’s tweet which was taken down but a mere coincidence. We are listening to government because we have heard from the people.
“We agree that there is freedom of speech but the government is saying that freedom is not absolute. Even at that, the freedom can be protected but not at the instance of the country. I am happy that twitter and government are already talking. At the end, I hope that the issue will be resolved in the best way possible.”
On the invitation to the president to address the House last year, which never became a reality, Gbajabiamila said the president was determined to address the parliament before misunderstanding sets in which truncated the process.
