Human Rights Activist and lawyer, Ayo Obe; former Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Perterside; Chairman Ikeja District of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Bala Zarka, and poet, novelist, playwright and journalist, Sam Omatseye, have stressed the need for caution over proposed regulation of social media.
They spoke at the public presentation of Magnus Onyibe’s Leading From The Street: Media Interventions By A Public Intellectual 1999-2019), which held in Lagos last week.
Omatseye noted that former governor of Lagos, Babatunde Raji Fashola, took someone to court. “That is the way to go. But the media establishment has also been timid. They need to come together and work with law enforcement agencies to ensure anybody that puts up any post that is not true should be prosecuted.”
He said, “ what has happened is that we have indulgent media elite.”
Peterside said social media should not be regulated. Freedom of expression must be upheld, adding that cybercrime laws must be enforced. You cannot say countries that regulate social media have excelled more than countries that do not.
We should preach responsible use of social media.”
To Obe “if you want to throw me out of the window, you must put the cushion there. Not when you have thrown me out with broken bones, you now bring the cushion.”
