The Social Media Bill in a Giffy? PulseNG

We explain what the social media bill is about and why it's generating so much anger in the social media space. Nigerians on social media have been clamouring against a bill that will regulate the online space in the country should it become law.

For purposes of clarity, it's important to state that there are actually two bills out there agitating the minds of social media users in Nigeria at the moment. There is the ‘Hate Speech Bill’ and the ‘Social Media Bill’. Both bills are not one and the same, even though they have been conflated in discourses on the internet.

The hate speech bill, otherwise called the ‘Prohibition of Hate Speech Bill’ is being championed by Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Deputy Chief Whip), while the social media bill, otherwise called the ‘Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill’ is the brainchild of Sen. Mohammed Sani Musa.
There are allegations that the bills have been plagiarized from similar pieces of legislation in Singapore and elsewhere, but we'll pass for now.

The social media bill passed the second reading on the floor of the senate on Wednesday, November 20, 2019; which means it’s well on its way to becoming law, seeing as it is only one more reading and assent by the executive, away.

Musa says his bill will not gag social media users should it become law as is being propagated. He also says his piece of legislation only seeks to check the spread of fake news and falsehood. He cites the ‘Jubril from Sudan’ saga and tale as one reason why he’s doing this.

According to Musa: “One of the disadvantages of the internet is the spread of falsehood and manipulation of unsuspecting users.

“Today, motivated by geopolitical interest and identity politics, state and non-state actors use the internet to discredit government, misinform people and turn one group against the other. The hoax about the demise of President Muhammadu Buhari in London and his purported replacement by one Jubril of Sudan, among others, are things that threaten the peace, security and harmony of our people”.

Musa also lamented that troll or bot accounts have been used to rapidly spread falsehood across Nigeria in a manner that now threatens national security. If the bill becomes an Act, anyone found guilty will pay a fine of N300,000 and corporate bodies who willfully promote and dispense fake news or falsehood deemed to threaten national security, will pay a fine of N10 million.

“Penalty for defaulters goes up to N300,000 for individuals and up to N10 million for corporate organisations and imprisonment of up to three years or both. It also issues guidelines for internet intermediaries and providers of mass media services and sanctions for offenders,” the lawmaker says. The bill has 36 clauses which we shall carefully explore when the legislation becomes public and is readily available.

Senators Ibrahim Gobir, Abba Moro and Elisha Abbo vehemently supported the bill during plenary this week. Senator Chimaroke Nnamani (Enugu East) was the only senator who opposed the bill on the floor of parliament when it came up for debate.

According to Nnamani, the bill is completely unnecessary because some of its provisions have been taken care of in the Cyber Crime Act signed into law by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

“I not only oppose this bill, I condemn it in its entirety. Based on our constitution, there is freedom of information and freedom of speech. There is a Cyber Crime Act that deals with this issue. There are also laws that deal with false information, libel, slander and so on. Yes, fake news has done a lot in America and other countries but they have not brought any law to deal with it. I, therefore, oppose this bill,” Nnamani said.

After listening to both sides of the argument, Senate President Ahmad Lawan, put the debate to a voice vote. Majority of the senators went with Musa. Lawan would then refer the bill to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights which will conduct a public hearing with stakeholders and report back after four weeks.

Makinde: All Market Women Should Stage a Protest Against Appeal Court Ruling

Barely 24 hours after the refusal of the people of Oyo State to participate in a solidarity rally for the present governor of the State, Engr Seyi Makinde, the Peoples Democratic Party in the state have come up with another means of getting the sympathy of the people by threatening the market women, artisans, NURTW etc to embark on a protest against the Court of Appeal ruling.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan had on Monday November 11, 2019 upturned an earlier judgment of the lower Tribunal which declared Engr Seyi Makinde of PDP winner of March 9 governorship election.

The governor and the party not knowing what to do have resulted to organising paid protests against the court ruling. Information gathered from a reliable source made known that the governor has directed his aides to start mobilising some market women and artisans across the state for another set of paid protest.

The source says the governor maintains that he is still the governor of this state and any market men or women that refuses to participate in the protest will loose their shops.

The governor had immediately set up a monitoring team to go round the market across the city and make sure no shops or business centre open so that the protest would be successful.

Meanwhile, the Oyo Youths for Transparency and Good Governance (OYTGG) has called on the traders in the state not to be intimidated by the threat of the governor, describing it as an "empty threat which holds no water". The group said it is very unlawful for any authority to stop the people from going to about to get their daily bread in order to participate in a protest against the ruling of the Appeal Court".

"We have had many judgment even against the ruling All Progressive Congress across the country and there was no report that any group were coarsed to embark on protest against court judgment".

Bayo Adelabu: With Supreme Court, I Have A Date With History!

The pronouncement made by the Election Appeal Tribunal on our challenge of the ruling of the lower Tribunal on Monday has further rekindled our hope in both the electoral and judicial processes in our march to keep a date with history.

When our great party, the All Progressive Congress(APC) presented me as her standard bearer in the 2019 gubernatorial election in Oyo State, we never wavered in our conviction that the good people of the state knew that I was best candidate among the lots that came out to seek their mandate.

But we never took this for granted as we worked tirelessly round the clock to showcase our blueprint to turn the fortunes of our dear state around for the better.

It is on record that we ran the most organised and issue-driven campaign and our people, having been convinced of our ability to walk the talk freely gave me their mandate in the election.

However, the agents of darkness perfected the plan to steal this mandate, hence our recourse to the judiciary to proof their wrongdoing.

The lower Tribunal, which concerned itself with technicalities rather with the substance of our argument ruled otherwise.

Now that the Appeal Court has set the tone of righting the wrong, I appeal to the good people of Oyo State to hold the peace and go about their lawful activities as we approach the Supreme Court to validate your victory.

After the darkness, no matter how long it takes, comes sunshine. Victory is certain for us and the mass of the people of our state.

Signed
Adebayo Adelabu FCA, FCIB

Bayo Adelabu Heads to Supreme; Appeal Court Set Aside Tribunal Ruling on Seyi Makinde Victory

On the heel of the Appeal Judgment that sets aside the Tribunal ruling which saw Bayo Adelabu challenge the victory of Gov. Seyi Makinde, The All Progressives Congress (APC) and Bayo Adelabu have gone straight to the Supreme Court' in pursuit of a fair hearing on the irregularities surrounding the Guber election. The APC submitted that the election was marred with so many irregularities and infractions which has set the ball rolling for a breathe taking final lapse at the Supreme Court.

The Court of Appeal in its judgment stated that due to the time constraints, that limited the tribunal to run its course within 180 days, they would have ordered a retrial of the Tribunal process, which invariably infer that the APC has a valid case against the victory of Seyi Makinde at the elections.

Oloye 'Bayo Adelabu is in court to seek a fair hearing after so many evidences, witnesses and documents submitted by the lawyers to seek justice. He said the election was infiltrated with so many infractions and he has gone to court to prove the irregularities and seek legal redress, which is taking its course and justice must prevail eventually.

"I told you that to be a governor is not do or die but all the written rules and regulations, guiding the election, I mean the entire electoral acts must be duly followed. We found out that (in the course of election) there were a lot of infractions, we have shown that to the whole world and at the end of the day, victory shall be ours and Oyo state will come back to the All Progressives Party, Oyo state will come back to Adebayo Adelabu and my able deputy, Insha Allah." Bayo Adelabu said.