Mr Mike Omeri, Director-General, National
Orientation Agency (NOA), has said that the
Federal Government has no plan to restrict the
use of social media. Omeri told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
on Thursday in Abuja that the social media was
a lifestyle which everybody had adopted. According to him, the social media was a
lifestyle adopted by people, governments,
youths and personalities, adding that it was just
the use to which it was put to that should be checked. “There is no plan at
the moment to
restrict the use of
social media, but
what the agency is
doing is to encourage people to
do the right thing, NOA cannot control the lifestyle of individual;
that will become too excessive,” Omeri said. He said that the agency would soon unveil a
strategy for the use of social media, adding that
a situation where it was being use for criminal
activities was undesirable. “The NOA at its level now in addition to
sensitising Nigerian in allowing themselves to
become susceptible to criminal and other
deviant behaviour on social media, is planning
to engage media practitioners to discuss its role
in the social development of the country through the use of social media,” he said. Omeri said that the agency would partner with
media houses to come up with effective
strategy that would ensure Nigerians did not
fall victim of the negative side of social media. “We will ensure that our people do not fall
victim of what should otherwise be a source of
news information and entertainment,” he said. According to him, the best thing to do now is to
sensitise the people to do the right thing by
deploying the social media for good purposes
like education, and some social purposes that
are not danger prone.