Editor’s note: Adelaja Adeoye, a Lagos-based blogger and a commentator on social and political issues, talks about one of the bills proposed by the Nigerian Senate, An Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and Other Related Matters. Who exactly is the bill targeting, and what has prompted the Senate to start considering the law that would prohibit distributing certain kinds of comments and information? Will the bill actually limit our freedom of speech?

One would naturally wonder why the writer choose to go with this kind of heading at a time when there are many disgruntled Nigerians youths trending a hashtag #NoToSocialMediaBill which the legislative arm of Nigerian government is looking at passing and make it a law to criminalize any frivolity and libel on the social media.

Let us critically look at the root cause that necessitated the Senate to take the option of sanitizing the Nigerian social media. Nigeria is a country that practices democracy since the handing over of power from the military to civilian government in 1999 when the ex-head of state, General Abdusalam Abubakar, passed power to another military man, General Obasanjo, in civilian Agbada.

From my knowledge, there can’t be a smoke without fire no matter how little the fire may be. Let us look at the past events. After the death of ex-president Yar’Adua, his vice Goodluck Jonathan became president of Nigeria in 2011 after another election was conducted, and since that time, social media has been so popular in use by Nigerian people, most especially the youths.

President Jonathan became a victim of circumstance in the hands of the opposition, especially the then-Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that has now merged with other parties to form the All Progressive Congress (APC) just because they wanted to dethrone him from power. The APC is a party that knows how to explore media, including TV, radio, print and social media to advance their campaign, messages, propaganda and other information they want to sell to millions of Nigerians.

The APC quickly identified some Nigerian blogs such as Sahara Reporters, Premium Times, Omojuwa’s blog and those of some other individuals who pride themselves as social media influencers, such as Kayode Ogundamisi, Tolu Ogunlesi, and host of others to do the hatchet jobs for them.

The social media wahala started when the former President Jonathan made a move to remove fuel subsidy in 2011-2012. The opposition mobilized youths, CSO and Labour Congress against the then-administration by inciting Nigerians against them, saying PDP/Jonathan’s government wanted to suffer Nigerians. They even went to sponsor and organise protests, rallies and carnivals in Ojota, Lagos, to lock the country down as they were able to get the NLC to declare a total strike actions that paralyzed the nation’s economy until Jonathan stopped his plan to remove fuel subsidy.

After the president was able to contain the protest and violence, as if that was not enough, just to paint PDP/Jonathan’s government a bad and corrupt government, the now-APC mobilized their media machinery to continue blackmailing. They used print media, radio and TV stations in Lagos and other part of the country to advance their cause.

Shortly, new media were introduced to join the plot. Sahara Reporters, other names such as the ones mentioned above, began to tweet, retweet, post on Facebook and other social media platforms anything anti-Jonathan to mislead gullible Nigerianson a daily basis. The then-opposition members, even some notable personalities such as Dele Momodu, joined them in doing this.

The Nigerian segment of the Internet was not in any way gagged by Jonathan’s administration. Jonathan was called all sorts of names by the people who are not even qualifies to clean his shoes, not to talk of standing face to face to talk to him. Omojuwa and his ilk called Jonathan a pig, and the APC fans were very excited to retweet his bile. Ogundamisi would twist facts to suit his own purposes and had tried on many occasions to use social media to cause violence between the Igbos and Hausas.

Sahara Reporters are habitual liars who specialize in breaking fake news, libel and blackmail against politicians in Nigeria, those who are in opposition to their sponsors or promoters. Nigerian people are known too quick to react on impulse to fake news.

One must be very careful at this point on how to support or go against the plans of the federal government through the Senate to sanitize how its citizens use the social media in Nigeria. It is a known fact to all and sundry that the APC used these cyber characters to peddle lies, propaganda, and misinform the Nigerian populace prior to the 2015 general elections, and the plan worked perfectly. The APC were able to use them to gain cheap popularity and push all kind of narratives on the social media.

Now, the same APC are afraid that if these guys are not quickly checked, they may turn out to be uncontrollable monsters in their neck, just like those who were supporting Boko Haram morally to gain power. We all know the effect now.

Let us also look back at how the now-governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, was brandishing all kinds of allegations and lies on social media against Jonathan, his ministers and friends. He made sure he filled the heart of Nigerians with hatred. He posted many fictitious and outrageous figures on government’s expenditure that had naturally prompt anger amongst Nigerians. He posted several times that Jonathan was the promoter and brain behind the deadly Boko haram on the local and international media.


- See complete story and more at: http://www.exlinklodge.com/2015/12/blame-sahara-reporters-ogundamisi.html#sthash.kEgtINKf.dpuf




cc lalasticlala ishilove seun

The so called adelaja is an idi**t
So Jonathan,who

1Is still flying about in private jet
2 spent 5 year in a presidential palace.
3 Wielded the unitary powers of an emperor.
4 Had more cars in his convoy than a car showroom
5 Whose presidential is enough to fund 20 schools annually
6 superintended the unobstructed massacre of citizens
while busy partying.

That Jonathan is the victim abi.
I said it yesterday, one big problem with Nigeria is stupidz educating stupidz.