The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has warned against attempts to regulate social media in Nigeria, urging government officials to focus on addressing insecurity, poverty, and unemployment instead.
The group was reacting to a recent call by Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, who, during the presentation of nomination forms to Governor Biodun Oyebanji in Ekiti State, described social media as a threat to Nigeria’s peace.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Y.Z. Ya’u, CITAD said the senator’s remark was part of a recurring pattern of government officials scapegoating social media for the country’s challenges.
“Coming from a high-ranking senator and against the background of heightened clampdown on freedom of expression online, such a call must not be taken as an accidental statement,” Ya’u said. “It is part of the growing mindset within government that clamours for the derogation of freedom of expression online.”
CITAD argued that insecurity across Nigeria was not caused by social media but by the government’s inability to address fundamental issues fueling unrest.
“This country has been witnessing increasing high levels of insecurity with violence visiting innocent people almost on a daily basis. This high level of insecurity has nothing to do with social media but results from the failure of government to address the root causes of insecurity and communal tensions,” the statement read.
Ya’u identified injustice, poverty, unemployment, and poor conflict resolution mechanisms as the major drivers of insecurity, adding that “nowhere in the world has reality shown that social media is responsible for the lack of peace.”
He stressed that instead of clamping down on digital expression, the government should “rethink its policies, which are generating poverty, unemployment, misery and hopelessness, all of which feed into discontent that results in youth restiveness.”
CITAD also described social media as a democratic necessity, noting that “access to and use of social media has become a fundamental right of citizens as it is the means for the people to receive and share information and express themselves, a foundational requirement for any democracy worth its name.”
Ya’u therefore urged Senator Bamidele to retrace his steps and lend his voice to efforts geared toward solving the country’s pressing socio-economic problems.
“Social media regulation is a euphemism to curtail the right of expression of citizens online which has no place in our democracy and therefore must not be allowed,” Ya’u said.
“CITAD calls on the Senate Leader to not retrace his path, as a former respected activist for social justice, and add his voice to the demand that government should address the hunger, joblessness, insecurity and social injustice in the country.”