There have been heated discussions around the regulation of social media in Nigeria recently.
This discussion was brought to the fore again after the #EndSARS protest, which was anchored largely on social media.
Social media was used for mobilization, reaching the international community among many other purposes. It got to a stage that the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter joined the campaign and even asked that donations be made to support the movement.
The Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has not hidden his support for regulating the social media. He was reported to have said that Nigeria should be able to regulate the social media whenever they want, citing instances of China and other countries.
Although, he later apologised, Desmond Elliot had called for social media regulation, noting that if the social media is not regulated, it may end up ending the country.
With many opinions on social media, it is important to weigh-in on this development.
While Lai Mohammed was quick to mention the regulation of social media in China, he was not quick to point out that corruption is hugely frowned against in China and was not quick to mention that there are ways of reaching out to the government in China especially as a responsive government.
History has shown that many of the agitations anchored on social media have been caused by bad governance. When the people feel cut-out from the government, they fall back to the means they feel is accessible for them and in this case, the social media is a case of last resort.
Years before 2020, Nigerians had clamoured for a reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad and tasked the government on this but nothing concrete was done, at least based on the continued atrocities of the SARS personnel.
In the wake of the protests against SARS, another hashtag was trending and this time, it was against banditry and insecurity in the North, those who pioneered this noted that they were tired of the incessant killings and all efforts to get more concrete actions by the government has failed, they went to Twitter to trend their thoughts.
In some instances, we have seen the social media helping the government make better policies; the question then should be, why the social media has become scary to its various stakeholders.
The power of social media is truly massive; the world is now more connected through it.
The first place to get information now is social media. I agree with the school of thought that there is a need to fight cybercrime and propaganda but I also am of the school of thought that in a country like Nigeria, where leaders see themselves as gods, where economy management is poor, where corruption is almost legal and where citizens are begged for votes but shut-out after voting, the social media cannot be regulated.
I am also of the school of thought that while the menace of fake news exists, the irresponsibility of those who should give the country better representation has strengthened fake news; in fact, we have many stakeholders deploying same social media to their own bias advantage. We cannot regulate the social media to contain the failures of the government.
For those countries that regulated the social media, they banked on local innovations and are delivering the dividends of democracy. The dividends in Nigeria are looted, this is enough reason to give the people a voice and not steal their only solace; the social media.
Olanrewaju Oyedeji can be reached via [email protected]
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