Lai Mohammed says he’s not aware of social media bill despite public outcry

On hate speech bill, Lai Mohammed says it is ignorant for anyone to accuse the government of President Muhammadu Buhari of pushing such a bill.

Despite the national outcry against the controversial social media bill in November 2019, the minister of Information, Lai Mohammed says he’s not aware of the ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation’ bill championed by Sen. Mohammed Sani Musa.

The ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation’ bill often referred to as social media bill may soon become a law as it passed the second reading on the floor of the senate on Wednesday, November 20, 2019.

But the minister during a video interview with Tim Sebastian, a British journalist, in London, Mohammed said there’s no such bill before the Nigerian Senate. However, when provided with intentional reports about the bill and its draconian provisions, the minister said that the bill was not submitted by the executive.

President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has on several occasions accused of stiffing the media. [Twitter/NigeriaGov]

“Who is the author of this bill, I am not even aware of it. There’s no such bill before the house. I can say that categorically and authoritatively that there’s no such bill before house.” the minister said.

On the hate speech bill, otherwise called the ‘Prohibition of Hate Speech Bill’ sponsored by Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Deputy Chief Whip), Mohammed said, it is ignorant for anyone to accuse the government of President Muhammadu Buhari of pushing such a bill.

He said, “What is even more shocking here is the ignorance of people. There’s what we call separation of power in major democracies. This particular bill you’re talking about is a bill submitted not by the executive but by the legislative arm of govt, so how can you accuse the executive?

“The only thing the president can do is to refuse to assent the law. The bill has not even been passed.”

Asked about cases of human rights violations by the government and armed forces in the country, the minister said, the Federal Government has not violated anybody’s human rights.

He said, “I think there’s has been a lot of misrepresentation, I know for a fact that this administration has been very sensitive to the issue of human rights. I have been a minister for five years, there is no policy of my administration that is deliberately targeted at infringing on anybody’s right.

“Even the military has been very careful to ensure as much as possible that rights are not violated. I have also read reports about people who claimed their rights have been violated simply because they have been arrested by any of the security agencies and they have been asked to go through what I call the due process. But I know as a policy that this government does not violate human rights.”

The minister further said that due to the many cases of human rights abuses by police officers, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was disbanded in January 21 and later reconstituted with a warning that SARS operatives must at all time ensure they operate within the confines of the law.

On Press Freedom in Nigeria

Mohammed also maintained that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has performed extremely well in the area of freedom of the press.

The information minister argued that it is incorrect to use a case of one media house closed down by the government to support the claim that the Federal Government is gagging the Nigerian media.

Chief Raymond Dokpesi owns DAAR Communications. He just had his license withdrawn (Punch).

“When it comes to freedom of the press, we’ve done extremely very well. If papers run afoul of the law, they must face the consequences. But when we have a hundred newspapers in the country and you’re citing an example of one newspaper that was closed down in a year, I think you should be fair to us that we have a very robust free press”.

“Many of these people don’t know the ecosystem of media Nigeria. Virtually every major newspaper is owned by individuals, and I can tell you that there are at least 12 national newspapers . But you can’t take the example of one newspaper out of about 20 to say the country is stiffing the media. On the contrary, at a point in time, I felt it was the govt that was at the receiving end of the media”.

Mohammed added that Africa Independent Television (AIT) was not shut down in June 2019, because of the kind of news it pushed out but because the media house was owing the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

Nigerian information minister: 'This government does not violate anybody's right' | Conflict Zone

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