Human rights activist and Convener of Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju has criticised Nigerian Senate for its proposal of a bill tagged “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill, 2019 (SB 132)”.

Adeyanju, in a memo sent to the President of the senate, Ahmad Lawan and Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Opeyemi Bamidele, described the bill as a deviation from the country’s constitution as amended in 1999.

Recall that the bill, sponsored by Senator Mohammed Sani Musa of APC, Niger, resulted to outrage in November 2019, when it was first read on the Senate floor.

The activist, while arguing that the bill was offensive to the Nigeria constitution, added that human rights activists have been continuously persecuted by state actors, using the instrumentals of anti peoples’ laws, similar to the bill that was being considered.

According to him,

It will be used as an instrument of persecution by the government in power, and successive governments.

He expressed his surprise why we need another bill when there are existing laws guiding cyberspace and other related matters, and so, urged lawmakers to discontinue the bill without any delay.

Another reason why the consideration of this bill should be discontinued, is that in the absence of a proper, well run, independent national institutions (which Nigeria obviously lack at the moment), the bill, if passed into law, will become a tool for vendetta in the hands of state actors and many of you who are today on the side of government may become victims when the table turns.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.