Selfish Interests Should Not Be The Reason For Social Media Regulation – Jeremiah Useni

Ex-Senator representing Plateau South in the National Assembly, Jeremiah Useni has come out to warn against the move to regulate the Social Media in Nigeria.

He recently revealed that the people seeking the regulation must be careful, else, selfish reasons can becloud their judgment.

According to him, censoring social media would surely have a negative impact on the traditional media and journalists in Nigeria as it would deprive civil society and the public the opportunity to demand accountability and good governance from the government.

He added that the danger of this move is when any regulatory agency becomes captured by the people it is supposed to regulate.

His words, “The danger of this move is when any regulatory agency becomes captured by the people it is supposed to regulate. For instance, a situation where an agency that is supposed to regulate social media is captured by politicians and activists who might want to use their position to suppress the arguments of their political opponents.

“While I do not condone the act of dissemination of fake news, but I also frown at the attempt to hide under fake news to regulate the social media for selfish reasons.”

What do you think?

Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician currently serving as the President of Nigeria, in office since 2015. He is a retired major general in the Nigerian Army and previously served as the nation’s head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985, after taking power in a military coup d’état. The term Buharism is ascribed to the Buhari military government.

He unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of Nigeria in the 2003, 2007, and 2011 general elections. In December 2014, he emerged as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the March 2015 general elections. Buhari won the election, defeating the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. This marked the first time in the history of Nigeria that an incumbent president lost to an opposition candidate in a general election. He was sworn in on 29 May 2015. In February 2019, Buhari was re-elected President, defeating his closest rival Atiku Abubakar by over 3 million votes.

Buhari has stated that he takes responsibility for anything over which he presided during his military rule, and that he cannot change the past. He has described himself as a “converted democrat”.

Muhammadu Buhari was born to a Fulani family on 17 December 1942, in Daura, Katsina State, to his father Hardo Adamu, a Fulani chief, and mother Zulaihat. He is the twenty-third child of his father. Buhari was raised by his mother, after his father died when he was about four years old.