President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that social media has become a societal menace and must be regulated.
Gbajabiamila said this while representing Tinubu at the public presentation of a book, “Nigerian Public Discourse: The Interplay of Empirical Evidence and Hyperbole” written by a former Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in Lagos
This is according to a Thursday statement by Tunde Alao, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Media), Office of the Lagos State Deputy Governor.
“The social media has become a societal menace and must be regulated. As many people do not understand that once the send button is hit, there is a potential to reach millions of people around the world which is capable of causing a great danger not just in the society but even unintended consequences to the individuals that are receiving information which may include security of life,” the statement quoted Gbajabiamila as saying.
Governor Sanwo-Olu was also represented at the event by his deputy, Obafemi Hamzat.
The statement noted that Tinubu maintained that his administration had an obligation to engage in evidence-based discussion and data-reliant decision-making, hence, the need for accurate data that would be used for better policy formulation and execution.
“As citizens become more interested in governance, it is the government’s obligation to ensure that engagement with citizens springs with shared agreement on what the truth is, what is real and what is not,” Gbajabiamila said.
The president commended the author for putting in book form his thoughts and experience garnered both as a governor and member of the federal executive council.
Speaking at the event, Hamzat noted that accurate data would help in finding lasting solutions to myriads of challenges facing the nation adding that “for a developing country like us, part of the problem we have is that we don’t have data, which is very crucial for policy formulation for national development.”
While stressing the importance of data, he noted that “deterministic data is essential even in our daily lives, even on issues such as building – buildings require correct data to know the threats.”
In his remarks, the book author, Fashola, disclosed that the book was written based on his 21 years of experience as a public office holder, highlighting different public issues.
“My joy is that the conversation has just started, and by and large, we will get good and positive results in our quests for national development”, Fashola was quoted as saying.
In October 2023, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project urged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Speaker, House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, “to reject the recently reintroduced social media regulation bill.”
SERAP noted that the passage of the bill “would unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and privacy,” and urged Tinubu’s administration to stop its efforts to compel technological firms like Google and YouTube to restrict such “fundamental human rights.”