By Dele Ogbodo
The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, on Tuesday assured that government will not limit Nigerians’ access to social media solely
on the basis that it may be used to express views critical of its policies.
Speaking during a one day retreat organized by his ministry on use of social media for good governance, in Abuja, he said the emergence of social media has contributed immensely to rapid development globally.
However, Shittu said: “Our domestic use of social media platforms to promote divisive, tribal, parochial, fabricated and sentimental information capable of disintegrating the country need to be checked.”
He explained that government and stakeholders must pay extra attention to feedback from, and utilize these new media to provide platform for government – citizen and business-public engagement in an on-line, real-time and interactive manner.
He said: “From the Arab Spring in Egypt, to our 2015 General elections, the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom and the recent US Presidential elections, the growing importance of social media in shaping society and how it is governed cannot neither be underplayed.
“In Nigeria where our youth constitute more than 50% of our over 180 million population, the social media has become too critical to be ignored.”
However, he said on the other hand, social media can also be nuisance to the government and society at large. Mudslinging, hate speech, cyber bullying, rants and unbridled ventilation of anger are common features in these platforms.”
According to him, It is therefore necessary to moderate these counter-effects to promote positive, development-driven and responsible social media usage platforms.
He said protecting critical expression on the internet is the standard by which governments are now held to be genuinely democratic.
Shittu called on Nigerians to feel free to discuss government policies and engage in responsible political debates; report corruption and exercise their right to expression of opinion and dissent.
However, he said the dangerous trend which is also being perpetrated by some so-called bloggers and online journalists requires urgent attention to promote development, peace and well-being of our nation.