Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has said that the government’s
decision to monitor the social media activities in the country doesn’t mean that their freedom of right has been denied.
He stated this on Monday during an interview on Channels Television, where he noted that the President Buhari’s led government wants to ensure that the extent of hate speech in Nigeria are well checkmated in order not to cause regional violence.
“I know that this country, in fact, the whole world has a big problem with balancing free speech and what we call in this country hate speech.
“It has many faces depending on which country you are dealing with. In most of these European
countries, (and) America, they are dealing with Islamic terror. In America, white extremism and
all of that… All of it fed substantially by the Internet.
“I believe that people can justified that. A lot of countries are taking notes. If Nigeria does it, I don’t know. I’m in a position to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But if it happens in this country, it is not extraordinary, it is not unusual. Everybody is interested. Look, this thing about international terrorism is big and nobody is leaving it to chances.”