A former Senator for Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, has berated the House of Representatives for refusing a prayer asking the Federal Government to lift the ban it placed on Twitter.
WuzupNigeria reported that the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) banned the social media giant on June 5 after his tweet was deleted for violating Twitter policy.
The Committees on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values; Telecommunications; Information and Technology; Justice; and National Security and Intelligence that was assigned to investigate the matter about two weeks ago tendered its report to the house on Wednesday.
The recommendations are, “That time be allowed for the Federal Government of Nigeria and Twitter to enter into the dialogue process that is already ongoing, so as to create room for amicable settlement on the matter;
“That relevant Government Institutions such as National Broadcasting Commission, Nigeria Communication Satellite, etc., should be alive to their mandate by doing the needful to avoid future occurrence of this nature;
“That the Federal Government should take into cognisance the negative effect of the Twitter suspension on Nigerians who depends on the platform for their livelihood;
“That Federal Government should be proactive in their interface with Twitter to come up with a timely resolution on the matter;
“That freedom of expression is not absolute anywhere in the world. This is because security and freedom of expression sometimes present contending interests. Therefore, national security must be guaranteed at all times as much as the right to free speech must be protected; and
“That government should always have communicated better with Nigerians when critical decisions are to be made.”
Reacting to these in a statement released on his verified Twitter handle on Friday, Sani opined that the decision to reject the lifting of the ban is disgraceful.
He said, “House of Representatives’ rejection of the lifting of the ban on Twitter is unfortunate and condemnable.
“This is a disappointing and disgraceful example of legislative support for the executive suffocation of freedom of expression. They are historically in sync with autocracy.”
