Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has backed the calls for regulation of social media, noting that “everything in life has to be regulated.”

Gbajabiamila made his position known during an interview on Channels TV programme ‘A chat with Young Nigerians’ on Sunday, as the Federal Government ban on Twitter enters week five.

Although the speaker noted that lawmakers need to hear from all sides in the matter before arriving at a position, he expressed delight that the government and Twitter are discussing a way forward.

“The social media is the most potent weapon for good and for evil. While we welcome the good, we must prepare over the evil. You cannot use the idea of free speech to destroy me.

“Most democracies in the world today are making efforts to regulate the social media and the National Assembly has been considering regulating the social media for long. But each time the issue comes up, Nigerians kick against it.

“It is something we need to do because we have a responsibility to protect every single citizen in this country and that is what we must do”.

“We are elected by the people to represent them and ordinarily, we should be on their side. But this is not a beauty contest. You must listen to all sides. Government says Twitter poses threat to national security. What are the information available to them that we are not privy to?

“They have also said that it is not about the President’s tweet which was taken down but a mere coincidence. We are listening to government because we have heard from the people.

“We agree that there is freedom of speech but the government is saying that freedom is not absolute. Even at that, the freedom can be protected but not at instance of the country.

“I am happy that twitter and government are already talking. At the end, I hope that the issue will be resolved in the best way possible”.