This is contained in a statement issued
in Abuja on Monday by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity.
Shehu was reacting to the public hostility towards the social media bill now being debated by the Senate.
According to him, President Buhari has
sworn to defend the constitution of Nigeria and will not lend his hand
to anything that is inconsistent with the constitution.
“But he (Buhari) is not averse to lawful
regulation, so long as that is done within the ambit of the
constitution which he swore to uphold.
“The President said free speech is central to democratic societies anywhere in the world.
“The President explained that without
free speech, elected representatives won’t be able to gauge public
feelings and moods about governance issues
“As a key component of democratic
principles, the President acknowledged that people in democratic
societies are so emotionally attached to free speech that they would
defend it with all their might,’’ he said.
Shehu explained that President Buhari
was fully aware of public reservations about the proposed legislation
but assured that “there is no cause for alarm because the Senate is a
democratic senate.’’
He assured that the President would not assent to any legislation that might be inconsistent with the constitution of Nigeria.
Reacting to the President’s posture to
the social media bill, Professor Edward Oparaoji, one of the Nigerians
in the Diaspora advocating for Nigerian Senators who vote for the bill
to be sanctions by the US government said, “This is just too little, and
too late from Buhari. Buhari is side-stepping the issues and hoping to
hoodwink Nigerians into going to sleep to enable this obnoxious
legislature to become law in the country.”
“This issue is too important for the use
of semantics by the man occupying the highest office of the land. There
is no grey in this matter, it is either black or white. Do you support
this bill or not, Mr. President?” he continued. “Buhari should give
Nigerians a direct answer – yes or no.”
Oparaoji is regional director of the US Headquartered Diaspora Nigeria Nationals Network (DNNN) which has petitioned
the US Government over the ‘Social Media Bill’ and demanded that
Senators who vote for the bill which is reminiscent of the Buhari’s
infamous Decree 4 of the 80s be placed on the International No Fly list.
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