The lawmaker representing Ekiti/Isin/Irepodun/Oke-Ero Federal
Constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Raheem Olawuyi
(Ajulo-Opin) has said the Green Chamber of the National Assembly will
not pass the controversial hate speech and social media bills when it
gets to the lower house.
The bills which has attracted sharp criticisms and condemnation for
highly placed Nigerians, civil society groups and human rights
organisations has placed second reading at the Senate.
Asked to clarify his position on the bill in his office in Abuja by
EnetSud recently, the Kwara lawmaker said the bills are unnecessary
because of its potential to stifle free speech which wil debar the
country’s progress.
He said:
“The Bills are unnecessary because they will affect a lot of things
and sectors. If people don’t have freedom of expression to register
their views, how can we progress? Even the media houses will not be
able to do their works effectively.
“As a member of the House of Representatives, I’m telling you that we
will kill the bills on arrival. The bills are still at the Senate
presently and we are waiting for the bills to be brought to our
chamber. I am telling you that we will kill them at the House of
Representatives”.
“Most House of Representatives members that I’ve interacted with,
including some leaders of the House, are not in terms with the Bills.
They will generate too much controversies and some people in
government might later be using them against their opponents and other
citizens”.
“The message the sponsors of the bills are passing are very clear and
important, such as incitement of people and regions against one
another, and so on, but there are better ways we could tackle these
issues.
“There are existing laws that have taken care of the issues of
concern, and the major solution is to effectively implement our
existing laws, rather than duplicating existing laws. We don’t need
too many laws in Nigeria, enforcement of our existing laws is the
solution to our problems”, he added.
