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Lai Moh’d under fire over claims social media bill doesn’t exist

Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has come under fire after denying the National Assembly is considering a bill to regulate the activities of Nigerians on social media.

In an interview with the German broadcaster, DW, aired Thursday, Mr Mohammed said he was speaking “authoritatively” that the controversial “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill’ was not before the National Assembly.

Tim Sebastian, host of the channel’s Conflict Zone, had asked the minister four times about the bill to buttress his argument that the Nigerian government had grown intolerant of criticisms, and was clamping down on citizens’ basic rights.

Each time, Mr Mohammed replied he did not know about the infamous legislation and insisted it was not before the parliament.

“I am not even aware of that bill,” the minister said the first time, before adding: “There is no such bill before the house.”

“I can say authoritatively, there is no such bill,” he affirmed, appearing to confuse the interviewer.

However Mohammed, who has been minister since 2015, was clearly making a false claim. The controversial social media bill was sponsored by the Niger East senator, Mohammed Musa.

The bill, which seeks to “criminalize the use of the social media in peddling false or malicious information”, caused a major backlash in 2019 with many Nigerians condemning it.

The bill has not been withdrawn yet. If passed and signed into law, it will punish anyone found guilty of its provisions with a N300,000 fine, three years imprisonment, or both. Corporate organisations face a fine not exceeding N10 million.

The bill, alongside another targeting “hate speech”, has been widely criticised in and outside of Nigeria.

Ahead of the introduction of the bill, the federal government through Mr Mohammed had vowed to crack down on fake news and hate speeches in the country’s social media space.

The minister said at the time that the government was “working to inject rationality into the social media space in the country, to tackle fake news and hate speeches spreading without restriction.”

On November 15, 2019, the information minister held a meeting with the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers in Abuja and said there was no going back on the social media regulation. He said public criticism of the bill will not deter the government from the plan. The statement showed the minister was aware of the bill and even supported it.

When the Nigerian Union of Journalists cautioned the federal government on the bill, Mr. Mohammed asked NUJ to support the bill because “they will be the first victim when the people lose confidence in the media due to the reckless actions of non-journalists and purveyors of fake news and hate speech.”

He said the bill did not serve to “stifle free speech or gag journalists” rather “only purveyors of fake news and hate speech need to be worried.”

“Let me be clear: We are going ahead with our plan to stop, as much as we can, the anarchists, non-patriots, and purveyors of fake news and hate speech. No responsible government will sit by and allow these purveyors of fake news and hate speech a free reign. That’s why many countries of the world are taking measures to regulate the social media,” Mr. Mohammed said.

But asked about the bill on DW, Mr Mohammed denied knowledge of the legislation.

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