The Frivolous Petitions (Prohibitions, Etc.) Bill, 2015, which passed the second reading stage last week at the Senate, has rightly taken the front-burner in public discourse and is expected to stay there until, we reckon, the senators toe the most reasonable line on it – kill the bill off their legislative agenda.
In a statement condemning the bill, President, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Garba Deen Muhammad, stated that ”the broad objective of this curiously accelerated Bill is to outlaw the freedom of expression of all Nigerian citizens and freedom of speech of all media organizations operating in print, electronic and on-line platforms in Nigeria and beyond. Appallingly, the Bill has also included as its target very personal and private means of communication such as SMS or text messages and WhatsApp, among others. The freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed in section 22 and 39(1) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution respectively.”
The NGE added that “the Senate should note that there are already existing laws in our Constitution that can accommodate all the concerns, real or imagined, that the proposed Bill is expected to address. These laws include the Cyber Crime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, the Libel law, etc” and advised “the Senate to drop all proceedings on the proposed Bill and turn its attention instead to critical areas in need of urgent intervention.”
We agree with the position of the NGE on this frivolous bill in totality and here posit that it is also being pursued by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and some of senators – in particular those currently at loggerheads with some power blocs in the party over last June’s Senate leadership tussle – for reasons of self-preservation.
This hurried, convenient closing of ranks between ‘rebel’ APC Senators and the parties mainstream leaders against free speech in the country could, plausibly, be traced to how the APC deftly deployed its media allies against the defeated administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan and the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), before, during and after the 2015 General Elections, and the urgent imperative of avoiding being subjected to the same bitter pill as the APC grapples with the daunting realities of federal governance.
As the then opposition party, the APC should be proud of its media blitzkrieg in the last election, since the party completely seized the election narratives and directed these as it pleased to capture the public imagination in its favour and against President Jonathan and the PDP. The APC’s media ‘waterboarding’ was so brutally effective that when – to burrow one of the oft-lobbed grenade words used by the APC’s so-called e-warriors in cyberspace – the “clueless” PDP realised what was happening to their party’s public image, it was too late. Despite the spirited efforts of the presidential campaign organisation’s media committee headed by the equally formidable, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, the APC tsunamic victory at the polls was fait accompli.
Suffice to add that the PDP’s standing in the public psyche was ruptured, shredded and left in tatters, a quagmire the former ruling party is still groping in the dark to recover from and seems to be at a loss as to how to mount a counter-image laundry campaign for its redemption, beyond the occasional, worn media statements or briefings by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh.
The contribution of social media platforms to the success of the APC media campaign – one of which is Saharareporters, which Senator Dino Melaye mentioned severally to buttress his argument for the passage of the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibitions, Etc.) Bill, 2015 – was duly acknowledged by the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, with a widely reported meeting with these social influencers in Lagos, few days after being sworn in as minister.
It appears, however, that following the schism generated by National Assembly leadership election crisis, power blocs in the APC have resorted to using the social media platforms and social media influencers in their control to attack one another. Mainstream media houses allied to these power blocs also pick up these unverified salacious claims in social media for publication in newspapers and broadcast.
The danger of implosion that this intra-party wrangling being fought out in traditional media and in cyberspace to the ruling party is apparently not lost on all power blocs in the APC, as sensational truths, half-truths and outright falsehood are made, rebutted and counter-lobbed into all camps. There is also the rising rumbling in the media against the Federal Government’s modus operandi in the anti-corruption ‘war,’ its readiness to implement some populist campaign promises, exasperation over alleged slow pace of President Muhammadu Buhari, among sundry issues.
From the foregoing, reigning in the media by hook or crook is clearly a party imperative for the APC, more so when there appears to be no solutions in sight to the standoff between the power blocs in the party over the sharing or redistribution of leadership positions at the Senate.
In essence, the APC and its senators pursuit of the passage of the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibitions, Etc.) Bill, 2015 could be likened to the existential worry of the expert decapitator-executioner who does not brook any sword-wielding manoeuvres near his head, as an indigenous saying goes.
In our view, the presentation and consideration of the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibitions, Etc.) Bill, 2015 on the floor of the Senate is an abuse of the law-making privilege accorded senators by the Nigerian constitution. The APC and all senators behind the bill should withdraw it from the Senate and apologise to the Nigerian People for this audacious attempt to kill free speech by muzzling the media and stifling dissenting voices.
A free press is sine qua non to any democracy. If the APC and its senators have suddenly found themselves bind in a conflict of interest with their media allies, the problem is best resolved via the same means by which their allegiance was forged. However, a free media and the freedom of expression of the Nigerian People must not be part of the bargaining chips at such crisis-control conference called by the feuding power blocs in the APC with either themselves or their media allies.
To sure, Nigeria has more than enough laws on our statutes books to punish Jankara journalism by either social media scribblers or traditional journalists. If, for instance, the APC or any of its senators find a part of this editorial malicious, our laws permit them to take The Dream Daily Newspaper before the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) to seek redress – a minister in the President Jonathan administration took this step not too long ago against the Kaduna-based Desert Herald Newspaper and its publisher, Malam Tukur Mamu – or go to the courts to pursue a libel case against this newspaper. The country also has the Cyber Crime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, which anyone libelled or slandered in cyberspace could use to obtain recompense from any social media platform or blogger.
We submit, therefore that the ongoing consideration of the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibitions, Etc.) Bill 2015 at the Senate takes the Nigerian People for granted. It is an irresponsible waste of national resources and legislative time, an affront to the long-suffering masses of this country who are in dire need of succour from government and a danger to their freedom. The Senate must refuse to consider that bill forthwith and throw it out today, if senators truly believe that they are in the Upper Chambers of the National Assembly at the behest of the Nigerian People.
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