By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Muhammadu Buhari is quietly picking out, one by one, and bearing down heavily on #EndSARS supporters, a throwback to Decree 4 the president enacted in 1984 in his military junta days that jailed journalists who spoke truth to his authoritarian regime.
Nigeria is supposed to be a democracy – a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. In a democracy, power resides with the people. They elect leaders to govern well by pursing the public good. They vote leaders out of office if they fail.
But an alarming clear pattern of autocracy is emerging in Africa’s most populous country: a bill against hate speech, hunting down peaceful protesters, and now a social media bill to curtail freedom of speech.
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A Nigerian may eventually be jailed or his property confiscated in his own country for speaking out – or for giving moral support to those who speak out – against unbearable bad governance under the watch of Buhari.
Last week alone, the passport of a prominent #EndSARS lawyer was seized and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) got a court order to freeze the bank accounts of 19individuals and one company that supported the protest against police brutality in October.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) stopped Modupe Odele from travelling abroad from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on November 1 and confiscated her passport without giving explanation.
She said when she tried to board an international flight, immigration authorities told her she was under military investigation and thus barred from leaving Nigeria.
Bolatito Oduala, one of those whose bank accounts the CBN froze on November 6, has since joined Temitope Majekodunmi to boycott the Lagos panel investigating the murder of unarmed 12 youths by soldiers at Lekki toll gate on October 20.
Both women had been scheduled to give evidence to the panel as representatives of the youths who staged the protest against police brutality and demanded good governance.
Hate speech, social media bill
Buhari and his allies in the National Assembly (NASS) have proposed a bill that slams life imprisonment or a fine of N5 million on anyone found guilty of whatever he perceives as “hate speech”.
Another bill is also in the works to curtail social media interaction, with a fine or a jail term for violators of free speech in a country of 200 million population and multiple ethnicities.
Anyone guilty under the Social Media Bill is liable to a fine of ₦300,000 or three years imprisonment or both (for an individual), and a fine not exceeding ₦10 million (for corporate organisations).
A huge backlash over the two bills when they were introduced in 2019 led to them being put in the cooler. But they were revised in October 2020 after the #EndSARS protest.
Demand for good governance
Demand for good governance has escalated in the South, where there are more educated people. The North is also waking up from slumber with protests against insecurity and banditry across the region, including in Buhari’s home state of Katsina.
Rather than address the breeding ground for agitation – bad governance, corruption, poverty, demand for devolution of power to the regions for accountability at the local level – the Buhari administration is trying to quell the symptoms.
Prominent lawyers have criticised the government for suppressing the rights of protesters and for freezing their bank accounts.
Below are the views of some of them:
Monday Ubani (former second vice president of Nigeria Bar Association)
“What is their crime? Has protesting been declared a criminal offence under any enactment? Is there any enactment that criminalised the protests by #EndSARS protesters? Has there been any criminal law made either by the state or federal government?
“If there is no such law that criminalised that particular act that took place, it is absolutely absurd for any government to freeze any person’s account.
“The Constitution says nobody can be made liable for any crime that is not written. So if protests have not been criminalised, there is no basis for freezing anybody’s account.
“It is clearly absurd to hold anybody liable for any crime that is not enacted. I am totally flabbergasted It is a suppression of rights. It amounts to suppression of rights by the government. It is an infringement on their fundamental human rights.
“My happiness is that the judiciary will be up and doing in restoring the rights of those whose rights have been violated. And I urge those whose rights have been infringed upon to approach the courts.”
Lawal Pedro (former Lagos State solicitor general)
“Since the Central Bank of Nigeria obtained a court order before freezing the accounts of the individuals and a public affairs company linked to the #EndSARS protests, the freezing of the accounts is lawful.
“Whether or not the order was erroneously granted in breach of the promoters/sponsors rights is another issue. But by virtue of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, the order to freeze the accounts is binding on all persons and authorities until it is set aside.
“What the persons affected should do is to approach the same court to have the order set aside and the account can be unfrozen by their bankers.
“However, the judge would only be obliged to set aside the order if satisfied that the order was granted without jurisdiction or as a result of misrepresentation of facts. That is the way of the rule of law.
“In my opinion, the order was wrongly granted and there are substantial grounds upon which an application to set aside the order can be premised.”
Mike Ozekhomen (Senior Advocate of Nigeria)
“The protesters were peaceful and were using their resources in managing the protest. They were never violent until suspected government agents started shooting people on sight.
“For them to now go after the bank account of protesters is wrong, it is unconstitutional. The #EndSARS protesters whose accounts were frozen have one thing to do. They should go to court.”
Mohammed defends Social Media Bill
“Social media has come to stay and it will be an antithesis to democracy to shut it down because it is the fastest way of disseminating information,” Information Minister Lai Mohammed assured.
“However, we must regulate social media in a manner that it does not become a purveyor of fake news and hate speech,” he said about the bill, which is being debated by the Senate to criminalise the peddling of false and malicious information online.
But the BBC reports that many Nigerians worry that this is simply an attempt to stifle activism and prevent future acts of defiance against the state.
Social media platforms, like Twitter, played a key role in the recent #EndSars anti-police brutality protests that swept across the country for about two weeks in October, scenes unprecedented in Nigeria’s recent history.
Daily convergence times and locations, fundraising, legal aid, and other organisation for the protests were spread via social media.
Videos of incidents were also posted on social media, such as unconstitutional attacks or arrests by security personnel, the BBC recalls.
And, while Nigerian authorities continue to deny that any protesters were shot dead on the night of October 20 when soldiers were sent to disperse a gathering of protesters at the Lekki toll gate area in Lagos, viral videos seem to tell a completely different story.
Being wary of authoritarianism for good reason
“Considering recent events in the country, it has become extremely important for the Nigerian government to demonstrate its accountability to the people,” read a statement by a coalition of activist groups opposed to the anti-social media bill.
“And the social media remains a crucial platform where citizens can lead such a conversation.”
Nigerians have good reason to be worried about any attempt to control what people say.
The country’s history is fraught with episodes of authoritarian governments stifling freedom of speech, with dire consequences for anyone who spoke out of line.
During the era of military rule which lasted from 1983 to 1999, government critics were regularly detained or harassed. Politics was discussed in fearful whispers.
In 1984, the administration [of Buhari] enacted a decree that shut down any newspapers, radio, or television stations whose activities were considered to be damaging to the government.
Today, the septuagenarian is the country’s elected president, and some Nigerians are wary of his old ways breaking through the veneer of converted democrat, says the BBC.
Living without hatred and incitement
However, there is a valid case against the negative impact of social media in Nigeria.
While dubious laws and edicts may not be the solution, the problem needs to be acknowledged, the BBC adds.
Ethnic rivalry, religious intolerance, and other forms of aggression have been stoked by fake news items on social media.
A country as diverse and volatile as Nigeria can definitely do without the hatred and incitement.
Some fake news items from social media have travelled unchecked into the mainstream media, becoming even more difficult to extinguish.
While fake news is a problem faced by almost every country around the world, Nigeria’s situation is particularly dangerous because most young people here depend completely and entirely on social media for their news, and the elderly on messaging apps like
In a country where more than 152 million of a 200 million population live on less than $2 (£1.50) a day, according to the African Development Bank, few people can afford diverse sources of information.
Recourse to social media
Buying newspapers, magazines or books is a luxury. Libraries are almost non-existent outside big cities like Abuja and Lagos.
Therefore, the average person might invest in data for Twitter or Facebook and WhatsApp, but not have enough for online newspapers or to research whether what they have seen on social media is accurate.
During the #EndSars campaign, a bogus claim went viral urging people to remain in the streets for as long as possible because the UN would be obliged to intervene only if the protests lasted for a month.
Also, the photograph of a man carrying a dead body wrapped in a bloodstained Nigerian flag went viral, purportedly from the night of the Lekki toll gate shootings. It turned out to be from a theatre production to mark Nigeria’s independence anniversary.
“These young people don’t even watch television or listen to the radio or read newspapers,” said Mohammed, as he made a case for the anti-social media bill during a press conference.
“We are sitting on a time bomb on this issue of fake news.”
But, Nigerians are determined to resist to the end. The activism has already begun – on social media, with the trending hashtag #SayNoToSocialMediaBill.