By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Film actor turned politician and lawmaker representing Surulere in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Desmond Elliot, has received tons of bashing for advocating regulation of the social media and influencers.
Elliot made the at a plenary of the Lagos State House of Assembly on the wanton destruction of the state during the #EndSARS crisis.
He blamed the social media and influencers for the chaos and warned that they are not regulated, Nigeria may be consumed by those in five years.
He said: “Mr Speaker, we need to address certain things. The Nigerian youth, the social media, the social influencers, all of these are making the narrative that we are seeing today. Except we are joking with ourselves, social media has its negative impact.
“Let me first thank you for condemning the wanton killings that happened at Lekki. When I went through the comments, I could not believe it – the curses, the abuses from children, and I asked myself, is this Nigeria? What is going on? People having the effrontery to enter the Oba’s palace, hold the staff of office! Culture is gone! Mr Speaker, in the next five years there will be no Nigeria if we don’t start now,” he said.
A medical doctor and twitter influencer, Dr Harvey Olufunmilayo, tweeting with his handle @DrOlufunmilayo said: “Govt declares curfew. Govt invites Army to kill people all night. What does Desmond Elliot do? HE BLAMES SOCIAL MEDIA. He calls us “children.” His anger is for attacking social media. NOT the killer govt slaughtering young people. Tomorrow he will deny this.”
@tifefabunmi said: “If Desmond Elliot and other politicians really care about what the “children” say online, then they should always do the right things when elected.”
@_E_von said: “Small curse, Desmond Elliot wants to scrap social media, if he sees the ones from today he fit add jail term.”
@adeyanjudeji queried: “How old is Desmond Elliot that he’s calling people kids? SMH”
@AsiwajuLerry tweeted: “The guys who took the staff of Oba of Lagos are not on Twitter but guess who Desmond Elliot is attacking? The celebrities and social media influencers.”
