by Oke Efagene
The Nigeria Senate has reached an advanced stage of passing a bill that seeks 7-year jail term for social media critics who are found guilty of provoke the public against the government – and the Twitter chatter is on already. Just before you guys are hauled into jail – let’s break down the proposed law in
1. How far has the law gone?
The proposed bill has already passed through a second reading in the upper legislative chamber.
2. How come you’re just hearing about it?
The joint Senate Committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and legal matters, Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes led by Senator Umaru Dahiru (PDP, Sokoto), yesterday organised a one day public hearing on the bill for an act to provide for the prohibition and punishment for electronic fraud and crime in all electronic transactions in Nigeria.
3. What can lead to jail time for you?
Section 13 subsection 3 of the bill proposes that: “Anyone who intentionally propagates false information that could threaten the security of the country or that is capable of inciting the general public against the government through electronic message shall be guilty of an offense and upon conviction shall be sentenced to seven years imprisonment or N5 million (fine).”
4. What else did the Senate add on to make the bill palatable?
Declaring open the public hearing Senate President David Mark who was represented by the deputy minority whip, Senator Abu Ibrahim (APC, Katsina), said electronic fraudsters pose great danger to the country which must be tackled to attract foreign investment.
The committee chairman Senator Umaru Dahiru (PDP, Sokoto) said electronic fraud was posing serious threat to world economies and Nigeria being a developing economy should enact appropriate laws to deal with the challenges.
Twitjail just got real.
H/T to Daily Trust for quotes
I also hope dat @ d point dat the senate and d fools who proposed and passed this bill are not above the law. Una,go jail dead men and women cos hmmm u can as well pass same bill on newspaper using twitter to re:h out to the public as well as Facebook users…. I believe its time to check d alchol level of or senates on a more serious note, cos dis bill I believe was passed in a state of "Dutch Courage" Old fools
Are you kidding me? I just wasted my time reading this tripe. When I saw “We break down the Senate bill in 4 questions” I actually thought this was some serious debate that would galvanize action to stop this nonsensical bill from seeing the light of day. Anyways, thanks for the information. Well, y’all should fold your arms and tweet away until y’all are hauled into jail.