The Nigerian minister for Youths and Sports Mr. Sunday Dare has spoken out about what seems to have transpired during the #EndSars Protest which rocked the entire country about fortnight ago.
During that highly tensed period, there was several rumours and calls for the central federal government to regulate or even outrighly shutdown the entire social media space as many pundits and opinion leaders peceived that could help strifle the youths the voice and medium for mass mobilization of members for the protest.
However the Honourable minister has thrown a little light about what went down. He said, “The fact that our youths used it (Social media) to mobilise is commendable. But the talk about the regulation of the social media has been around for a while. We’ve seen other countries taking practical steps in that direction, this country has not done that. Even during the #EndSARS protests, the country had an option (but) the country never went for that final option.
The protests brought home the dangers of fake news, The talk around regulation, of course, we have a National Assembly, it will have to go through the normal process. We have a constitution, we have to make sure it does not violate certain provisions of the constitution that has to do with freedom of expression.
“Where you have fake news destroying lives, the government has a responsibility to make sure that there is a level of control. It is not censorship but some level of control,” he concluded.
We hope this has clarified some of the grey areas and set the record straight.
