Senate President, Saraki Kick Against Social Media Bill

The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has describe the ‘Anti-frivolous Petition Bill,’ has dead on arrival. Saraki declared this yesterday at the Lagos Social Media Week, said that section 4 of the bill which is now popularly known as ‘Anti-Social Media Bill’ would not see the light of day at the Senate because it was already dead on arrival.

Nigerians on all social media platforms had earlier criticised the bill being sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah representing Kebbi South Senatorial District titled “Draft Bill to Prohibit Frivolous Petition and Other Matters Connected Therewith” which seeks to forbid social media users from slandering members of the public, including the lawmakers themselves.

While delivering the keynote address at the StateCraft Masterclass series at the Social Media Week in Lagos on Friday, the Senate President, announced that the controversial bill would not see the light of day stated that “without the involvement of social media, there is no way that we would have moved.”

Saraki thanked the online community and described them as the real ‘Chairmen of INEC,’ saying their crowd sourced election results from polling stations during the general elections, ensured that the manipulation of vote counts was kept to the barest minimum.

“Though we had the numbers, it is really thanks to social media that votes counted because you shared the results as they happened”, he stated.

He encouraged the audience on the social platform to continue contributing to the development of Nigeria through their positive dialogue and debate on social media.

The Senate President assured the audience at #SMWLagos that in the next few weeks, the calls for an Open National Assembly (#OpenNASS) would be actualised, and Nigerians would get to see the line-item allocations of the National Assembly.

As the first public official in office to personally attend social media week which is in its 4th year, he assured participants that his presence at the event shows how serious National Assembly takes social media.

Credit: Leadership Newspaper