National Coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams has said that the social media censorship bill proposed by the senate is not only a coup against the media, it is a coup against the people.
While addressing newsmen in Lagos, Adams appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari not to bow to pressure from corrupt politicians to sign the bill into law.
He said “I see this as a coup against the media, which by extension, is a coup against the people.
It is disturbing that the same senate that got its mandate from the people is now seeking to gag them. I fear that something terrible is really wrong.
“In 1984, during the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, the Decree 4 was introduced and journalists were jailed for doing their job of writing. It is curious that a similar bill is being planned by the senate now that Buhari is a civilian president. The media is the life wire of democracy, and any attempt to gag it spells doom for our nascent democracy.
“I am not encouraging people to defame anybody. Rather, I am appealing to media practitioners in the country to do their job with every sense of responsibility and to see themselves as the pillar on which our democracy rests. I also believe that the courts is the last hope of the common man. Therefore, I will advise that instead of seeking to gag the media let anybody who feels defamed by another person approach the court for redress. I think that is a better way of strengthening our democracy.”
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