A renowned Professor of Mass Communication, Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye, has taken a swipe at the Frivolous Petitions Bill 2015, popularly called Social Media Bill, before the eighth Senate, calling it “anti-people”, “anti-social” and “anti-human being”.
He made this known on Tuesday as a guest on a programme which aired on Television Continental, Lagos, where he stated that the sponsor, Sen. Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC – Kebbi South), needed to be “educated” to understand the role of the media, whether mainstream or social.
Akinfeleye, who is the Head of the University of Lagos’ Centre of Excellence in Multimedia Journalism, said the sponsor should go back to school to be taught about the ECOWAS Charter on Human Rights, AU Charter on Human Rights and Section 22 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution which “protected the right to know”.
The don declared that the sponsor should face programmes geared towards providing a better life for his constituents instead of seeking to bring back “Decree 4(a) and 4(b) of 1984,” which sought to proscribe press freedom.
He also condemned Senate President Bukola Saraki’s statements referring to sections of the bill as obnoxious, stating that it was a hypocritical attempt to cover his real position on the bill.
Akinfeleye asked: “If it was obnoxious, didn’t he (Saraki) preside over the First and Second readings?”
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