Social Media Bill: Senate suspends public hearing till next year

The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal
Matters has suspended further legislative actions on the
controversial anti-social media bill sponsored by Senator Musa Sani
till January next year.

Investigations by our correspondent revealed that the decision
was not unconnected with the mixed feelings expressed by members of
the 14-member Senate panel during their maiden meeting on the
issue. The members are all lawyers.

The senators were said to have cautioned themselves and stressed
the need to ensure a wide consultation on the issue.

They agreed to make sure that voices of all critical
stakeholders connected to the proposed legislation were adequately
captured and represented in their report.

Although the deadline given the committee by the leadership of
the Senate to submit its report would elapse this week, members of
the panel who spoke with our correspondent on condition of
anonymity said they were not in a hurry to work on the bill.

A member of the committee said, “We have agreed, tentatively, to
fix the public hearing for January. We have to be careful so as not
to be on the wrong side of history. We are already identifying the
various stakeholders who have spoken on the issue as individuals,
groups or institutions. We will send letters of invitations to
them.

“We will also do a media publication inviting members of the
public to the public hearing with their written submissions so that
we would capture all their views. We need to ensure that the media
and the civil society groups who are in the forefront of the
agitation against the bill, come around to defend their
position.

“It is when this is done that we will be able to convince
Nigerians that we have done the right thing.”

Another member of the panel assured Nigerians that the committee
was not in a hurry to present its report for consideration.

He said, “Let me assure Nigerians that we will leave no stone
unturned as far as the bill is concerned. It is a very important
bill and we must ensure that necessary things are done to get the
contributions of the people that would be reflected in our
report.

“Since we would round off legislative activities for the year
next (this) week, we have decided to shift the public hearing to
January. This will also enable more stakeholders to participate.
The senators would have been around too. We will definitely give
longer notice and everybody would be carried along.”

Attempts to speak with the chairman of the committee, Senator
Opeyemi Bamidele, on the issue did not succeed as he had yet to
respond to a text message sent to him as of the time of filing this
report.

Bamidele had penultimate week told our correspondent that his
panel would fix a date for the public hearing on the bill last
week. He said relevant stakeholders would be given sufficient
notices because of the interest that the proposed legislation had
generated.

He had also explained that his panel would hold meetings with
the sponsor of the bill, Senator Musa Sani, and the leadership of
the National Assembly before convening the public hearing.

The controversial bill, which seeks to make provisions for the
protection from Internet falsehood and manipulations and other
related matters, passed the second reading on the floor of the
Senate last month.

The bill, among other provisions, prescribed a three-month jail
term and a fine up to N10m for individuals or corporate firms that
would run afoul of its provisions, when signed into law.

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