Obnoxious bills: What are Niger State senators up to?

Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, representing Niger East, chose to sponsor the Social Media Bill and his colleague from Niger North, Senator Abdullahi Sabi Aliyu, followed it up with the Anti-hate Speech Bill. The third senator, Muhammad Bima Enagi, has  joined the bandwagon by introducing a bill banning the importation and sale of generating sets. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI captures public reactions to the bills.

 

THE three senators representing Niger State in the 9th Senate have been accused of portraying Nigeria in a bad light. The lawmakers have caused a public uproar because of the nature of the bills they have introduced into the National Assembly.

The bills are portraying Nigeria as a repressive or barbaric country. The bills by Muhammad Bima Enagi, Sani Mohammed Musa, and Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi have been randomly condemned, not because the ideas are too outlandish, but more importantly because the senators did not give priority to serious and pressing issues negatively affecting the lives of Nigerians.

Of all the political and socio-economic problems besetting the country and preventing her from fully realising her potentials, it is the nuisance constituted by the social media, the rising incidence of hate speech and the generator menace that they chose to focus on.

Musa who represents Niger Northeast in the Red Chamber set the ball rolling when he sponsored the controversial social media bill, while Abdullahi complimented the effort by introducing the hate speech bill. Perhaps feeling overshadowed by the controversy generated by his two colleagues, Enagi who represents Niger South decided to sponsor the generator importation ban bill.

A Minna, Niger State-based legal practitioner, Ahmed Yahaya, believes the lawmakers are just playing to the gallery and would not achieve any tangible result at the end of the day. He said: “Almost 21 years of unbroken civil rule, politics in this clime has not changed a bit.

People only get involved in politics to line their pockets with taxpayers’ money, instead of serving the people. These senators are disgusting; how can they be proposing bills that will not add any value to the lives of Nigerians? They are selfish in their proposals; they are absolutely disconnected with the realities in their constituencies and the country at large.

“The ruling party must sit up. Once the election is over, it is business as usual. From the look of things, the APC is not learning from the mistakes of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They are intent on surpassing the ignoble records of the PDP during its 16 years in power.

The party did not do its homework well by scrutinizing those that were given its ticket to contest various elective positions. Many of those who were beneficiaries of automatic tickets are the ones embarrassing the party. Meanwhile, many better-qualified aspirants were disappointed in the process.”

Many Nigerians expressed outrage when on November 5, 2019, the Senate re-introduced a bill that will regulate the use of social media in the country. The bill, ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill 2019’ was one of the 11 bills read for the first time on the floor of the house that day.

That was not the first time the idea of passing a bill to regulate the use of social media was entertained. In 2015, there was a sponsored anti-social media bill, but it was kicked against by many Nigerians who believe it negates citizens’ fundamental rights and would restrict freedom of expression.

The senator representing Niger Northeast is a successful businessman-turned-politician. Musa, who has attended various educational institutions across the world, got elected into the Red Chamber on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under controversial circumstances.

Read Also: NASS’s obnoxious bills

 

He was initially denied the ticket by the party during the primary. But, after settling down at the Red Chamber, he proposed the Social Media Bill, which many Nigerians consider obnoxious and repressive. The bill titled: “A bill for an Act to make provisions for the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations and for related matters, 2019, was listed on the Senate’s Order Paper of Tuesday, November 5, 2019, and passed for first reading.

Though it scaled the second reading on the floor of the Senate on November 20 last year, but during a public hearing on the matter by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters recently, it was vehemently kicked against by virtually all the critical stakeholders invited.

The National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, led the pack of opposition against the bill. He described it as a legislation seeking to pigeon hole Nigerians from freely expressing themselves.

He said: “This bill, going by its provisions, is an unnecessary proliferation of laws since targeted offences are already covered by the criminal code or penal code and even latest legislations like the Cybercrime Law of 2015.

Though fake news is worse than Coronavirus people should not be stopped from their inalienable right of freedom of speech. Rather than seeking to regulate end-users of the various social platforms, the platforms should be the focus of such regulation as obtainable in other countries.”

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Dambata, said the provisions of the bill are difficult to implement even if passed into law. He said: “Provisions of the draft copy of the bill were thoroughly dissected by our legal department with submissions that many of them are infracting on extant laws like the Cybercrime law of 2015, Data Protection law etc.

“Besides, as submitted by our legal department, provisions of the bill seek to give too much power to the police, which will invariably lead to infringement or violation of citizens’ rights aside drafting anomalies inherent in all the provisions. On the account of the stated reasons, the NCC seeks for its withdrawal for the purposes of completely redrafting it in a way that will not trample on the constitutional rights of Nigerians.”

The Executive Director, YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, said the bill is nothing but legislative overkill. He added: “Kill this bill and Nigerians will be happy for it. “

In his closing remarks, the chairman of the committee, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central), said the report of the committee would be determined by the preponderance of opinions for or against the bill.

The second of such controversial bills is the one against ‘Hate Speech or Speeches’ sponsored by Senator Abdullahi, who represents Niger North, also on the platform of the APC. The bill titled, “The National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches (Estb., etc) Bill 2019, seeks amongst others, initially prescribed death sentence by hanging for anyone found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person.

But since the First Reading of the bill on the floor of the Senate, and watering down of proposed sanctions contained in the bill from a death sentence to terms of imprisonment, it has not been given Second Reading consideration primarily as a result of the outrage of Nigerians against it. The Senate seems to be bidding it’s time for further consideration of the bill.

The Hate Speech Bill of the bills passed by the Eighth National Assembly but declined assent by President Muhammadu Buhari. Part 2 of the 26-page bill talks about the discrimination that the bill applies to include ethnic discrimination, hate speech, harassment on the basis of ethnicity, the offence of ethnic or racial contempt, discrimination by way of victimisation and offences by a body of persons.

The bill was randomly criticized by senators elected on the platform of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as well as the general public. Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the PDP senators are ready to resist any anti-human rights bill presented before the upper legislative chamber.

Abaribe said the Hate Speech Bill, which is titled ‘Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulations Bill, 2019’, and proposes a three-year jail term for anyone involved in the abuse of social media, is not necessary because there are existing laws that deal with the issue of regulating social media use that the proposed law seeks to achieve.

He urged Nigerians to respect the rights of others while expressing their views. He said: “There is no speed with which this bill is being passed. The first reading of a bill is automatic. We can’t make a comment on what is still in the first stage.

What I can say is that this Senate cannot be a party to removing the rights of Nigerians under any circumstance. The 9th Senate will not abridge your rights. I don’t think Nigerians, who fought and paid the supreme to entrench this democracy will easily give it away and make us go back to the dark days.

“We have a plethora of laws that can be used to drive the question of driving a free society. While social media can be good, it can also be bad. I am a victim of social media. As much as there is freedom, yours stops where another person’s own starts. We urge Nigerians not to propagate falsehood or fake news. Our job is to guarantee the freedoms and rights of both sides.”

A pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has asked Nigerians to resist any attempt by the National Assembly to shut down the democratic space. Its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin enjoined Nigerians to resist the attempt “by a rubber stamp assembly that wants to shut down the democratic space that we fought to have”. He added: “Who determines what constitutes hate speech? It would be whimsical and capricious enforcement to cow or eliminate those who disagree with the administration.

“Daily, we are forced to ask: what did we fight against about military rule that we are not experiencing today? The Senate is now behaving like a front for a brutal dictatorship by proposing legislation that was unheard of even under the Nazis.”

Senator Enagi who represents Niger South on the APC platform is seeking a ban on the importation of generating sets. The bill is intended to curb the menace of environmental pollution and to facilitate the development of the power sector.

The draft bill states: “This bill seeks to ban the importation and use of generating sets (generators) in the country and to curb the menace of environmental pollution which leads to potential health hazards it poses to the whole nation.”

Enagi recommends that “anyone who imports generating sets or knowingly sells generating sets shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on conviction to be sentenced to imprisonment for a jail term of not less than 10 years” after the passage of the bill into law. The bill has scaled through first reading in the Senate, but it has attracted the criticism of Nigerians who, in their opinions, see no reasons for such legislation now.

For instance, former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, said the senator that sponsored the bill deserves nothing but ridicule. He said: “The senator that sponsored the bill must be insane. He ought to be tied up, placed in a straitjacket, put in a strong sack filled with weights and dropped in the deepest and darkest part of the Atlantic Ocean.”

In spite of the outrage that has greeted the introduction of the bill, Senator Enagi has insisted that the Generator Prohibition Bill, as well as the two other controversial bills sponsored by his colleagues from Niger State, would impact positively on the lives of Nigerians.

His words: “You see in this country we have to be serious. We need serious-minded leaders and we also need to have serious-minded followers and I think that is what my brothers from Niger State are doing. We are serious-minded people; we are after the development of Nigeria and those are the steps that we are taking.

“Remember the border closure and the positive benefits that the country has realized from the closure. Remember that China closed its borders for years in order to develop technologically. They are benefiting today from it. If we want to be a serious country, we must take serious steps.

Yes, there are hardships, but we must be ready to face the hardships because we want our children to benefit. We [should] face the hardship today for our children to benefit tomorrow. So, I am proud of my brothers from Niger State. All our bills are positive bills that would impact positively on the lives of Nigerians.”