The Presidency has dropped a hint about alleged unfitting end to the meeting between the Minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed and the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, on the proposed social media regulation bill.
The proposed social media bill sponsored by Senator Abdullahi Sabi has been greeted by outrage with several commentators against it. NUJ equally voiced its discontent with the bill publicly, saying it was aimed at gagging the media, and suppressing free speech.
A meeting between the NUJ and Mohammed at the behest of the minister on the controversial issue was said to have ended in deadlock, according to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, while addressing a cross-section of journalists in Abuja at the weekend.
Speaking in defence of the bill, Shehu solicited the media’s supports and contribution to the bill saying: “There is a need to protect vulnerable members of the society. There is a need to protect those in the minority, whether tribal or religious, in our own country. So, it makes sense that you, as media stakeholders, come around the Minister of Information and Culture and formulate the kind of regulation you want so that it is not a top bottom approach, so that government will not be accused of imposing a regulatory mechanism on the media. The minister is saying come, sit down with me and let us talk about it. And I was told that the day he called on members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, they walked out on him. If that report is true, I think it is very unfortunate.”
