THE Federal Government will henceforth, through the security agencies, begin to monitor the social media posts of some prominent Nigerians in order to confront head-on, the propagation of hate speeches through various social media platforms.

This resolution came out of a security meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja on Thursday.

Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, who spoke at the security meeting about the disturbing trend of hate speeches across the nation, also described the situation as worrisome.

According to Ali, “Relevant security agencies should as a matter of urgency tackle the propagation of hate speeches through the social media, particularly by some notable Nigerians.”

The resolution will come as a surprise to many Nigerians because about a year ago, the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, promised that the Buhari administration would not regulate social media.

“We have said it before and we want to re-state it: the federal government has no immediate or long-term plan to stifle press freedom. Even the social media, with its warts and all, will neither be regulated nor have its operations tampered with,” he had said in January 2017.

Speaking to newsmen after the security meeting with President Buhari, Ali disclosed that the stringent conditions imposed by the United States government for the sale of 12 Super Tucano A29 planes and other weapons to Nigeria at the rate of $495 million, toped the agenda of the security meeting with the President.

He stated that the US government also insisted that Nigeria must pay for the aircraft latest by February 20, 2018, but the aircraft would only be available in 2020.

Another condition given by the US government was that the country would not be allowed to send its personnel to understudy the production process of the aircraft as Nigeria had done when buying aircraft from other countries.

“The contract include cost which is $494 million to acquire the Super Tucano A29 plans as well as training, where the facilities will be accommodated and continuous servicing among others.

“Some of the stringent measures include that we will start having them from 2020, which is two years from now. They are also thinking of not allowing our technicians to be part of the production inspection.

“But this is what we normally do in all the defence contracts, we send our personnel to go and understudy especially when it comes to specialized aircrafts like in Russia, our personnel are permanently based in where the production is being done for this MI35 helicopters,” Dan Ali explained.

The Minister said the Council had also approved a meeting between officials of his ministry and the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, to discuss and trash out the sticking points involved in the contract.

In December, the President Donald Trump administration announced that it would sell the aircraft to Nigeria after his predecessor, President Obama, had halted the sale due to alleged poor human rights record of the Nigerian military.   –   Independent

–  Jan. 26, 2018 @ 04:00 GMT