Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transport and Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, speak on the role of social media in the society at the CKN News Lecture in Lagos

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Jun 26, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT  |

THE use of social media to promote hate speeches has been identified as one of the factors that can disintegrate Nigeria. According to Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transport, if care is not taken, the abuse of the social media can destroy the country.

Amaechi stated this as the guest speaker at the first annual lecture of CKN News in Lagos on Tuesday. The topic of the lecture is “The Role of the Social Media in the Socio-Economic and Political Development of Nigeria.” According to Amaechi, despite the huge job opportunities and funds generated by the social media, it is also aiding crimes in the country. He cited the case of Chukwudume Onuamadike, fondly called Evans, kidnap kingpin, who was arrested recently in Lagos. Evans had claimed to have garnered information about his victims from the social media.

Amaechi maintained that government was angry with the social media operators but also happy because they had been creating jobs. “They misinform the public. They have no rules except for the few that are credible and it is because those ones rose from the traditional media… Social media can destroy this country. It is good for society and it is also very bad.

“It also serves as a feedback mechanism for the government and equally serves as a check to the activities of those in power. People use social media to engage government. Even politicians now depend on social media to target their political opponents. Social media is good for Nigerian economy and politics. It contributed immensely to our success in the 2015 general elections and it will equally play great part in 2019 elections,” he said.

The minister said the social media often times helped to solve depression through some of the sarcastic postings, giving different instances of some of the posts he has had to share because of their comic slant.

However, he warned: “Don’t believe everything on the social media if you want to remain sane.”

On his part, Umar Garba Danbatta, executive vice-chairman, Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, who was represented by Tony Ojobo, director, Public Affairs, NCC, said the commission recognises the role of social media in dissemination of information. He said this informed the decision of the regulatory authority to enhance its strategic activities in the facilitation of broadband deployment in accordance with the vision of the National Broadband Plan.

“We have deployed the social media to extend our reach and engagement. It stands to reason therefore, that NCC as a public sector organisation recognises the value of social media networks in the society and its power to disseminate information on real time basis globally. We appreciate the importance of data as a key resource in knowledge-management. This explains our decision at the Nigerian Communications Commission to enhance our strategic activities in the facilitation of broadband deployment in accordance with the vision of the National Broadband Plan.

Accordingly, to make data available for all persons in Nigeria to access the internet and participate in the emergent digital economy, the Commission has conducted the auction of the 2.3GHz and the 2.1GHz spectrums. Some slots in the 2.6 GHz have also been licensed and the 800MHz is being re-planned for LTE services. All these are frequencies that will guarantee a robust access the internet thereby empowering citizens to utilize the social media networks, he said.

Chris Kehinde Nwandu, editor-in-chief, CKN News, said gone are the days when bloggers and online publishers were seen as blackmailers or in negative lights, but that they are more of development partners to those who see them as such.

He said the lecture was organised to re-awaken Nigerians about the importance of online publishing and blogging in the country. He noted that the choice of Amaechi as the guest speaker was because he remained the most bashed politician on the social media, when indeed some of the things written about him were untrue.

The event was attended by Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal, Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Ikeddy Isiguzo, publisher, The Oracle Newspaper and many other top media personalities.