Social media users carpet Mark on call for censorship
| credits:
Nigerian
online social media users have criticised the Senate President, David
Mark, for reportedly seeking a check on the use of social media by
Nigerians.
They said it was an attempt to frustrate public criticism of government.
Mark had last Thursday,
while declaring open a two-day retreat for Senate Press corps in
Umuahia, Abia State, reportedly said the check became necessary as
people used the media to demean their leaders. He added that there was
no opportunity for retraction of information in such media.
He reportedly said, “We
need to change our attitude on how we report things about our country
and we should emulate the foreign reporters who never report negative
things about their countries.”
Facebook and Twitter
users however, took a swipe at Mark, saying he allegedly antagonised the
use of mobile phones by average Nigerians some years ago.
The comments had the senate president trending on social media platforms.
A Facebook post by Agba
Jalingo read, “Attention: Occupy David Mark. The senate president must
be stopped from his moves to restrict the use of social media in
Nigeria, as it has been done in militarised countries of the world. He
has been quoted as saying the social media is being used to insult
leaders. We are not in North Korea, this is a democracy.
“Occupy his telephone
line and help save our only freedom of expression. Call, text and even
flash 080350088**. Please re-broadcast.”
A twitter user, Adenike
Adebayo, also wrote, “People like Mark represent the last vestiges of a
dying paradigm. We must hasten that process to avoid poisoning of the
polity.”
Similarly, Segun Agbede, tweeted,
“Mark says the foreign media don’t say negative things about their
country. He obviously hasn’t been reading British and American
newspapers.”
Another another user, Deejay, tweeted, “Mark should say something more reasonable when next he’s talking to the press.”
Chidi in his tweet said,
“When Mark was a minister, he said telephone wasn’t for poor people.
Today, he says social media should be banned.”
Another twitter user, Ekekeee.com,
wrote, “Let Mark legislate against us using new media. At least, let it
be one achievement he can boast of in his years” involvent in our
renascent democracy.
Likewise, Obi Henry tweeted,
“If Mark had his way, he would have shut down these handles. Mark who
said telephones were not for the poor is now advocating social media
censorship. An apple doesn’t fall far from its tree.”
