The members of the House of Representatives on Thursday were divided over the ban placed on the micro-blogging platform, Twitter.
The lawmakers argued over the report submitted by the House Committee on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values led by Hon. Olusegun Odebunmi, which had been mandated to investigate the reasons for the Twitter ban.
The Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase, pointed out that the committee did not expand the scope of its investigation by inviting the National Security Adviser (NSA) due to the national security implication as claimed by the federal government.
While contributing to the debate, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, faulted the committee’s report, saying it did not address the issues at that had been highlighted.
He recalled that the committee was given three core areas in the mandate to include; determining the circumstances surrounding the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, the legal authority upon which the federal government relied on the ban it, and to invite the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
“None of the five recommendations has answered the questions. The committee has not done a prudent work. I would say that this report should not be considered, let the committee go and do a thorough job,” he said.
He said there was need to amend the committee’s recommendations to call for the lifting of the ban of the microblogging site, considering the negative consequences it may have on Nigerians.
Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila waded in, insisting that by the mandate given the committee, it had substantially complied.
He said during the consideration of such a report, “we can reject, we can amend. If you are not satisfied with a particular recommendation, amend it.”
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Wase appealed to the house to it did not make an erroneous decision in a haste.
He said, “They needed to have exhausted more avenues. Nothing stops them from inviting the NSA. They needed to have gone further.”
The deputy speaker insisted that none of the panel’s recommendations specifically stated if the federal government did the right thing, or acted in error.
After back and forth debates on the report which generated heated tension, the deputy speaker eventually put the report to voice vote and it was voted and adopted.
The Nigerian government banned the use of Twitter indefinitely on last month. This was announced by the Spokesperson to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Twitter.
This was shortly after the tech company deleted a tweet and video from President Muhammadu Buhari in which he threatened to deal with secessionist group in South East Nigeria “in the language they understand,” making a reference to the brutal civil war which broke out in Nigeria more than 50 years ago.
The social media giant said the tweet violated its rules.
However, Mohammed accused Twitter of double standards, saying it ignored violent messages that were previously shared by the separatist leader on its platform.
