David Mark’s Paranoia

In a moment of frustration, Senate President, David Mark, last week called for a censoring of the social media in the country because, according to him, Nigerians were employing it to ‘demean’ their leaders. Mark committed the gaffe while addressing a retreat in Umuahia, Abia State capital, for journalists covering the Nigerian Senate.

In one breath, Mark, curiously, acknowledged the crucial role of the media in stabilising democracy, by checking on the excesses of public officials. In another, the Senate President complained media reports, especially in the all-pervading social media – Facebook, Twitter, etc – were casting him and his colleagues in public office in bad light.

“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,” Mark sermonised.

Mark is particularly pained that ‘untrue’ reports emanating from the social media can’t be properly retracted. So to check the social media from further ‘over-reaching itself’, he advocated government control to stop its users from further insulting leaders like him.

Need we remind Mark – the supposed number one lawmaker in the land – that Nigerians’ use of the social media is a form of expression, and is a right enshrined in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution?

The Senate President’s analogy that the Nigerian media emulate their foreign counterparts “who never report negative things about their countries”, is not only laughable, but a blatant lie.

U.S President, Barack Obama, arguably the most influential man in the world, is daily battered by Americans on the micro-blogging site Twitter, for one failing or the other. Worse, he is many times a butt of rude jokes, courtesy of abusive citizens expressing their right to Free Speech protected under U.S. laws.

Those are Americans, who enjoy the best of  life and leadership any country can wish for. They still put their president on his toes. Why then not Nigeria? A land thoroughly messed up by bad leadership, with many citizens wallowing in abject poverty.

Mark’s outburst betrays the paranoia and frustration that the ruling class in Nigeria feels for its years of misrule. Millions of Nigerians, lacking basic infrastructure and living on less than $2 a day, have found a voice in the social media, which is a lot more accessible than the traditional media.

Social media platforms – increasingly attracting millions of Nigerians every day – remain a powerful tool in the hands of ordinary citizens to hold our leaders accountable. Not a thousand Marks or any spurious legislation will stop Nigerians from freely expressing their minds and demanding that those administering the country justify its huge resources.

David Mark and his ilk should put their acts together, and purge themselves of their kleptocracy by giving Nigerians the better life they deserve, not by trying to muzzle the free media. If they start to do the right thing, Nigerians might consider ‘demeaning’ them the less.