Senator David Mark calls for a check on the use of the social media in the country.

The emergence of the Internet can be viewed as a highly significant leap forward in the communication evolutionary process.

All over the world governments have praised the virtues of social media as a new means to engage or re-engage with citizens. It’s proven to be a way to become more effective and efficient, and a brilliant way of bringing the citizenry and the government closer

But I still see the issues of Internet censorship as a big problem; freedom of speech online continues to be threatened in countries like China, who have censored the usage and in April blocked all Internet access.

I’m also concerned about the comments made in Nigeria, by Senate President David Mark who apparently thinks (the Chinese way) controlling the Internet is quite appealing.

Last week, Mark, said there was a need to check the use of social media as Nigerians were using them to demean their leaders.

The truth is, social media does not demean Nigerian leaders…the penchant for corrupt practices by some in leadership positions has already achieved that.

Stakeholders in corruption will see the Internet as an irritating breeding ground for the disenchanted and if I were in there position I would be well miffed at the prospects of the walls closing in…What they need to understand is that, its not the same type of politics anymore. The status quo is no longer acceptable. Things are no longer easily hidden.

But I have to ask, since the Chinese way is now appealing, why don’t we also adopt the way they deal with corrupt public officials too? …. I thought not!

Mark also said that “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.” 

WHO IS HE KIDDING? !!! What foreign reporters is he talking about?  E.g. The British press has had a long history of bringing wrongdoing into the light of public attention. Here are a few examples

·     1890s Liberal Party MP Jabez Balfour was exposed as running several vast fraudulent companies to conceal colossal financial losses. Balfour fled to Argentina, but was eventually arrested and imprisoned.

·     1920s Winston Churchill secretly accepted £5,000—the equivalent of perhaps millions in today's money—from Burmah Oil (now known as BP) to lobby the British government to allow them to monopolise Persian oil resources. (1923

·     1963 the Profumo Affair

·     1990s we saw, Arms to Iraq… The Cash for questions scandal and the Cash for honors scandal

And more recently the Government expenses scandal

The list goes on….

All these were exposed by a vigilant and expressive foreign press,

But of course, Senator David mark would have known this, if he didn’t shy away from the Internet. 

Senator Mark, Google is your friend. Embrace it!

The social networking phenomena did not exist 13 years ago when PDP came to power. The explosive growth of the phenomena will only grow faster. This, I’m sorry, is a fight you will loose…. It’s best for you to embrace Social networking? … the Internet on the whole.

My advise is, if there was nothing to hide and the government is as transparent as it claims the social media should be heralded as the new way for the mass to get information round

Good performance from the leadership is the answer to critics not censorship!