Sani Musa
Mohammed Sani Musa CON (born 11 May 1965) is a politician and senator representing the Niger East Senatorial District of Niger State at the Nigerian National Assembly. He attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he bagged a B.Sc. in Business Administration in 1990, specializing in Banking and Finance. Among other impressive academic records, he holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Policy and Management from the University of London and a Postgraduate Certificate in International Management from the University of Liverpool, respectively. Mohammed Sani Musa is a ranking member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and was a top contender for the position of Senate President at the 10th National Assembly.
Quotes
[edit]- The outcry is expected and it is a welcome development. This is the reason we presented the bill because there must be engagement. One thing I keep saying about the bill is that we need the legislation. Even you, as a journalist need it more because this is your profession. You don’t have any other thing doing. You want at any time to see whatever you present to be authentic. I am sure you do your underground checks on your news items before going to the Press. You learn while you were in school, what ethical conduct should be in journalism. Nowadays, there is Internet. People, these days, go online, search information on Google about whatever they want freely and take it as authentic. That’s why we must ensure that what goes into the Internet are facts.
- Nobody is being gagged by this bill and nobody is being refused any opportunity to do his or her legitimate duty. I use the Internet more than any other person. Part of the things that spoilt my eyes happened during my incarceration by the Department of State Services. Also, when I was released, I was always on the Internet because I was busy trying to see how I could read things. If you ask anyone that knows me very well, they will tell you that I spend 18 hours every day either on my iPad or laptop. I’m always on the Internet and on the social media.
- It is not as if we are trying to come up with a bill or a legislation that would infringe on the right of the people. The constitution has given Nigerians, fundamental human rights. There is constitutional freedom of speech and participation. My bill will guide against falsification of information. Some people would know full well that certain information is false and would still post it on the Internet.
- We are all victims of these things. Sometime ago, I saw PUNCH on the Internet and I thought it was the real Punch Online. I saw the type of news that was coming out of it. I am sure if I ask the PUNCH management, they will say they don’t know anything about the website.
- You (Punch Online) cannot do what the other Punch website is doing because the real Punch Online would want to stand on their integrity; whenever they call you to come and defend what you have written, you would want to say, yes, we did it. If anybody is having a contrary view, you have your facts right.
- We want to guide against all these things, that is why we say, if by the time we put penalty on these things, there would be sanity. Offenders would be taken to court. The court could decide to free the person if he or she was not found guilty. On the other way round, the court could find the offender guilty of using an untrue information on the Internet and impose punishment.
- I know certain aspects of our jurisprudence that have taken care of issues that border on defamation and other things. This bill is entirely different from that. I have said it repeatedly that sending a message online is like switching on your light and you will see the speed at which it will go. Before you know it, the reading public is deceived.
- That is what we said we should just guide against. Unknown to a lot of journalists, my bill is coming to protect their profession. That is how it is being done in other parts of the world including the United States of America. Information dissemination is tele-guided. I challenge whoever that says that the social media is not regulated in the United States, because I can produce some legislation from some states to show how they are guided.
- It is the same thing in Canada. Talking about the fundamental human rights and freedom, you cannot challenge freedom of speech in the two countries but they tend to guide these things. Malaysia too is regulating social media usage, Singapore is doing it, China has done it.
- Even Cote d’Ivoire, our next door neighbour, Senegal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates are all doing the same thing. Go to Kuwait, and type, “fuck you,” the message would not go. Put any form of pornography, it won’t send. Take a picture of a nude person and try to throw it into the Internet in all the countries that I have mentioned and you would see that they would not go.
- Corporate bodies cannot be free if they are found guilty of an offence. Penalties range from light punishment of N5, 000 fine while N300,000 is the maximum. If a senator decided to post something on his social media account knowing such information to be untrue and somebody challenged him and he is found guilty, he would be charged N300, 000. It is still in order.
- If I see a young man on the street, committing similar offence and the court found him guilty and he was asked to go and pay N10 , 000 or N5, 000, by the time he sweat before he was able to pay, he would not do it again and it would be a deterrent to others.
- There is nothing in my bill to show that government or anybody is trying to protect anyone in power. I am also not doing it to protect myself as a legislator, rather, I am trying to protect Nigerians from the misuse.
