{"id":22648,"date":"2019-11-27T19:08:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T18:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=22648"},"modified":"2019-11-27T19:08:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T18:08:52","slug":"anti-hate-speech-social-media-law-protests-rock-national-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=22648","title":{"rendered":"Anti-hate speech, social media law protests rock National Assembly\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scores of protesters made up of civil society groups and students besieged the National Assembly complex on Wednesday and asked the federal lawmakers to drop the anti-social media and the hate speech bills which are at various stages in the nation\u2019s parliament.
\nThe protester armed with placards containing various inscriptions, chanted,\u00a0 \u201cWhat are we saying?,\u00a0 Say no to social media bill; What are we demanding? Say no to hate speech bill.\u201d
\nThe development led to a great discomfort for staff and visitors to the National Assembly as security personnel frisked motorists and pedestrians before they could enter through the main gate.
\nThere was a heavy security build-up between 8:am and about 12 noon when the protesters ended the protest.
\nOne of the leaders of the civil society group, Henry Shield, told journalists that the protest was to register their displeasure to the two bills.
\nShield argued that there were laws in Nigeria which could adequately and sufficiently deal with the issues alluded to in the bills.
\nThe protesters were addressed by Senators Oseni Yakubu and Uba Sani.
\nThe lawmakers said they had the mandate of the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, to speak with the protesters.
\nSani explained that there were stages to be followed before a bill could be passed.
\nHe assured Nigerians that the bills would not be passed if Nigerians rejected them during the public hearings.
\nSani said,\u00a0 \u201cWe have heard your agitation. We believe it is a very important agitation.
\n\u201cSome of us in the Chamber have also been involved in the struggle for the enthronement of democracy
\n\u201cThe two bills in question are bills that were introduced by some of our colleagues.
\n\u201cSome of us in the National Assembly, including the Senate President, would appear at the public hearing. Whatever Nigerians want is what the 9th Senate would do.
\n\u201cThe law is not about the 109 Senators. It is about Nigerians. Democracy is about free speech, it is about rule of law. That is why their voices are extremely important.
\n\u201cThat is why we believe that your agitation is valid and also in the best interest of our own county. We are going to certainly work with you on the day of the public hearing.
\n\u201cI have no doubt in my mind that if Nigerians don\u2019t want these bills, even though they are being sponsored by our colleagues, certainly it won\u2019t escape the public hearing. I can assure you we are going to do whatever is in the best interest of our own country.
\n\u201cWe are aware of Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act and some of us are on the same page with these agitations.
\n\u201cWe are not guided by any political affiliation. We are guided by the law and concerned about the progress of our own country.
\nBy The Punch<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scores of protesters made up of civil society groups and students besieged the National Assembly complex on Wednesday and asked the federal lawmakers to drop the anti-social media and the hate speech bills which are at various stages in the nation\u2019s parliament. The protester armed with placards containing various inscriptions, chanted,\u00a0 \u201cWhat are we saying?,\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[191,168],"class_list":["post-22648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-anti-hate-speech","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}