By Admin
Have you been wondering about the cause of Nigeria’s ethnic and moral problems? Well, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Nuhu Ribadu has the answer: The Social Media.
Ribadu said the social media is “partly responsible” for the country’s problems. It will be recalled that the House of Representatives once made an attempt to regulate the social media through an act of parliament, a move heavily criticized by human rights groups.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also suspended the activities of the micro-blogging site Twitter, after a tweet the network deemed
offensive and capable of causing a genocide was deleted.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that , Ribadu spoke on Sunday, while reacting to social media reports that he accused government officials of sponsoring banditry in the country.
Speaking at a media briefing in Abuja, the former EFCC chairman said social media promotes fake news, which creates religious and ethnic
divisions in the country.
“July 2019 was the first time I came to know about it, and I came out with a very strong denial, saying that it was a fabrication and had no
basis,” he said.
“It was a piece of rubbish with very bad grammar and factual destruction, but indeed very damaging. I reacted very strongly after
that. It didn’t stop and I was forced again to issue a statement denying it.
“I thought that would have been the end of it, but not long afterwards, it started coming back again and I’m worried and concerned.
“I want to again deny in the strongest terms and send a message to everybody to disregard the statements. It is not fair; it is not just.
It is very sinful for you to create something from nowhere and attribute it to an innocent person who doesn’t know anything about it.
“Even though I had denied it and so many persons in the same situation did, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter still allowed it to be moving
around from one platform to the other.
“I am a believer of freedom of expression; a strong and a firm believer in the ability of people to be free. But at the same time, be
responsible. If it is going to cause harm to others, then you lose that freedom.
“I am a victim, and I don’t know why people are doing it. It’s as if I’m a target of something which I don’t know. But I have really suffered because of it; I have a couple of friends and colleagues who also went through the same thing,” Ribadu said.
