President Muhammadu Buhari has reiterated the commitment of his administration to the protection of free speech in keeping with democratic tradition.
This is contained in a statement in Abuja on Monday by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.
Shehu was reacting to the public hostility towards the social media bill now being debated by the Senate.
According to him, Buhari has sworn to defend the constitution of Nigeria and will not lend his hand to anything that is inconsistent with the constitution.
“But he (Buhari) is not averse to lawful regulation, so long as that is done within the ambit of the constitution which he swore to uphold.
“The President said free speech is central to democratic societies anywhere in the world.
“The President explained that without free speech, elected representatives won’t be able to gauge public feelings and moods about governance issues.
“As a key component of democratic principles, the President acknowledged that people in democratic societies are so emotionally attached to free speech that they would defend it with all their might,’’ he said.
Shehu explained that President Buhari was fully aware of public reservations about the proposed legislation but assured that “there is no cause for alarm because the Senate is a democratic senate.’’
He assured that the President would not assent to any legislation that might be inconsistent with the constitution of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Buhari has said that Nigerians must learn from the socio-political history of other countries and avoid repeating mistakes of the past.
The President stated this at the public presentation of a book, titled; “From Opposition to Governing Party”, written by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.
According to him, with books such as the one presented and those written by intellectual politicians, the future generation of Nigerians will be saved the time and torture of repeating the mistakes of previous generations.
“I would to thank Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, because what is missing is history. People must tell the history of our development politically, not only economically, because one significant thing, especially, about Nigeria is that we are inclined to refuse to learn from other peoples’ mistakes.
“We insist on making our own mistakes all the time.
“But with books like this by Ogbonnaya Onu and intellectual politicians, our future generations will be saved the time and torture of going over the mistakes of the previous generations.
“For this, I thank him very much and I certainly wish to congratulate him.
“And he is not the Minister of Science and Technology for nothing. Having known him earlier on as a scientist, I think the biggest challenge is to give him the ministry and see how much of a scientist he remains.’’
Buhari, who narrated his political history, including his subsequent victory in the 2015 Presidential Election, said that the coming together of opposition parties in 2014 helped save Nigeria from total collapse.
The Chairman of the event, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, described the book as a story of determination and sacrifice in the march towards a better Nigeria.
The Book Reviewer, Mr Ray Ekpu, a veteran journalist, said that the 452-page book with 26 chapters, aptly chronicled the circumstances that led in the merger of a political party.
He also narrated the challenges.
Speaking at the presentation, Onu said that the book would help other politicians to avoid the mistakes of their predecessors.
