By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
Around the last quarter of 2015, the Nigerian Senate introduced a bill to regulate the use of social media in Nigeria. Immediately, the bill was brought to a standstill, forcing the Senate to altogether abandon it. Ten years later, it is becoming even more obvious that Nigeria needs to develop a specific legal framework on social media usage in the country.
In 2015, during the debate, I argued that many of the concerns against the bill were predicated on a lack of trust. Nigerians did not and still do not trust their leaders. Then, I inquired if the bill was to protect the government from the governed or to provide a sense of a legally binding moral and ethical code in the use of social media in Nigeria. At the time, I submitted that “If we must systemically regulate social media, it must be geared towards protecting the people, not the government”.
Over a decade later, I dare to say that Nigerians need to be protected by the force of the law from purveyors of not only misinformation, but also guided mischief towards a chaotic and deeply depraved society. As of today, social media has emerged as a major source of not only news to millions of young consumers, but it has also become a primary base of mobilizing efforts towards the delegitimization of a properly constituted government. Social media has not only given a voice to criminal usurpers of government authority, but it has also elevated their cause through their weaponization of misinformation as a tool of mind control and social and political destabilization. The consequences of these vices are far too enormous to be ignored or left to chance.
On TikTok, for instance, many bandits operating in the North West geopolitical zone of Nigeria freely brandish not just their weapons, but also their ransom money. On the same social media application, many young criminals masquerading as Biafra fighters have also used the platform to showcase their weapons. In all cases, these users do not hide their faces at all. This development is a very dangerous confrontation against social order that not only abuses the minds of impressionable young people, but also leaves the notion that such criminality is actually a choice the state cannot address. The impression is that one can actually commit heinous crimes and get away with them right before the eyes of the law. In other words, there are no laws!
Many popular social media platforms in Nigeria, such as Facebook, X, WhatsApp, and Instagram, have been used to a telling point to misinform and create fear and tension by users, both real and fake accounts, loyal to separatist ideologies and other agendas that do not align with the aspirations of the people of Nigeria. Only recently, China banned social media influencers from speaking on professional topics they have not been trained to speak on. Similarly, in December 2025, Australia banned the use of social media by citizens under 16 years old.
In my measured view, the first duty of any government interested in securing the future of its society is to ensure order. In doing this, there must be restraint, and there must be clarity between right and wrong. The worst society to create is one in which anything goes, and people are seen to get away with all manner of criminality right before the law. Personal dignity and individual rights do not tower above social order and cohesion. This is a major reason people are restrained and their rights constrained under the law. Human rights are not unlimited and not guaranteed under all circumstances. The future of a functional and flourishing society lies in its ability to make good laws that preserve order and cohesion, and then enforce them. This is why Nigeria must not shy away from revisiting the social media regulatory bill. It is in the country’s best social and security interests.
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