Time to curb social media vices

THE Nigerian Tribune edition of Thursday, August 24, 2017 reported a story titled: “Army now monitors social media for anti-security information.”

The publication caught my attention because the ceaseless misrepresentation of Nigeria’s image and even its leaders by some unpatriotic Nigerians through the social media should be checked.

This is to save our nation’s reputation from further negative battering before  the  international  community.

The Director, Defence Information, Major General John  Eneche, said  in the publication that, “Posts, comments, tweets of Nigerians across various social media platforms are to be monitored by the country’s military to fish out and tackle those that are anti-government, anti-military, anti-security or anti-corporate existence.”

Most anti-government critics, in my view, are paid by their masters to publish scandalous hatchet  jobs  about our nation and particularly our leaders, on the social media, in a bid to earn a living.

I am a supporter of those who deploy their God-given talents to creatively fend for themselves. But I  am certainly opposed to maligning people’s character through unsubstantiated information via the online media, as such could create feelings of hostility in the minds of the common man about our nation and its leaders.

Frankly speaking, I think it is high time the Federal Government and the National Assembly came up with punitive legislation that would nip the dissemination of misleading information on social media  permanently in the bud.

• Michael Olamide

Gateway (ICT) Polytechnic, Ogun State.