Earlier this week, the Nigerian Senate withdrew the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibition, etc) Bill 2015, otherwise known as the Anti-social Media bill. It also suspended further consideration of it.
This decision was based on the report of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters which recommended its withdrawal
The committee stated that although the bill was innovative, its passage in the form it was presented would hinder the anti-corruption war which was a focal point of the present administration.
The committee Chairman, Sen. David Umaru, also said that most of the provisions of the Bill had already been covered by other extant laws of the Federation and could not be duplicated.
“Some of our extant Acts, such as the Penal Code, the Criminal Code, the Cybercrime Act, etc’ have sufficient provisions to address the issues that the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibition, etc) Bill 2015, seeks to address.
“Even though the Bill has a tacit implication of discouraging frivolous and malicious petitions, its passage in this current form will do more harm than good.
“This Bill will conflict with some provisions in some of our extant Acts, which make provisions for whistle blowers protection; passing this bill will expose them to more dangers and threats to life.
“What we need to do now as legislators is to amend and update some of our extant Acts to accommodate emerging global trends rather than having a new law,” he said.
According to Umaru, other findings by the committee which informed its recommendation were that the bill will make life difficult for Nigerians who lived far away from High Courts.
He added that other forms of communication such as text messages, tweets, whatsapps which the Bill sought to police were already being regulated by the Nigerian Communication Act of 2003.
He added that the purpose of the Bill was closely related to the offence of defamation which was also already covered by law.
The committee, therefore, recommended that the Senate “do withdraw the bill for an Act to prohibit Frivolous Petitions and other matters connected therewith”.
Some other senators agreed with this withdrawal saying it was “anti-people”.
