Nigeria’s Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, declared on Friday that the controversial social media bill being considered by the Senate is “dead on arrival”, adding that he now believes that the online media industry should be able to regulate itself.

He said the controversial aspects of the ‘Frivolous Petition Bill,’ which is the section 4 of the Anti-frivolous petition Bill now popularly known as ‘Anti-Social Media Bill’ would not see the light of day at the Senate.

The bill, which recommends years in jail to social media liars, had triggered an outrage across the nation, making the Senators to retrace their steps.

Saraki, who delivered the keynote address at the StateCraft Masterclass series at Social Media Week, Lagos (#SMWLagos) emphasised the growing influence of social media users in Nigeria.

“Without the involvement of social media, there is no way that we would have moved from a non-performing government — because now everything is out in the open unlike years ago.”

“Though we had the numbers,” Saraki said, “It is really thanks to social media that votes counted because you shared the results as they happened.”

Saraki went on to assure the audience at #SMWLagos that in the next few weeks, the calls for an Open National Assembly (#OpenNASS) would be actualised, and Nigerians would get to see the line-item allocations of the National Assembly.
The Senate President called for continued cooperation and conversation between the government and the public via social media, and mentioned that following the recent National Assembly Interactive Session with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) called #NASSEngages, starting in 2017, CSOs would be a part of the budget hearing process.

The Senate President who is the 1st public official in office to personally attend  social media week which is in its 4th year assured participant that his presence at the event shows how serious National Assembly takes social media.