The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, (CNPP), has asked the National Assembly to scrap its plan to gag social media users now that it was apparent that Nigerians, including President Muhammadu Buhari, are opposed to the ill-conceived legislation.

The conference further demanded that the federal lawmakers apologise to Nigerians for wasting public funds in pursuit of a Social Media Bill meant to shield their dirty dealings from public knowledge.

In a statement issued, on Tuesday, which was made available to the Daily Times, the Secretary-General of CNPP, Chief Willy Ezugwu said that since the obnoxious legislation first surfaced it had proven that the members of National Assembly were desperate to gag Nigerians who were, increasingly, taking active interest in governance with the increased access to the internet, mobile technology and social media.

The statement said that the true intent of the legislation was exposed given revelations on social media about the shady histories of those driving the bill.

The CNPP charged the National Assembly to kill the bill now that Buhari, in tune with the stand of Nigerians, had openly declared that he would not assent to a law that could engender dictatorship.

It noted that “people, worldwide, are already grappling with terrorism induced restrictions on liberty and unwarranted surveillance such that no country’s nationals deserve to also lose the basic right of freedom of expression. What the bill seeks to achieve is not obtainable even in the most repressive countries of the world.”

The CNPP said the National Assembly should rather amend the Evidence Act to cater for the digital reality of the contemporary world, instead of trying to criminalise criticisms on social media, which should be a civil suit for anyone who felt offended.

It challenged the federal lawmakers to first pass a legislation that made corruption a capital offence before trying to secure perpetual immunity for themselves using the Social Media Bill as a cover. “The Senators and House of Representatives members should first make corruption or stealing of public funds attract death sentence. They should introduce a strict law on asset forfeiture for persons who corruptly and criminally enrich themselves. They should make a law that bars persons indicted or convicted for corruption from ever holding public office.They should legislate to blacklist any politician or political party that engage in electoral fraud. For us, in the CNPP, we have a long shopping list of legislations that can take up the time of the law-makers instead of wasting time on this nonsense.”

The group threw its weight behind the civil and activist groups protesting the planned law saying that other Nigerians would swell the ranks of the protesters if the National Assembly pressed its anti-people bill.

It warned that the bill was obviously testing the waters ahead of other draconian acts that would reduce Nigeria into a one-party dictatorship of a corrupt few. “The law-makers have, definitely, sensed that many Nigerians will use social media for whistle-blowing to strengthen the anti-corruption fight and have become desperate to block the new- found national direction. If these characters are allowed to have their way, they will soon legislated multi-party democracy out of existence,” the CNPP cautioned.