The governor of Ebonyi state, Francis Nwifuru yesterday called on the federal government to provide stiff restrictions to regulate the use of social media platforms in Nigeria.
He emphasized that the action would assist in checking the spread of fake news which has become common and has caused more harm in advancing good governance of the present administration of president Bola Tinubu.
Nwifuru made the call at the state executive council chamber, Abakaliki the state capital on Friday when he received the minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris who was in the state for a one day working visit.
He emphasized that the disconnect in having Nigerian youths engage in farming as it were in the past, continue to impact hunger and show of frustration which it’s consequences expressed on social media.
According to him, “it is high time we placed serious restrictions on the use of social media platforms because this days we wake up to read on social media unfounded stories claiming someone is dead and in the mortuary when the person is hale and hearty and the writer goes unpunished. No country operates like that.
“Again, when we were growing up those days our pride of place and joy is our farms but today many of our youths do not believe in farming again, and when hunger strikes, the only place they would vent the whole of their anger will be in social media.
“And this is impacting negatively on Nigerians. Under President Tinubu no ministry is redundant, they are all working very hard, unfortunately, the efforts of some are not being adequately reported duo to fake news on social media. So it is high time we placed serious restrictions, especially on unfounded stories,”he suggested.
Governor Nwifuru however, asked Mr. President to assist the state in it’s bid to reclaim and reactive production of cement at Nigercem in Nkalaku in Ishielu local government area of the state.
Speaking earlier, the minister said the marginalization of the South East which was experienced in the past administration was solved under the present administration.
He noted that the past unbalanced which was dually corrected, reflected both in execution of projects and appointments by President Tinubu.
“This is the first time since Independent that an Igbo man is appointed minister for works and not just only appointed but executing his mandate without any interference.
“Ad that is to say that south east is strategic to the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led administration. So we urge you to continue to support Mr. President”, he appealed.
