The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called on the Nigerian government to stop scapegoating social media for the country’s insecurity and instead focus on addressing the root causes of violence and unrest.
In a statement issued on Saturday, August 23, 2025, and signed by its Executive Director, Y.Z. Ya’u, the organisation reacted to comments made by Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, who recently at an event in Ekiti State described social media as a threat to national peace while calling for its regulation.
CITAD warned that such statements should not be taken lightly, particularly coming from a high-ranking legislator at a time when clampdowns on freedom of expression are on the rise. The organisation cited a Media Rights Agenda (MRA) report that documented over 141 cases of attacks on journalists under the current administration as evidence of growing threats to free speech.
“This country has been witnessing increasing high levels of insecurity with violence visiting innocent people almost on a daily basis. This high level of insecurity has nothing to do with social media but results from the failure of government to address the root causes of insecurity and communal tensions,” Ya’u said.
He listed injustice, poverty, unemployment, and the inability of government to resolve communal conflicts as the real drivers of instability, insisting that nowhere in the world has social media been proven responsible for insecurity. Instead, he argued, social media platforms have often been used as tools for peacebuilding and grievance expression.
“Rather than scapegoating social media for government’s failure, what is needed is a rethink of policies that generate poverty, unemployment, misery, and hopelessness—all of which feed youth restiveness,” the statement added.
CITAD stressed that access to and use of social media has become a fundamental right of citizens, as it allows them to share and receive information, as well as express themselves freely as an essential component of democracy. The Centre cautioned that attempts to regulate social media are merely veiled efforts to suppress freedom of expression.
CITAD however, urged Senator Bamidele, once a respected social justice activist, not to lend his voice to restricting citizens’ rights. Instead, it called on him and the government to focus on addressing hunger, joblessness, insecurity, and social injustice as the real challenges confronting Nigeria.