….says ‘it’s, crazy, wicked, insensitive’
Rights group, the Campaign for Democracy (CD), has lent its voice to the reported allocation of whooping N4.8bn to media censoring by the National Assembly.
The CD’s Secretary General, Comrade Ifeanyi Odili, in a chat with First News, described the vote as wicked, crazy and insensitive.
The legislative arm had allocated the sum to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to monitor WhatsApp messages, phone calls, text messages, among others.
Of the figure, N1.93 billion was earmarked for “WhatsApp Intercept Solution” and N2.93 billion for “Thuraya Interception Solution” – a communications system used for monitoring voice calls or call-related information, SMS, data traffic, among others.
This was contained in the supplementary budget approved by the National Assembly last Wednesday.
But in his reaction, Odili said, “It’s benumbing to see a government faced with insecurity challenges and its citizens with biting economic hardship to take to the luxury of allocating N4.8bn to gagging the press.
“No doubt, the lawmakers who should be their people’s representatives are now their people’s oppressors. The bill is wicked, crazy and insensitive and we demand that the legislators retrace their steps.
Odili also noted that rather than vote humongous funds to censoring media publications and gagging journalists, the government should get inputs from existing media regulatory bodies on how to safeguard rights and public safety against reckless and false publications.
The amount voted, he contended, should have been channelled to development projects.
The lawmakers had, in all, approved and passed a supplementary budget of N982 billion for the 2021 fiscal year, against the N895 billion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari-indicating an increase of about N87 billion.
While N123.3 billion was fixed for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, N895 billion was earmarked for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2021.
Another N45 billion was approved for foreign aid/loans.