UNRESTRICTED INTERNET WRITING CONTEST.

Pixabay

Sometimes ago while surfing on Instagram, I came across a post asking people to choose between food, light, sex and internet which they cannot do without. No doubts, the first two are basic necessities of life but in the 20th century, internet came also to become a vital tool for man to survive in this age giving you wide range of unimaginable possibilities and outcomes. Internet has come to influence man’s way of life and it might as well be said to be an aspect of culture given that different countries act different ways on the internet.

Information and Communication Technology is advancing rapidly with new innovations springing up. Internet brought with it introduction to social media like YouTube, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram and many other communication platform which are readily accessible, free and widely used. Different users with different purposes and hence it is no surprise to find some mischievous users with no good up their sleeves on these platforms who seek to cause political tension and unrest within a country. The advent of internet has also made it possible for everyone to access any type of information no matter the content.
Nigeria which happens to be my country has one of the highest population of internet users in Africa with over 89 million users online. Although data is expensive and the Nigeria Government has little or no control on the Internet Service providers in the country, the Nigerian populace has seen the internet as a place of solace, a place of adventure, a place for extra income and a place to keep one abreast with happenings in the country especially news that ordinarily the media won’t publish because of some laws governing it.

Although unlike other countries, Nigeria is yet to recognize access to internet as a Fundamental Human Right but Section 39(1)(2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides the citizens freedom of speech. This however, hasn’t stopped the censorship of certain contents posted on the internet. As the years go by with more individuals becoming initiated into the world of internet, Nigerians have learnt to use the internet as a tool for calling for justice, social, political change and exposing of fraudulent and corrupt politicians. This has led some people to being arrested and even some losing their job over contents posted in various social media against some VIPs in the country as such contents were considered malicious or a threat to life of persons involved.

Because of this development, many fear that our internet and mobile phones are being monitored by the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) but so far, there are no evidence of such.
Nigeria is a country with different tribes and religion. The Government understands the need to curb any form of instigation of tribal or religious wars especially using on the internet. This is why in November, 2013, an independent online news author known as Naij.com was blocked alongside with 20 other websites.

The reason for the blockage of these sites was that some of them were using it to promote the Independence of Biafra region, same thing that caused the Nigerian civil war of 1967 leading to a great loss of lives and properties with the Southern part of Nigeria seeking to secede from Nigeria.

Nigeria has a body in charge of making polices guiding domain name registration known as Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA). They are saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that domain names chosen are not offensive to the Nigerian Community or global community.

Recently, the Nigerian youths are clammouring for a change and are using the social media as a tool to achieve this. This has led some high level government officials to call for a clampdown on social media in response to its growing influence. A petition bill was introduced in 2015 known as “protection from internet falsehood and manipulation bill” but the bill met strong opposition and was never passed into law although recently, it has been re-introduced in the senate house as the hate speech bill and people fear this might be passed into law.
Cybercrime act exists and was signed into law in 2015. This was done to checkmate the spread of false news and character assassination by inexperienced bloggers but the Nigerian government has never been known to force anyone to bring down or remove a legitimate content.
The Nigerian LGBTI community complains of being marginalized as such practice is against the Nigerian law thereby denying them of freedom of identity on social media. Most of them are seen using pseudo names and engaging anonymously.

There are no restrictions on porn site in Nigeria. We have access to any website which allows the public access. The internet to a large percentage is unrestricted in Nigeria so long you aren’t using it for commission of crime or instigation of political, religious or tribal crisis. As far as blockchain is concerned, we have access to various platforms on the chain.

[References]
Nigeria Country report
Internet law in nigeria