Vice-President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has warned against using social media platforms to promote religious disinformation. He further cautioned against the abuse of social media, noting that it can precipitate war and violent conflict if used to misinform.
The VP, who stated this in Abuja on Thursday during an inter-faith tolerance dialogue organised by the United Arab Emirates Commission. explained that he did not subscribe to regulation of theOsinbajo, who stated this in Abuja on Thursday during an inter-faith tolerance dialogue organised by the United Arab Emirates Commission.
He said, misinformation could easily lead to a breakdown of law and order.
However he explained that he did not subscribe to regulation of the social media by the government. It is the users that should be very careful.
Osibajo also called on religious leaders to be more practical about tolerance. They should go beyond mere talking about tolerance and proceed to making sacrifices that were required.
Osinbajo said, “As religious leaders and media personalities, also as people of faith in general, we share a common calling to apprehend the truth. We absolutely need to be careful in our use of social media and if we do not want to promote the kind of conflict that can go completely out of hand, we must be sure that we are policing and regulating ourselves, especially, with social media.
“I don’t think that government regulation is necessarily the way to go, but I believe that we as persons of faith and we, as leaders, and those of us who use the social media actively owe a responsibility to our society and to everyone else, to ensure that we don’t allow it to become an instrument of conflict and instrument of war.” He added.
