Senate President David Mark Nigerians stopped from using Facebook, twitter e.t.c

Senator David Mark, the Nigerian Senate President on Thursday called for a check on the use of the social media in the country, saying that people now use them to demean their leaders. Senator Mark was speaking in Umuahia, Abia State, while declaring open a two-day retreat for Senate Press corps.

The senator said the need to check the social media became necessary, as they do not have the avenue for retraction of whatever they have done. While acknowledging that that the media has come to stay, as part of the process of governance in the country, since the return of democratic government in 1999 and performing its social responsibility of checking the excesses of the leaders, Senator Mark however, urged reporters to always cross check their facts before writing so as not to mislead the people, who depend on them to know what goes on around them.

In proving his point, the Senate President cited as examples varied figures usually quoted by various media in times of tragedies, saying that the figures were always inconsistent. Describing the media as one of the stabilizing factors in the scheme of things, Mark cautioned that Nigerian social media users should learn how to always say positive things about their country.

In his words, “we need to change our attitude on how we report things about our country, and we should emulate the foreign reporters, who never report negative things about their countries.”