In the past few years, a number of Nigerian bloggers have been arrested for criminal defamation including:

Ojo Emmanuel for allegedly defaming the wife of the Ogun State Governor in 2015;

Seun Olokuteyi for allegedly defaming the Fidelity Bank CEO, and Chris Uwandu for reposting on Facebook the alleged defamation by Seun Olokuteyi; and

Desmond Chima for allegedly defaming the UBA MD and Genevive Nnaji.

Yup…that’s a lot of arrests! So, how can you protect yourself? Well, you can protect yourself in these ways:

1. Always fact check and reference. If you are posting about people and institutions, and you suspect that what you are saying would be unfavourable, then you should make doubly sure that the facts are correct or published by a reputable entity.

2. Be careful about what you repost. If you are reposting an original post which appeared elsewhere, remember that you can’t really absolve yourself from liability by saying you weren’t the one who wrote the original post. In BRF’s complaint, he mentioned other individuals who though did not make the original post, had then reposted it on their platform.

Conclusion
As you can see, in Nigeria, talk may be cheap, but it could also be expensive, when the wrong thing is said about the wrong person. So, please be careful what you say and post online.

PS – Some may argue that criminalising statements – even if they are untrue could very quickly be used as a tool for oppression and for silencing the media and opposition by powerful people. This is a fair criticism and in fact some have taken the challenge to criticise these laws: