We absolutely need to be careful in our use of social media – Osinbajo

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has called on religious leaders who are very active on social media not to allow it to become an instrument of war.

Osinbajo, who stated this in Abuja on Thursday during an inter-faith tolerance dialogue organised by the United Arab Emirates, explained that he did not subscribe to regulation of the social media by the government.

He urged religious leaders to use the social platform to promote peace and kindness and to go beyond talking about tolerance 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 want to say in particular about social media that we absolutely need to be careful with our use of social media. If we do not want to promote the kind of conflict that can completely go out of hand, we must be sure that we are policing ourselves and regulating ourselves on social media”.

“I don’t think that government regulation is necessarily the way to go, but I believe that we as persons of faith, as leaders and those of us who use 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 war”