Senator Abdullahi Lists Dangers of Not Passing Hate Speech Bill

Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, has said opponents of the Hate Speech Bill are ignorant of the dangers that loom if the bill is not passed into law.

In a statement signed on Sunday, Senator Abdullahi said the opponents are only pretending to protect ‘Freedom of Speech' by misinforming Nigerians on the intent of the legislation before the National Assembly.

The lawmaker, therefore, warned Nigerians to beware of “false information being spilled out by some persons and groups parading themselves as serving the interest of the country.”

Citing a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on ‘Overcoming Dangerous Speech and Endemic Religious Divides in Central Nigeria’, Abdullahi said persons with strong bias capable of escalating ethnic and religious violence are infiltrating the media.

According to him, such persons and groups are opposed to the passage of a hate speech law by the National Assembly as same would put an end to their trade that depends on using ethnic and religious bias for the realisation of self-serving interests.

“Both Christians and Muslims have said the media blatantly expresses bias against their religion, and that journalists will deliberately not report their story or perspective.

“Outside the immediate communities affected by a specific incident, the public’s understanding of violent events is often incomplete.

“In some cases, false news about attacks has incited the people to undertake revenge attacks in various parts of the country,” the lawmaker quoted the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report as saying.

The senator, who cited another report by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), said there are strong indicators making it imperative for the introduction of legislation by the National Assembly to criminalise hate speech which is responsible for high cases of violence and killing.

The CITAD report reads in part: “In 2017, Nigeria experienced the continuation of three major conflicts that provided a fertile ground for the propagation of hate speech."

The report said these were the resurgence of the Biafra agitation in the South-east, the clash between the Army and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, popularly referred to as the Shiites Movement in the Northwest, and the transformation of the localised farmers-herders conflict and cattle rustling to the large scale rural banditry that had taken an ethno-religious character across much of the Northwest and North Central zones of the country.

According to him, across the country, scores of people were killed as a result of these conflicts, further providing fuel for the wildfire of hate speech.

“More than at any time in the recent history of the country, hate speech became widely used in public discourse and communication.

“They fueled a dynamic that weakened national cohesion and made it difficult for the country to collectively address the threat to peace that affected the population in the country,” the CITAD report said.