Atiku cautions lawmakers against hate speech bill, says it's abusive

As earlier reported, the National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches (Estb., etc) Bill 2019, which seeks death by hanging for anyone found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person, was on Tuesday, November 12, 2019, read for the first time on the floor of the senate.

The National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches (Estb., etc) Bill 2019 reintroduced at Senate. [BBC] ece-auto-gen

The bill has since attracted widespread criticism from civic groups and Nigerians at large, as many concluded that the senate’s interpretation of ‘hate speech’ would be at odds with the Nigerian Constitution should the bill become law as designed.

Reacting to the passage of the bill, Atiku said the bill being conceived by the National Assembly to tackle hate speeches is an abuse of legislative process.

While maintaining that the constitution protects the rights to unhindered speech and expression, Atiku noted that the bill is one which will violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of Nigerians to Freedom of Speech.

Atiku enjoined those behind the bill to stay awake to the fact that Nigeria’s democracy has survived its longest incarnation.

This, according to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general elections, is because those who governed the country between 1999 and 2015 never toyed with the most fundamental of freedoms.

The statement read in part, "it is prudent to build upon the tolerance inherited from those years and not shrink the democratic space to satisfy personal and group interests.

"Freedom of Speech was not just bestowed to Nigerians by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), it is also a divine right given to all men by their Creator. History is littered with the very negative unintended consequences that result when this God given right is obstructed by those who seek to intimidate the people rather than accommodate them.

"Nigeria presently has too many pressing concerns. We are now the world headquarters for extreme poverty as well as the global epicentre of out-of-school children. Our economy is smaller than it was in 2015, while our population is one of the world’s fastest growing. We have retrogressed in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, from the position we held four years ago, and our Human Development Indexes are abysmally low.

"It therefore begs the question: should we not rather make laws to tackle these pressing domestic challenges, instead of this bill, which many citizens consider obnoxious?"

Pulse understands that this new development follows a statement by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that the online media space in Nigeria will soon be regulated.

“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," the minister was quoted as saying.

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Mohammed had said that the insanity that happens on the social media space has gone out of control. Thus, the need for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to address it cannot be overemphasized.

President Buhari has repeatedly denounced “hate speech” on social media in recent national broadcasts.