by Adeboye Adekoge

After listening to President Buhari’s speech on Monday, August 21, 2017, one thing was clear – the Government’s resolve at addressing the problem of hate speech in Nigeria. No right thinking person will disagree with the President that there has been so much hatred and divisive comments on several online platforms and this calls to question the unity of Nigeria. In his 449-word speech to Nigerians, he identified the social media as the platform used for some of the hateful comments we have seen lately. In his words, “I have been kept in daily touch with events at home. Nigerians are robust and lively in discussing their affairs, but I was distressed to notice that some of the comments, ESPECIALLY IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA have crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation. This is a step too far”.

Curiously, one wonders why social media stood out for the president. I had expected the President to use the opportunity of his speech to pointedly address two stand-out cases of hate speeches which coincidentally emanated from the Northern region of the country while he was away on medical leave. One was the quit notice issued to the Igbos by the Arewa Youths and secondly the Anti-Igbo songs which were also circulating recently. Unfortunately, he didn’t.

The direction of the Buhari’s administration was clear from the beginning. Asides corruption, security tops the agenda of the administration. Lately, there have been unending clamors for the regulation of social media and sometimes hate speech in Nigeria. With the Biafra agitations and anti-Igbo song circulated in the North plus the quit notice issued to the Igbos to leave the North by October 1, 2017, we cannot help but be worried about the trend of hate speeches in Nigeria and I would expect any serious Government to respond to such a dangerous trend and this would ordinarily pass for what happened about a month ago, when the National Council on Information (NCI) recommended the “setting up of a council to regulate the use of social media in Nigeria”.

The recommendation is contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the extraordinary meeting of NCI on Hate Speeches, Fake News and National Unity held on July 19 in Jos, Plateau State. In what looked like a follow-up action, the Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd.), has said that his ministry has submitted a draft bill to the Ministry of Justice, which will review it and submit to the National Assembly as an executive bill for passage into law. Vice President Yemi Osibajo also said that the Federal Government will no longer tolerate hate speech and would henceforth treat same as an act of terrorism. According to the Vice President and as reported by the Guardian on August 17, 2017 “The Federal Government has drawn a line on hate speech. He referred to the Terrorism Act 2011 to buttress his point. “The law on hate speech, the Terrorism Act 2011, defines hate speech amongst other definitions, as an act deliberately done with malice and which may seriously harm or damage a country or seriously intimidate a population.”

The Hypocrisy of Government
In what appears like a coordinated effort, different actors of the current administration seem to have suddenly woken up and arms ready to address hate speech. While we observe, we must ask critical questions because hate speech is not new in Nigeria and one wonders why it’s been left untamed for so long. Without doubt, one major reason they thrive is because politicians are the greatest beneficiaries of hate speeches. Hate speeches, threats have been used to promote political and sectional interest. The incumbent President Buhari isn’t less guilty than Asari Dokubo who regularly threatens the peace of the Nation in the dying days of President Goodluck Jonathan – Asari’s threat was to ensure the perpetuation of Jonathan’s government.

Also, a Presidential Committee on Post-Election Violence in parts of the country indicted the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari for the post-election violence which led to the death of 10 National Youth Corp member and several hundred after the April 2011 Presidential polls. The Sheikh Ahmed Lemu-led Panel linked the violence to utterances made by the then CPC Presidential Candidate. Also, leading to the 2015 elections, Buhari was alleged to have said that “If what happened in 2011 (alleged rigging) should again happen in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog, and the baboon would all be soaked in blood”. The current Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai was also accused severally of hate speeches before he became Governor in the current political dispensation. One notable instance was when he tweeted the following on 15th of July 2012 at 7:51 pm:

“We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes” .

The Arewa Youth and Nnamdi Kanu using Biafra Radio seem to be the recent frontline hate speakers causing so much apprehension in the polity and the Government has suddenly woken up to the need to tame this evil. 

There are those who have argued that the present Government have been the major beneficiary of hate speeches in the run up to the 2015 general election and therefore should not be talking about addressing this issue. I do not share this view one bit. The failure of previous successive governments to address this when it should have done so is probably one of the reasons others have been emboldened to continue the trend of hate speeches. I believe the issue of hate speeches needs to be addressed; it is, however, important to ask ourselves tough questions when exploring possible options for addressing the menace. Do we really need a new law to prosecute hate speeches? What is wrong with the Terrorism Act 2011 and others? Without a doubt, there are existing laws that have addressed the issue of hate speeches. What we have lacked is the political will to apply those laws. Government in this clime typically uses such laws to stifle dissent and opposition voices. Cybercrimes Act 2015 readily comes to mind. That piece of legislation has remained contentious and a subject of litigation because politicians have turned it into a tool of oppression. Various actors in this government have deployed section 24 of the Cybercrimes act at one time or the other whenever they need to intimidate or make a dissenting voice to shut up! It is this pattern that we will embolden when we create new laws to focus on hate speeches or ‘regulate’ social media. The real culprits are hardly ever punished because of the likely political cost. The men who openly and unapologetically issued a quit notice to a whole ethnic group are today walking free while a man who acknowledged his mistakes, withdrew what he wrote and apologized as he was deceived to believe what he wrote on his Facebook page is currently being prosecuted by the Kaduna State Government because of his political affiliation and for being outspoken in the criticism of the Governor of Kaduna State on how he has handled the southern Kaduna crisis.

The Government usually demonstrates strong will and is even over bearing when it wants to deal with personal enemies but are lily-livered when the issues are grave and actually threatens national peace and security because of fear of losing the support or incurring the wrath of a section, a region, a constituency or a powerful individual in the society. For an average politician, nothing is more paramount than the next election. It is about interest, interest and interest!

Politicians will tolerate hate speeches, ignore real threats to national peace and security if it stands in the way of winning the next election but will abhor same if it coincides with their personal interests. The Nigerian Government definitely has all it takes to address hate speech if really it wants to do that. The recent tautology around hate speeches is therefore a diversionary or probably an ignorant pursuit. If you want to address hate, just go ahead and do that. 2019 elections are too near to be throwing around narratives of passing a law to tackle hate speech, regulating social media or setting up a special court for hate speech. If any of this happens, then we can say for sure that many outspoken activists, critics of government and members of the opposition voices/parties need to brace themselves for a time in jail because the incumbent would have found a tool just to do that and unfortunately “legally”.

Nigerian citizen must, therefore, resist this or regret it. It is easier to prevent a Bill from becoming a law than it is to invalidate an existing law. It is in the interest of democracy that we resist this attempt as a people not because of our political affiliations, status in the society, affiliation with the incumbent government, our work as law enforcements, judiciary, legislator or the executive but because at the end of the day we are all citizens and anybody can be a victim of a bad law, if not today, tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the day after and If not you, someone dear to you.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Adeboye @adeboyeBGO is a public commentator and writes from Abuja, Nigeria.