Just In :Bill on Hate Speeches: Matters arising - Risingsuntv

By Rose Moses

At the Senate the other week, another controversial
subject was thrown into the political space as Senator
Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger) proposed a Bill seeking
for establishment of an Independent National
Commission for Hate Speeches.
The Bill also prescribes death sentence for any person
found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the
death of another person upon conviction.





Hate Speech
Similarly in August last year, Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo, then acting President, had at a function,
described hate speech as a specie of terrorism.

According to him, hate speech employs violence and
intimidation to achieve certain political objectives and as
such, said offenders would be punished under the Terror
Act.


The Bill by Senator Abdulahi, who by the way, is
spokesperson of the upper legislative chamber, among
other things, reads that :“A person who uses, publishes,
presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or
directs the performance of any material, written and/or
visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or
involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words
or behaviour, commits an offence, if such person intends
thereby to stir up ethnic hatred, or having regard to all the
circumstances, ethnic hatred is likely to be stirred up
against any person or person from such an ethnic group
in Nigeria.”





Expectedly, the bill has stimulated discourse in many
quarters, with some Nigeria’s, ever suspicious of the
Nigerian legislators, wondering whose interest Abdulahi
was actually trying to protect with the Bill.
And for this category of Nigerians, they would like Sen.
Abdulahi to look inward and at the policies of the APC led
Federal Government, which most have alleged rode on
the back of hate speech to power, and which they term as
founder and inventor of hate speeches in present day
Nigeria.




Hate speech, they further claim, was also boosted by
President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement at an
international forum where he said it will not be possible to
treat those who gave him “97 per cent vote” same way as
those that gave him “five per cent.”

And as if to confirm the above statement made at the
United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington DC
couple of months after he was sworn in as president,
appointments into key positions and handling of other
national issues in the Buhari government, have been
glaringly lopsided.





That apart, the way and manner the Federal Government
treated agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra
(IPOB) when compared to what obtains in the ongoing
deadly attacks by Fulani herdsmen in the country easily
defines bias.


When it comes to the war against corruption, a senator
and actually a member of the president’s All Progressives
Congress (APC) party, Shehu Sani, satirically describes
the president’s apparent predisposition, saying when
members of the president’s circle are involved, the case
is treated with some nice smelling perfume but when
opposition members are involved, government deploys
the use of insecticide.
Little wonder therefore that any criticism of this
administration’ inadequacies, or actions and inactions are
usually labeled as hate speech, which largely goes to
explain why the proposed Bill has been hugely condemned
and said to be in bad faith, even when that may not be so.





A legislative lobbyist/consultant, Akinloye Oyeniyi MLS, in
a chat, however, said the proposed Bill is one of those
that will not go far on the floor of the red chamber
because the hate speech, which it seeks to address, is
already taken care of under slander, libel, treasonable
felony and other crimes.


In the same token, the commission it seeks to establish is
duplication of the statutory functions of the National
Human Rights Commission.
Obviously in law making process, there are preliminary
considerations drafters and sponsors of Bills must adhere
to, among which are conformity with the constitution in
the area of supremacy, legislative competence,
fundamental objectives and directive of principles of state
policy, fundamental rights, and auster clauses, said
Oyeniyi.


In other words, a proposed Bill must not be in conflict
with any existing law, policy or case law, just as customs
and religious factors, as well as implementation are put
into consideration.

Thus, going by the the contents of the proposed Bill by
Senator Abdulahi, it would seem it is already dead on
arrival for the simple reason that it is in conflict with the
Constitution, existing laws like Criminal Act and Penal
Codes and the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) Act.





What Nigeria desperately needs right now are laws that
will entrench peace, justice and good governance; laws
that will holistically address the three monsters of
insecurity, corruption and impunity, currently holding the
nation down.

When that is done, things like hate speeches will certainly
no longer be an issue, since hate speeches hardly thrive
in peaceful and just environment, where everyone feels a
sense of belonging.