Death Penalty On
Death Penalty On Hate Speech, Absurd,
Outrageous…Ozekhome
A human rights activist and constitutional lawyer Chief Mike
Ozekhome SAN has kicked against the death sentence by hanging as
being proposed by the Senate on the Bill on hate speech which
passed its second reading in the Senate.
The senior lawyer described the death proposal for hate speech
offence as absurd and outrageous and warned the Senate to drop the
obnoxious law.
Ozekhome in a statement yesterday said “A bill by the above
name,sponsored by the Senate Deputy Chief, Senator Aliyu Sabi,who
incidentally was the Spokesperson for the Senate in the 8th
National Assmbly,is said to have passed the first reading on
Tuesday,12th November,2019.
“Part of the bizarre provisions in the said bill are said to
contain prescription of the death penalty for makers of hate
speech.
“What is hate speech,by the way and who defines it? What is the
true test of determining it? Is the test that of a government in
power? Or,that of the traumatised people? Or,that of the NASS?
Or,that of the Courts? Or,that of the Executive? Just who?
“I have not yet had the opportunity to read the bill and so do
not yet have the details of this unusual bill that has allegedly
passed the first reading,seeking the death penalty (by hanging) on
alleged hate speech.I pray this provision is not true.
“I pray it is a mere moonlight tale,the type described as a
“tale told by an idiot,full of sound and fury,signifying nothing”
(Macbeth,upon hearing about the death if his wife,in William
Shakespeare’s epic,by the same title,Act 5,Scene 5,Lines
16-27).
“This bill should be deleted immediately.The bill should
immediately be aborted and killed as a malformed embryo at its
second reading gestation stage,before it is allowed to be delivered
as a societal monster.
“Let me quickly warn that this maverick and intolerant
government cannot be trusted by any sane person to fairly operate
such a draconian piece of legislation introduced under,a law that
carries the death penalty,for alleged hate speech.
“When has merely making a speech under section 39 of the 1999
Constitution,which guarantees freedom of expression become,not just
treasonable felony (life imprisonment),but treason itself,that is
punishable with death?
“Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
guarantees “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to
seek,recieve and impart information and ideas through any media and
regardless of frontiers”
“Nigeria is a Signatory to this international instrument.Article
9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights,also
domesticated in Nigeria,reinforces this inalienable freedom that
the NASS is attempting to derobe and destroy.
The bill is an illl-intentioned,ill-conceived,ill-digested and
ill-part read dictatorial and absolutist piece of nonsensical
legislation waiting to consume all of us.
An obnoxious law such as this will further drive underground and
into hiding,the opposition and genuine social critics who speak
truth to power and criticise serial opaque,anti-people,corrupt and
high-handed polices of government.
“This government has been tested and known to be very allergic
to constructive criticisms.Its skin is very negatively thin against
criticisms as regards citizens’ genuine concerns.
It is a government that listens to itself,sets it’s own
examination questions,marks them by itself and award marks to
itself.Citizens’ opinion does not matter.
That is why we have topmost government officials who shock the
conscience of Nigerians and the world by saying,for example,that
insecurity in Nigeria is exaggerated (VP Yemi Osibanjo,SAN);and
that Nigerian roads are not as bad as we “falsely” proclaim (Raji
Fashola,Minister of Works and Housings).
A government that incacerates the Deji Adeyanjus,Omoyele Sowores
and Chido Onumas of this world cannot be trusted to be a custodian
and dispenser justice under such abhorrent law.”