Death for hate speech, crown for corruption – TheNigerialawyer

No, it is not a film trick. The news reports are real; the
Senate may soon pass a bill that will ensure that any Nigerian who
insults the religion or tribe of another is put to death by
hanging. Yes, you heard it right. The punishment for insults in
Nigeria may soon be death!.

On November 12, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, representing Niger
North and the current Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, presented to
the chamber, “A Bill for the Establishment of the National
Commission for Prohibition of Hate Speech.”

The bill stipulates inter alia, “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 persons from such an ethnic
group in Nigeria.

“Any person who commits an offence under this section shall be
liable to life imprisonment and where the act causes any loss of
life, the person shall be punished with death by hanging.”

While hate speech should be discouraged by everyone and
expressions are better made in the full consciousness of our
diversity and fostering of national unity, hate speech remains in
the realm of expression and should be treated as such. It is not a
capital offence and can never be!

In the 8th Senate, Senator Abdullahi Sabi Aliyu introduced the
bill on the floor of the chamber but it was immediately knocked out
by the Senate President, Abubakar Saraki. The reintroduction of the
same bill by the same senator points to a sinister move to further
gag the expression of Nigerians on national issues.

In explaining what hate speech connotes, the bill states thus:
“Hate speech are comments that insult people for their religion,
ethnic, linguistic affiliation, racial contempt, among others.”

With this explanation, it is evident that that which is now
being dressed as hate speech is already covered in the Criminal
Code of the Nigerian law. Introducing any bill again is merely a
means to an expected end.

Secondly, the failure of the bill to fully define how to connect
a speech made by someone to the death or loss of life of another
leaves it ambiguous. It can be effectively used to implicate anyone
while claiming a previous comment caused a loss of life.

The most ironic part of the exercise is that Nigerians have for
years been pushing for the National Assembly to pass a bill that
will not only criminalise corruption but also make it a capital
offence with capital punishment as being done in some Asian
countries.

Incidentally, the advocacy seems to have fallen on deaf
ears.

The greatest factor endangering the survival of Nigeria as a
country is not how people choose to address their fellow countrymen
but rather, how public office holders have, since time immemorial,
wasted our common patrimony.

The real danger to Nigeria is when funds meant for the
development and construction of health care centres are fully
disbursed to contractors but not a single work gets done. When
pension funds remitted over the years by workers are stolen from
government coffers without a trace. When roads that have been
awarded and re-awarded for years become death traps as a result of
stolen contract funds. When insecurity persists in the North-East
as a result of lack of fighting equipment and lack of morale for
the soldiers, yet billions of naira are released annually for these
items but they get looted. These are some of the factors that ruin
a nation.

To make matter worse, the perpetrators of these evil and sleaze
are merely given a slap on the wrist when they are caught and often
returned to office almost immediately. The law makes it easier for
those who are directly responsible for deaths on our roads or
mortality as a result of bad health care service to plea for
bargain. It is a mockery of the natural order.

To add salt to an open wound, the new bill created another cash
cow for the overburdened rent system of our public
institutions.

Senator Aliyu is proposing for the establishment of an entire
agency of government to track insults. The proposed national
commission for the prohibition of hate speech will have a
chairperson, a governing board, director-general, directors, deputy
directors, assistant directors, amongst others.

All these individuals will appoint aides, have allocated
travelling allowances, new official cars, enormous salaries, an
annual budget and personal security. All this, just to stop people
from insulting one another or insulting the politicians who should
be open to criticism.

The Senate should leave us in peace to insult one another; this
should not be their concern. The people are hungry, jobless and
losing hope. They should proffer solutions to these.

Boladale Adekoya, Lagos
Twitter: @adekoyabee