Hate speech: Igbo Board of Deputies give Tunde Bakare 7 days to recant or face legal battle - ITREALMS

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The Igbo Board of Deputies (IBD) has given a Lagos-based Pastor, Mr. Tunde Bakare of Citadel Global Community Church, seven days to recant his false narrative that Igbo soldiers killed the former Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Tafawa Balewa during the 1966 military coup or face legal actions at both local and international courts, reports ITREALMS.

Bakare, ITREALMS gathered from the video transcript, had asserted “on the day the late Tafawa Balewa was killed the Igbo soldiers arrested him, removed his turban, poured wine on his head, and forced him to drink and then shot him. While he was being killed, he cursed the Igbo race; that they would never govern Nigeria.”

Hate Speech: Ekwunife rejects bill, vows to resist replication of CyberCrime Act - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Iyom Uche Ekwunife has assured Nigerians and her people that she will not support any attempt to replicate any provision of the Cyber Crimes Act of 2015, reports ITREALMS.

Ekwunife in a letter to her people of Anambra Central Senatorial District following avalanche of telephone calls and messages on the issue of Hate Speech Bill recently read for the first time in the red chambers, said she will not be a party to attempts to duplicate Cyber Crimes Act, describing that as unnecessary.

“I am aware that the provisions of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015, and other statutes already have provisions and penalties for hate speech and consequently, any other bill which seeks to regulate these same areas would be duplicitous and unnecessary,” she said in a copy of the letter sighted by ITREALMS.

According to her, until the bill is mentioned for second reading with accompanying explanation from the sponsors, no debate can ensue on the floor of the national assembly.

She assured that alongside her colleagues at the Senate, they would never allow any bill which does not fully reflect the true wishes and interests of Nigerians to pass second reading.

Further, she noted that Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, guarantees to all Nigerian citizens, a fundamental right to Freedom of Expression.

“Therefore, to the extent that this Hate Speech Bill seeks to abridge the fundamental rights of Nigerians, guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution, I will vehemently oppose it as being inconsistent with the Supremacy Clause of the 1999 Constitution as enshrined in Section 1 subsection (3) of our constitution,” Ekwunife said.

She urges her senatorial district to remain patient and law abiding, “As I assure you that this Hate Speech Bill, to the extent of it's infringement to the fundamental rights of Nigerian Citizens, will be rejected by me totally.”

Chuks Egbuna/Editor

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APC, architect of hate speech in Nigeria says Vatsa – ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

A former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in Niger State, Comrade Jonathan Vatsa, has described the All Progressive Congress (APC) as architect of hate speech in Nigeria, reports ITREALMS.

Also, he condemned the 9th National Assembly for the proposed bill seeking death penalty for convicts of hate speech, urging them to equally propose bill for cemetery to accommodate those their latest hate speech will affect, alleging that there are more to it than meets the eye.

Vatsa, a former Publicity Secretary of APC in the state made this known while addressing selected journalists in Minna, and described the move as not only laughable but a direct invitation for anarchy.
The APC chieftain advised the 9th Assembly to also propose a bill that will apply for lands in the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as did for Ruga to be used as cemetery for hate speech offenders that will be killed.
“I call on Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi to also propose a bill that will ensure we have separate cemetery for offenders so that we can have it as tourist’s sites with inscriptions ‘Hate Speech’ cemetery because the offenders may also include those of us who have benefitted from hate speech.
“What a shame.”
Vatsa wondered why the APC-controlled Senate should ever contemplate such a “draconian and unpopular law,” saying “We rode to power in 2015 through hate speech.
“We (APC) brought hate speech to Nigeria politics and I am one of them.
“As a Publicity Secretary of the APC, I know how we used hate speech to mobilize Nigerians against the then ruling party.
“And it paid off because Nigerians eventually hated the Peoples Democratic Party. Before 2015, Nigerians did not know anything like hate speech.
“In fact, since the return of democracy in 1999, we are just hearing about hate speech. APC as a political party brought hate to politics in form of propaganda.
“The truth must be told: we’re the architect of hate speech and nobody complained about it. We enjoyed it and it worked for us.
“If we think we have failed Nigerians in our change promises, we should be bold enough to tell Nigerians that we are sorry, we couldn’t deliver, but to try to cage them by trying to introduce or recycle Decree 4 of 1984 in the name of hate speech is unacceptable,” he said.



Vatsa further blamed the Senate Deputy Whip, who is from Niger North Senatorial District, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, over the proposed bill for death penalty for hate speech, warning it “might consume all of us.”
He said rather than proposing death penalty for hate speech offenders, it should be death penalty for corrupt leaders in this country because “corruption and injustice gave birth to what is now being called hate speech. If there is justice, equity, fairness and respect for rule of law, there will be no hate speech.
“But when people are being marginalized and denied their right, surely there will be hate speech,” he said, insisting that “You cannot stop people from expressing their freedom of speech.”
“If the Senate is proposing death penalty for hate speech, then what will they do to Boko Haram, armed bandits, kidnappers, oil bunkers and treasury looters both politicians and civil servants?
“All these things are worse than hate speech. There are more pressing issues to Nigerians that the Senate should look into and address instead of wasting their energy on an unpopular bill like this one that will not see the light of the day,” Vatsa said.
He believes that there are more to the proposed hate speech bill, alleging that “If the rumor of President Muhammadu Buhari nursing the ambition of third term is correct, then they need death penalty for hate speech to silence everybody who will want to oppose him.
“But the Senate should know that he who lives in a glass house should not throw stone because they cannot be there forever.
“When they leave the Senate, the law can catch up with them.
“Again, if the money meant for constituency projects are utilized for the purpose it was meant for and the people begin to see dividends of democracy, there will be no need for hate speech.
“If the millions of Nigerian youths can have something to do to earn a living, they will not have time for hate speech.
“If people are allowed to elect their leaders in a free and fair election there will be no hate speech.
“So, something gave birth to hate speech and that is what the Senate should address.”

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'Biggest threat to 2019 is fake news' - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Federal Government has described fake news and hate speech constitute the biggest threat to the 2019 general election, and appealed to states to join in the ongoing campaign to sensitize Nigerians to the dangers posed by the twin evils, reports ITREALMS.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the assertion in Kaduna on Thursday, during the official opening ceremony of the 47th National Council on Information (NCI).

''With the 2019 general elections just a little over 60 days away, there is no issue that is more relevant to the election than the issue of fake news and hate speech,'' he said. ''This issue transcends political party lines, religion, ethnicity, and even nationality. Left unchecked, fake news and hate speech constitute the biggest threat to the forthcoming elections.''

Alhaji Mohammed said fake news has the capacity to alter the course of elections and create legitimacy problem for the winner, citing as an example a report that said fake news helped to depress Hillary Clinton's votes during the 2016 US election, in addition to tainting the victory for the winner.

He also said hate speech was a catalyst in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left at least 800,000 people dead.

The Minister said while the Federal Government has been unrelenting in calling attention to the dangers posed to the nation's peace, security and democracy, including through the launch of the National Campaign Against Fake News on July 11 2018, it cannot do it alone.

''The campaign against fake news and hate speech is not just a responsibility of the Federal Government. It is for all tiers of government. Therefore, I expect that the Honorable Commissioners who are here, and those who are not, will launch the campaign in their various states.

''The media will bear the brunt, if the people lose confidence in them because of fake news. This is why the media must lead this campaign,'' he said

Alhaji Mohammed described as 'very fitting and most timely' the theme of the meeting, which is 'Tackling Fake News and Hate Speech to Enhance Peace and National Unity'.

He urged the participants at the meeting to 'brain storm and evolve policies' that would comprehensively address the menace of fake news and hate speech.

Commissioners of Information from about 20 states are among the participants at the three-day meeting, which was declared open by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, represented by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Mr. Muyiwa Adekeye

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2nd GOCOP confab: Odinkalu catalogs threats to 2019 election - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has cataloged that electoral violence, hate speech and political innumeracy as some of the key threats against the forthcoming 2019 general elections, reports ITREALMS.

Odinkalu who was the guest speaker at the 2018 conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in Lagos, dwelt on the theme: “Fostering a Sustainable Economy, Credible Elections and Security in Nigeria – What Role for the Online Publisher?”

According to Odinkalu who also is a Senior Manager, Africa Programme, Open Society Justice Initiative as well as Chair, Advisory Board, Global Rights, media should step up its advocacy and enlightenment responsibilities towards ensuring that 2019 elections are conducted in a safe and secure environment void of these threats.

The professor of law, who is also Chair, Board of Directors, International Refugee Rights Initiative, outlined other factors that may undermine the polls to include insecurity, especially with killings and abductions in many parts of the North, South East and South South; food insecurity accentuated by the killings and violence in the nation’s food basket states of Benue, Adamawa, Plateau among others; and the growing abuse of drugs (opiods), which he explained has a direct correlation with violence.

While sympathizing with journalists and the journalism profession in the 21st century, which he described as a “dangerous business, a risky venture”, he insisted that in spite of the obvious threats to the lives of journalists, media practitioners must never shy away from their primary duty of bringing public actors to account to the people.


As said by Odinkalu, electoral violence has the capacity of casting huge slur on the electoral process such that the electorate are not only intimidated, the entire process is bullied and the outcome is mutilated.

He wondered that given the red flags and flashpoints of violence already recorded in the primary elections, the nation’s security apparatchik may have more than enough to chew in its duty of securing the nation.

“With the armed forces now leading in security provisioning and deployed in all states of the country, security institutions are likely to be stretched very thin ahead of the 2019 elections. I do not wish to get into predictions of fields of violence in the 2019 elections but it would also be naïve, based on what we already know and have seen, to assume that the contest will be without major incidents,” he said.

With elections holding in 36 states and 774 local government areas across 8,809 registration areas (wards) in a total of 119,973 polling units with an expected voting population of 84.2 million registered voters at a time the nation is almost at war with itself, Prof. Odinkalu said both the electorate and the security agencies need to collaborate, especially in intelligence sharing, so as to nip some premeditated violence in the bud.

For him, the media, especially corporate online journalists, must take the lead in reporting the entire electoral process impartially and objectively as any attempt to engage in partisan reporting will throw up dire consequences that may consume the society, including the media itself.

He also said Nigeria suffers a crisis of self-manufactured innumeracy, which makes it difficult to cast ballot, count ballot accurately and announce credible result.

“Elections are about numbers because democracy is about counting. Every democracy is built on counting the people (demographics of census), counting the voters (elections) and counting and distributing the commonwealth (appropriations). In this way, numbers are supposed to make us honest. In Nigeria, however, we choose to subvert all of these processes of counting through manufactured political innumeracy.

“Predictably, Nigeria has a habit of historically innumerate counting, especially in elections. Our elections are more often than not problematic not because we don’t vote peacefully (we mostly do) but because we choose almost always to be rooked with counting. Like the auto assembly, our political innumeracy is born of a completely knocked down (CKD) process. It begins long before the vote. It has already begun with the party primary process with some State Governors manufacturing ghost numbers of turnout that were manifestly fictional.”

Other dignitaries at the conference included former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba, who was represented by the Executive Director of Diamond Awards for Media Excellence; Lanre Idowu; Chairman, Centre of Excellence in Multimedia Tech, Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye; Prof. Leonard Shilgba; and erudite columnist, Akogun Tola Adeniyi, popularly known as Aba Saheed.

*Nenye Dom/GEE

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