The Senate resuscitated the Hate Speech Bill it abandoned last year and it scaled through the first reading last week, dogged still by outrage in the traditional and social media.
The sponsor of the bill, the Senate’s former spokesman and now Deputy Chief Whip, Abdullahi Aliu Sabi appeared not discouraged by the resentment, which greeted the proposed law when it first emerged in the upper chamber last year.
The re-presented bill, titled “National Commission For the Prohibition of Hate Speeches”, defines hate speech as a comment that offends people’s religious, ethnic or linguistic associations among others, and stipulates among other penalties that, any person who commits an offence under the law “shall be liable to life imprisonment and where the act causes any loss of life, the person shall be punished with death by hanging.”
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The bill also proposes a five-year jail term or a fine of not less than N10 million or both for offences such as harassment on the basis of ethnicity or racial contempt.
“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 a 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.”
It further provides that, “A person who subjects another to harassment on the basis of ethnicity commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to an imprisonment for a term not less than five years, or to a fine of not less than N10 million, or to both.”
This bill is an affront to Section 39 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression for all Nigerians. It also contradicts Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom to hold opinions without interference and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights. Nigeria is a signatory to both international legislations.
Top government functionaries have been persistent in condemning acts or speeches in the social media, which they perceive as fake news or hateful. The re-appearance of the hate speech bill in the Senate is, therefore, a response to the concerns expressed by the government officials.
No doubt, hate speech or incitement of hatred on the basis of ethnicity, religion or any other social affiliation cannot be justified in any circumstance and must not only be condemned, but perpetrators punished.
But the hate speech law is being advocated by persons whose inclination to tamper with the freedom of expression has not been hidden.
From their utterances, it can be deciphered that criticisms and clamour against public officers’ policies and actions rather than incitement of hatred against individuals and groups are what they detest and seek to stop. Fears that such law would be subjected to the whims of the public officials are, therefore, not misplaced.
We do not believe a law that sets out to punish hate speech with death is what our citizens and the nation require now or in the future. We already have several laws in our statute books under which anyone who abuses free speech or engages in conducts amounting to harassment of other citizens on the basis of ethnic or religious affiliation can be brought to justice.
For the nation’s mass media and journalists, the laws against defamation are enough deterrent. There are also provisions in the acts setting up the Nigerian Press Council, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, Nigerian Broadcasting Commission and the National Film and Video Censors Board that protect individuals and groups against speeches or actions capable of inciting ethnic or religious hatred or harassment.
Against the contention that the proposed hate speech law is targeted at citizens, who use social media to incite hatred, the sponsor of the bill is in a better position to know that the Nigerian Cybercrime Act 2015 exists.
The cybercrime law prohibits the distribution of racist and xenophobic material to the public through a computer system or network (social media). The law also forbids and prescribes various punishments for anyone found guilty of using threats of violence and insulting statements to persons based on race, religion, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin. If the cybercrime is not adequate, then is it not better updated?
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Furthermore, we believe that the hate speech bill must not be allowed to become law, as it further seeks to swell up our already bloated bureaucracy with its proposal for the establishment of a commission. Rather than create more amorphous executive bodies to drain public funds, the lawmakers should invest their time and energy in harmonising laws and existing agencies to create awareness about the dangers of hate speech and the need for all citizens to cohabit peacefully regardless of ethnic, religious and other social differences.
All Nigerians who desire the protection of our democracy and freedom of expression, which is an important prerequisite in any self-governing country, must rise to oppose this obnoxious bill.