League of Nigeria Columnists canvasses more awareness on hate speech

As 2019 general elections draw close, a new media advocacy group, League of Nigeria Columnists (LNC), has condemned politicians and their supporters resort to the use of hate speech in campaigning, insisting that there is the need to deepen awareness among Nigerians about its dire implication.

The group also urged better enlightenment for the police on what constitutes hate speech so they do not violate people’s rights in trying to apply it.

It was at the group’s inaugural lecture, organised by Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies, Ikeja, Lagos.

With ‘Hate Speech’ as theme, the columnists, who a re spread across major newspaper in the country, also argued that hate speech could be detrimental to the social, political and economic development of the country.

It urged the media to be fair and non-partisan in its reportage.
 
Veteran journalist of defunct Newswatch fame and guest speaker, Mr. Dan Agbese, noted that there is generally a limited understanding of hate speech in the country at the moment, adding, “We do not have a law against it. If its interpretation is to be determined by an individual’s poor understanding of it, there could be egregious assault on freedom of speech by overzealous security agents.

Recently, the Nigeria Police arrested Deji Adeyanju, convener of a civil society group called Concerned Nigerians and two of his colleagues for what the police termed hate speech. Their alleged offence was their posting these in public space: ‘the romance between APC and the police is unholy,’ ‘police is not a department of APC,’ ‘we just want the police to be neutral.’

“The alacrity with which the force reacted to this and instantly became the judge and jury in their tenuous case is part of that danger we might face. We must be careful. A panic reaction such as this, borne out of ignorance on the part of state actors, could threaten one of the world’s most cherished freedoms in a democracy – freedom of speech. We must ensure that those who are minded to act on hate speech understand what it actually means and are able to make an informed distinction between a hate speech and a robust expression of opinions deemed by those who express them as their contributions to national discourse. What Mr. Adeyanju and his friends put out were as far from hate speech as hell is from heaven.”

While speaking further, Agbese stated that hate speech does not just happen, noting, “It is incubated and given expression when social circumstances make the resort to it possible, even if inadvisable.

Hate speech is a dangerous product of profiling. Profiling is used in inter- and intra-racial and ethnic groups. Profiling can often seem to be a mild joke.”
 
According to him, for anything to qualify as hate speech, one, “it must be explicitly or implicitly directed at persons or group of persons who are different from us in terms of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation; it is intended to cause social, racial, ethnic or religious disharmony and incite violence at persons or group of persons; it must include verbal and non-verbal communication; hate speech must be seen to be calculated to injure or traumatize persons or groups of persons for the purposes of causing the community in which they reside to deny them their basic human rights and entitlements.

Hate speech must explicitly or implicitly profile the persons or groups it is directed at to prejudice others against them by emphasising their detestable racial or ethnic characteristics; hate speech must be discriminatory of persons and groups.
 
“A personal insult does not qualify as hate speech. You are free to call someone ‘stupid.’ You can also describe the Nigeria Police as inefficient. In both cases, there is an inherent intent to annoy, but that is not on the basis on any of the attributes that might be deemed prejudicial in the sense of hate speech. You are safe but you do risk a broken head from the person you insulted.”

According to him, “What the readers need is fact. Whenever people listen to radio or watch television, what they want is only the fact.

Once you get your fact right as a journalist, the law will be in your defence. And it is when you get your fact right that you can get to the truth. Facts are things you must get accurately. That is what we call investigative journalism.

When I was active as a reporter, I did a number of reports. For instance, the dollar salary issue under President Olusegun Obasanjo regime, I gathered the facts and confronted the Secretary to the Government of the Federation with them and they could not deny it.”
 
Prof Anya O Anya, who was chairman of the event, urged wielders of the pen to be good moral agents and not only columnists. He condemned the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly crisis, where five members disrupted proceedings.
 
Another veteran journalist of defunct Newswatch, Mr. Ray Ekpu noted that anti-hate speech legislation is not enough, stressing that there is also the need for its enforcement. He added that journalists must be professional, ethical and fair. He also expressed displeasure concerning the rumour that President Muhammadu Buhari is cloned.

“I saw it posted on the internet and young people are jumping at it that he is a clone,” he said. “That’s stupid; I have known Buhari since the 1980s as Head of State and he is the same man. Though the features have changed a little bit because he is older; som why all the noise on the internet that he is a clone?”
 
Another veteran media guru and former Managing Director of daily Times, Chief Akogun Tola Adeniyi, described columnists as rare breed individuals, adding that no other profession wields as much influence as columnists and urged them to use that influence judiciously for a better Nigeria.