‘National Assembly should think twice on proposed hate speech law’

The 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria recognises the right of every citizen to articulate his opinion and exercise freedom of speech. Recent political developments have brought about the idea of a legislation to curb hate speeches among citizens at the National Assembly. Lagos-based lawyers, Associate Professor Dayo Ayoade and Professor Fabian Ajogwu (SAN) in separate interviews with Yetunde Ayobami Ojo speak on the topic and other issues.

What is your view on the proposed hate speech law?
The proposed hate speech law is highly controversial and quite dangerous because it could be subject to manipulation and abuse. If not properly handled, it can be used by powerful people to protect themselves and their families. In normal societies, the public and civil society should be able to criticise our leaders, or political party leaders, but with such a law in place, those could use that as an excuse to victimize those who criticize them. When people are politically exposed, it is possible to utilize the hate speech law. What would be done is to restrict the public from criticizing legitimately because people will be afraid of being sued. And, therefore, I think one has to be careful. Nigeria has a history of protecting the powerful, while the weak are exposed. Therefore, I urge the National Assembly to think twice before passing that type of law. From history, the well-heeled hate to be exposed to any form of scrutiny. This is why one needs to question the reason for such a law. We, therefore, need to be careful.

Some people are clamouring for restructuring of the country so the regions would have autonomy. Does that make sense to you?



The issue of restructuring has been on for a long time. Personally, I am not against restructuring, but the bitter truth is that Nigeria is not working. We cannot maintain the democratic structures that we have, because it is in itself quite expensive. Really, what do we need 36 governors, deputies and the hordes of the assistants for? We run a system that has too many people feeding from it, but can’t make a dime to sustain the system. The federation should be put in such a way that promotes leaner structure. That is the truth of the matter. The problem is that the 36 states evolve out of the need for states to be on their own. Worse still, the urge to share from the common till has largely made people to overlook the basics and expect to reap where they did not sow. How do you handle such a situation? You will see the major ethnic groups like the Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba dominating to a point that they won’t allow others to equally contribute thereby causing needless rancour. We have to be careful to ensure that whatever structure is adopted, Nigerians knows how it operates.

The people would need to know the rules so as to conduct themselves properly. I would support a referendum. It is the Nigerian people who actually create restructuring because I know that most governors are not happy for their job to be relinquished. They will not accept it, the political elite would not be really passionate about the idea. But, as a country, we need to be united to enable us combat under-development and other issues associated with a sloppy system. So, to answer you directly, restructuring makes great sense. We cannot continue the way things are currently. Beyond being too expensive, it makes people understand their strong point as opposed to the weak links. But Nigeria we should see how we can resolve our issue.

What is your take on maintaining two chambers at the National Assembly?
Well, the presidential system supports a system where we have two legislative chambers:the Federal House of Representatives, which is the lower chamber and the Senate, the upper chamber. This is almost like the American system. Basically, there is nothing wrong in running a single legislative chamber. It will have fewer numbers of people at the law-making chamber. I think it may not be a bad idea considering how much money the federal government spends on our lawmakers, most of who do nothing in terms of better representation of the people. It will cost less and has the potentials of being effective. Nigeria is a poor developing country and we just cannot maintain the governance structure we have today because it is quite expensive and has turned our politicians into a leech on the people. We need a leaner legislative system that does not give room for frivolities which has become the norm of our current system. Now when the president is alleged to have up to six or seven aircrafts at his disposal, you begin to calculate and imagine how much the government spends to keep them air worthy. So, it all points to the issue of restructuring of our system.

How is it a problem of restructuring?

The truth is that every nation understands its strength and weaknesses. We do not do things because Mr A is doing it. A time comes when a nation tells itself the painful truth. We as a nation have to cut our cloth according to our size. Over the years, we have had to misplace our priorities. We are needlessly lavish and we don’t need some of the things we do.The Queen of England, a first class economy in the world,does not have dedicated aircraft. She uses commercial aircraft, the British Airways. By that lifestyle, we will focus on maintaining public institutions and infrastructure knowing that we will still come back to use them if we fail to make them up to standard. Our politicians overlook public infrastructure to rot because they can always fly expensive and alternative airlines. This has to stop if we must move forward. It is high time we trimmed this higher than others attitude of our politicians just because they hold public office.