Atiku, Ozekhome Fault Hate Speech Bill As ‘Obnoxious, Draconian Legislation’

The Nigerian Senate’s re-introduction of a bill that seeks death penalty for persons found guilty of hate speech has been described as “obnoxious” and “a draconian piece of legislation” by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozhekome, respectively

Atiku, who was presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last general elections, said the bill sponsored by Senator Sabi Abdullahi violates Nigerians’ right to freedom of speech.

“Atiku Abubakar wishes to sound a note of caution to those now toying with the idea of an Anti Hate Speech Bill, with punishment for supposed Hate Speech to be death by hanging. The contemplation of such laws is in itself not just hate speech, but an abuse of the legislative process that will violate Nigerians’ constitutionally guaranteed right to Freedom of Speech.

The former vice president said Nigeria’s democracy had survived its longest incarnation “because those who governed this great nation between 1999 and 2015 never toyed with this most fundamental of freedoms,” warning that it would be dangerous to now “shrink the democratic space to satisfy personal and group interests.”

“Nigeria presently has too many pressing concerns. We are now the world headquarters for extreme poverty as well as the global epicenter of out-of-school children. Our economy is smaller than it was in 2015, while our population is one of the world’s fastest growing. We have retrogressed in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, from the position we held four years ago, and our Human Development Indexes are abysmally low.

“It therefore begs the question: should we not rather make laws to tackle these pressing domestic challenges, instead of this Bill, which many citizens consider obnoxious?” he querried, adding that “we must prioritise our challenges ahead of the whims and caprices of those who do not like to hear the inconvenient truth. Stop this folly and focus on issues that matter to Nigerians.”

‘This Bill Should Be Deleted Immediately’ – Ozhekome

Ozhekome, in his reaction, described the bill which passed first reading on Tuesday as the most piece of draconian legislation that “should be deleted immediately.”

The senior advocated said the “maverick and intolerant” administration of President Muhammadu Buhari cannot manage such kind of legislation and not abuse it.

Ozhejome said, “A bill sponsored by the Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Aliyu Sabi, who incidentally was the Spokesperson for the Senate in the 8th National Assembly, is said to have passed the first reading on Tuesday,12th November, 2019.

“Part of the bizarre provisions in the said bill are said to contain prescription of the death penalty for makers of hate speech.

“What is hate speech by the way and who defines it? What is the true test of determining it? Is the test that of a government in power? Or that of the traumatised people? Or that of the NASS? Or that of the Courts? Or,that of the Executive? Just who?

“The bill should immediately be aborted and killed as a malformed embryo at its second reading gestation stage,before it is allowed to be delivered as a societal monster.

“Let me quickly warn that this maverick and intolerant government cannot be trusted by any sane person to fairly operate such a draconian piece of legislation introduced under a law that carries the death penalty,for alleged hate speech.

“When has merely making a speech under section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression become not just treasonable felony (life imprisonment), but treason itself, that is punishable with death?

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees “freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, recieve and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

“Nigeria is a signatory to this international instrument. Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, also domesticated in Nigeria, reinforces this inalienable freedom that the NASS is attempting to derobe and destroy.

“The bill is an ill-intentioned, ill-conceived, ill-digested and ill-part read dictatorial and absolutist piece of nonsensical legislation waiting to consume all of us.

“An obnoxious law such as this will further drive underground and into hiding, the opposition and genuine social critics who speak truth to power and criticise serial opaque, anti-people, corrupt and high-handed polices of government.

“This government has been tested and known to be very allergic to constructive criticisms. Its skin is very negatively thin against criticisms as regards citizens’ genuine concerns.

“It is a government that listens to itself, sets its own examination questions, marks them by itself and award marks to itself.

“Citizens’ opinion does not matter.That is why we have topmost government officials who shock the conscience of Nigerians and the world by saying, for example,that insecurity in Nigeria,” he said.