The Need to Promulgate a Hate Speech Law in Nigeria -By Ehiogu Cyborg Emmanuel

Ehiogu Cyborg Emmanuel

Nothing falls mostly into an incongruous context than the proliferation of acerbic comments, far much greater than dissentient opinions, being poured out by some heterogeneous entities within the entirety of the nation. Hate Speech, as viral as it has become, is when a speech is laced with hatred. Some still moot that it is a speech aimed at disparaging, bringing down and exposing to danger anybody or a group of persons or species of people. If the intent is to expose some persons to risk or to danger of any nature, it becomes hate speech even if what is said is true or specious.

Invariably, hate speeches fall from every nook and cranny of the nation. This can be spurred by some mismanagements done by some members of the Politburo in our nation. Though it has become an archaic culture but this present one has broken the camel’s back and stirred the hornet’s nest. Everyone has started to pelt excessive jinxes and curses on the government. Though their altitudes are quite unjustifiable but it should not cross the precarious lines of extent. Throngs have consistently bemoaned about the higher rate of impunity and macabre going on in the country, some still increased their far dissent opinions because of the lawlessness the nation has chosen to bear, defaulting in all spheres of governance and rendering its denizens perpetually incapacitated.

Some have devised distinct means to spew out their own derogatory words. Some in their houses, some in their working places, others exercise theirs on the road as they stroll or saunter aimlessly, thus soliloquising intractably like some deranged species. Like it is mostly said that insanity immures conscience into an impenetrable carapace, most persons within the localities engage outrightly in such a thing.

These unscrupulous activities have mostly brought, both directly and vicariously, an unceasing stasis that has reached a celestial sphere or nadir in the nation. The country is at her worst state and people are never complacent with the situations in this political regimen. If reference should be made, it will be apt to rightly put that the western world is far much progressive in every sphere of life. Using the United States as a case study, citizens are mostly pliant, appreciative and accommodating. Probably because of the system of their government. The citizens are invariably blessing their country, speaking resplendently about the country and the nation keeps soaring uninterruptedly.

Though there is a code like such but it seems quite comatose and it has been trampled upon. Other various countries have induced such a legal step to stem the tide of hate speech. South Africa also promulgated the promotion of Equity and prevention of unfair Discrimination Act of 2000. This foremost nation is on the verge of passing such a hate speech bill to constantly ameliorate this hate speech saga. And bring the nation out from such a lamentable condition.

It is quite indisputable that so many jinxes and setbacks can be skedaddled once distinct mouths are reconstructed or reshaped. What makes an individual better is the level of the oasis of love being practised by an individual. Once this law is promulgated and the citizens fully engage in it, the genie will be out and the phantoms of evil thoughts and stasis will no longer stalk the streets. Like some Christian worshippers profess that what one says is what will eventually happen in a tacit way. This proposition is however looking less specious, for it has become a recurrence.

In conclusion, most people believe that it is sickening to say that people are talking awfully about their nation. There is need to enlighten the people on the acts that are quite extant and functional. To make a dissenting speech is not wrong but turning it into something else is abysmal in a country that is so badly torn by differences. Speaking intractably cannot bring an end to the nation’s woe and unconscionable abuses. If a speech such as that should be made, then it should be rightly done in order to prove that the citizens are gradually trailing on the path of civilization.

Ehiogu Cyborg Emmanuel

Masters Student of Economic History, University of Ibadan (Economic and Human Rights Analyst).