ANOTHER LOOK AT THE HATE SPEECH AND FAKE NEWS BILLS -BY MONDAY UBANI
The sponsors of the two bills that have their objective of curtailing freedom of speech in Nigeria were given time to advance reasons for those bills at this time as a nation. I must tell you the truth, I was totally disappointed.
They
were pedestrian in their presentation and evidenced their veiled intention to
discourage Nigerians from querying the present government through social media.
Not
only were they giving wrong reasons for the bills, they also lied that many
lives have been lost in Nigeria due the so called Hate Speech and Fake News in
Nigeria.
Statistics
of death which occurred for some years caused by criminals in Nigeria were released
recently by one of the international bodies. The main cause of those deaths as
shown in the report was attributed to herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents over
the years. At no time was the cause of deaths attributed to the so -called hate
speech or fake news carriers in Nigeria.
I
urge the legislators of the 9th Assembly to throw out those bills as their
passage will further dent the image of this government. It is in their interest
to respect the rights of Nigerians to hold their government accountable.
We
have enough laws in our books to take care of any infraction of our laws in the
social media. I need not name them as they are many.
For
their information, we made a choice by preferring democracy to dictatorship
since 1999.
·
Monday
Onyekachi Ubani, a
Legal Practitioner and Human Rights Crusader is a one-time 2nd National Vice President of the
Nigerian Bar Association.
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