A bill to condemn to death anyone who caused death to someone by making hate speeches is being proposed by Nigeria’s National Assembly. When the bill is successfully passed by the two Houses of Assembly and an assent given to it by the Executive President of the country, it eventually becomes a law. To that extent, the court interprets when a speech becomes a ‘hate’ one. If not properly followed and objectively implemented, any members of the opposition to the ruling party who would criticize the government or condemn any policies of the government might face the hangman’s noose. It might be for political witch-hunt at the end of the day. The bill is been hurriedly discussed without taking into consideration that it will ultimately affect the Northern region of the country mostly where religious violence is more prevalent because of the hate speeches of some of the Islamic clerics and their deadly teachings and instigation against the Christians. Over 98% of hate speech-inspired violence have occurred in the Northern region of Nigeria with the attendant massacre of the residents, particularly from the Southern extraction who are majorly Christians. Will a Northern president muster enough political Will to execute death sentence passed on a religious cleric from Northern extraction for obviously causing the death of the Southern 'unbelievers'? Would sentiments and bias and moral weakness not override what was termed a law?
Sometime last year, the fire-brand Apostle Johnson Suleiman of the Omega Fire Ministries condemned the killings of Christians in Southern Kaduna. He was brutally attacked for making hate speech, when what the cleric said was that Christians should defend themselves when attacked, and that it is foolishness for Christians to poke out their necks to be brutally slaughtered by the senseless marauders who have no single value for life. His counsel was taken to be hate speech, capable of igniting violence and inciting public disturbance and general insecurity. Those who actually made hate-speeches that resulted in the calamitous death of many innocent people were not viciously attacked and condemned by these hypocritical political and religious leaders, as they did to the dynamic Apostle Suleiman merely exercised his fundamental right of freedom of speech.
If we are to talk of sanitizing the society by cheaply and thoughtlessly passing of death bills, have they realized how many lives and generations the looters of Nigeria treasury and economic saboteurs, have wasted and literally killed in Nigeria? Have they forgotten how many Nigerians consciously jumped into the lagoon in Lagos State in 2017 alone, because of poverty, frustration and joblessness occasioned by the high-tech corruption of most politicians in Nigeria? Can we recall how many young men and women have taken poisonous snipers and died because of frustration? What of the young women and men who have taken to prostitution and armed robbery, kidnapping and cultism because of being obviously ‘dead’ while alive? It is not that a society can be completely crime-free even if everyone was gainfully employed; but it is believed that most of these crimes would not have been committed by these young and promising youths if the economy was not perpetually destroyed by the organized, systemic and systematic corruption of some of our political leaders.
If the Nigerian Parliamentarians actually want to sanitize the society by death sentences, they should start by passing a bill that anyone convicted for corruptly enriching himself/herself should unavoidably be escorted to the hangs-man noose. For instance, all the contemporary ‘snakes’ that swallowed N36Million, the owner of the car that hosted the N24Million ‘burnt’ should be hanged, if convicted by the court of law. The ‘monkey’ that also swallowed millions of Naira, all from JAMB office alone, should be marched to gallows. Time will fail me to mention myriad of politicians under the probe of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); not to mention those pleading for settlement Out of Court, should all visit the hangsman when eventually convicted to death by court of competent jurisdiction. This is the beginning of societal sanitation.
Corruption is worse than hate speeches. If the commonwealth in Nigeria is evenly distributed and these evil and corrupt politicians desist from corruptly enriching themselves, Nigerians would be a better place for everyone to live meaningful and fulfilled lives. The Parliamentarians should stop this hypocrisy and join in the spirit and truth of the fight against corruption being the mantra of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Even if the Executives may not have the political wherewithal to execute the fight against corruption as expected by Nigerians, the National Parliament can act an active catalyst to brutally fight against this enduring social malady. They should stop this hypocrisy of proposing death sentence against hate speech makers. That is not what we need for now!
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