AS Nigerians prepare for the first round of the 2019 general elections with Presidential election coming up this Saturday, the Catholic Bishop of Bauchi Diocese, Most Rev Dr Hilary Newman Dachelem has warned against the use of hate speeches which he observed is one of the major causes of election violence in Nigeria.
Bishop Dachelem gave the warning in a paper he presented during a public lecture organised by the Bauchi State chapter of National Council of Muslim Youths Organizations (NACOMYO), with the theme “The Role of Religious Bodies in Violence Free elections,” held at the Multi-Purpose Indoors Sports Auditorium, Bauchi, on Saturday.
The Christian Cleric said that “Today the social media is full of hate speeches. On social media such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and so on, we read a lot of hate speeches. Nigerians insult one another in the media and the world is looking at us as enemies. This mentality is against our unity and mutual co-existence”.
He also identified inadequate voters education, failure of the justice system, unemployment, corruption, lack of internal democracy in political parties as causes of electoral violence in the county.
Bishop Dachelem also warned that inadequate security, poverty, lack of democratic culture, lack of integrity from electoral umpire were also fertile grounds for electoral violence.
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He called on religious leaders from all divides in the country to raise awareness and influence attitudes, behaviour and practices in order to curtail electoral violence in the forthcoming general election.
The Christian cleric said: “we have the power to promote and support public policy to promote the well-being of our members such as ref echoing to the authorities, the voices of the poor where laws are made”
According to him, “it is the moral duty of religious bodies to encourage members to see opponents as fellow human beings as it is evident in the teachings of the two major religions in Nigeria
In his welcome address, the Bauchi State Coordinator of NACOMYO, Abubakar Sadiq Abdullahi, said that NACOMYO is an umbrella body of Muslim Youths meant to provide a lasting solution to electoral violence and thuggery in the country.
Sadiq Abdullahi further explained that the essence of the public lecture was to create more awareness on the negative consequences of electoral violence on the gains of democracy, lamenting that politicians used youth to foment violence.
The one-day public lecture was attended by various Islamic groups mainly youths who are often the tools used by politicians to perpetrate violence before, during and after elections.
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