Hate speech bill will consume all if passed into law ― Osoba

Former Ogun State governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, has declared that the Hate Speech Bill is a danger that will consume media practitioners across the country if allowed to be passed into law.

He, therefore, challenged practising journalists across the country to strive hard to resist the passage into law of the controversial bill which has scaled through the first and second readings in the Senate.

He said this in Lagos, on Tuesday, while speaking at the public presentation of two books: “The Gatekeepers: Editors, Columnists and Media Leaders Influencing Nigeria”, and “Nigerian Journalism: 160 Years of Advancing Accountability, Promoting the Public Interest and Speaking Truth to Power”.

Osoba, who was the chairman at the event, however, admitted that there were grave dangers inherent in the social media, declaring that majority of the bloggers were not trained and practising journalists.

The veteran journalist urged journalists and columnists not to limit themselves to merely writing news items and columns against the Hate Speech Bill but also write papers which they should present at the proposed public hearing on the bill.

“Although we read it in the news that the President of the Senate said the bill may not sail through, we all know that it has passed through the second reading. What is expected to happen now is to hold a public investigation on the bill?

“I want to urge all practising and true journalists, all of you here, to rise up and insist on why the bill must not be passed. We must point out the dangers contained in the bill.

“I am appealing to journalists to write papers on the dangers in the Hate Speech Bill. If it is passed, we are all in danger and all of us are gone.

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“I know that many of us cannot be physically present at the public hearing on the bill in Abuja because of the exorbitant cost of air travel and the dangers of travelling on the Nigerian roads.

“But as many as possible among us should storm the venue of the public hearing and ensure that the bill did not see the light of the day. I will take it upon myself to be physically present st the public hearing,” he said.

The former Ogun governor also admitted to the inherent dangers in social media as he said it posed great challenges to the practice of journalism and pursue true journalism.

He called on traditional media practitioners to invade the social media and provide a credible alternative to bloggers, many of who he said were not trained journalists.

This, he said, the traditional media practitioners can do by opening their blog sites and bombard the social media space with credible and verifiable news stories.

The highpoint of the event was the presentation of plagues to the editors of the various media organisation whose names were mentioned in the book, “The Gatekeepers (Vol 2), including the Editor, Nigerian Tribune, Alhaji Adebowale Abdulai.

“The Gatekeepers” (Volume 2) and “Nigerian Journalism”, both written by O’Femi Kolawole, respectively contained the experiences and inspiring stories of editors and collection of articles and essays by top Nigerian journalists to commemorate 160 years of the media in Nigeria.