A coup is a curious thing. Those who make the coup never admit that they have made the coup; they claim that they are restoring democracy or that they are taking extraordinary means to establish the conditions for democracy. This is precisely why the definition of the events around coups is so fraught.
Sometimes last week, the 12th item on the Order Paper that was granted automatic first reading on the floor of the Senate was hate speech; death penalty is the most severe punishment provided by the bill, which defines, hate speech as a comment that insults people for their religion, ethnic and linguistic affiliation, among others.
On offences like harassment on the basis of ethnicity, racial contempt, the bill proposes not less than five-year jail term or a fine of not less than N10 million or both.
There will also be an establishment of ‘one-kind’ commission on Hate Speech, which will be headed by an executive chairperson to be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the National Council of State, subject to the confirmation of at least two-thirds majority of the National Assembly.
So, a few persons, or as plenty as they are, sat in the beer parlor and decided to plan a coup against the Nigerian population, in the name of fighting hate speech, when amongst them reside enormous amount of hate, when amongst the palm wine drunkards, many are seated on chairs facilitated by hate politics played in their various languages, in their various ethnic studios, broadcast in cases in their religious waves.
It is funny how we are as hypocritical as you can note, how do we really distinguish hate speech from free speech without planning a coup? Can we really even separate hate speech from stereotypical speech. At what point does hate speech become dangerous speech or inflammatory speech.
Did the coup plotters see that a lot needs to be done about our ideologies and perception to elections, are they seeing the drama that has unfolded in Bayelsa, and Kogi states, a pointer to what will happen in Edo and Ondo states, the amount of hate generated in the beer palours of those places.
The emphasis on tribal and ethnic dialectics in the bill show that the crafters are lost on the real issues besetting the nation. A country, where everything is shared on ethnic basis, catchment area, federal character, less advantaged and such terminology is a fertile ground for hate, a nation of wazobia that neglects countless scores of minorities, a nation where majority fear minority, and competition is based on faith cannot handle the sword of Damocles that the bill brings.
Hate Speech Bill is not in any way well thought out, lacks focus, and as such energies by the coup plotters should be channeled at poverty, unemployment, poor medicare, transportation wahala, infact they should do a good roads bill that sought to hang ministers, commissioners and contractors that fail to deliver on such vital human necessities, we should have a corruption hanging bill, or else we would continue beer parlor gist on serious issues.
Prince Charles Dickson PhD
pcdbooks@yahoo.com
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