By Amos Tauna
Nigeria’s Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, has expressed concern that hate speech, disinformation and fake news has become a canker-worm that requires serious minded stakeholders to ensure stability in the country.
Speaking at the extra-ordinary meeting of the National Council of Information in Jos, on, “Hate speech, fake news and national unity,” Mohammed noted that the way out was for Nigerians to say no to hate speech in all spheres of life.
He explained, “We must boycott any medium that engages in hate speech, incitement to violence, disinformation and fake news. The regulators must also be alive to their responsibilities by promptly sanctioning the purveyors of hate speech, disinformation and fake news.
“What do these phenomena of hate speech, disinformation and fake news have in common? They are all capable of destabilizing the system, inciting people to violence and weakening the people’s confidence in their government.”
“In Nigeria today, the hate being spewed on radio stations across the country is so alarming. If you tune into many radio stations, you will be shocked by the things being said, the careless incitement to violence and the level of insensitivity to the multi-religious, multi-ethnic nature of our country.
“Many here will also recall the quantum of hate speech directed at candidate Buhari during the last electioneering campaign. Never in the history of electioneering campaign in Nigeria has such a quantum of hate speech been directed at any candidate.
“This did not stop even when he won the election and became President. For instance, the President had hardly left Nigeria for his vacation in London on 19 January 2017, during which he said he would have routine medical check-up, when these hate and fake news campaigners circulated the news that he has died. Between then and now, they have repeated similar fakes news times without number.
“What do these phenomena of hate speech, disinformation and fake news have in common? They are all capable of destabilizing the system, inciting people to violence and weakening the people’s confidence in their government.”
He noted that Nigeria was a country of ethnic and religious diversity. “That should be a source of strength, if the fault lines are not deliberately being exposed and exploited by those who are bent on setting the people against themselves, using their new-found tools of hate speech, disinformation and fake news.
“These dangerous trend is threatening the very foundation of our national unity. It is daily pushing the nation close to the precipice, perhaps more than at any other time since the end of the civil war.
“We must boycott any medium that engages in hate speech, incitement to violence, disinformation and fake news. The regulators must also be alive to their responsibilities by promptly sanctioning the purveyors of hate speech, disinformation and fake news. Yes, our constitution allows freedom of speech and this government believes in it, but freedom of speech must not be allowed to become freedom of irresponsibility,” he observed.
On the part of the federal government, he explained, the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had recently undertaken a series of engagements with all stakeholders to defuse the tension cause by these tendencies, stressing that his efforts have gone a long way in calming frayed nerves, especially in the aftermath of the attacks and counter-attacks by various groups across the country.
As a follow-up to the efforts of the Acting President, the minister said the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture was planning a series of engagements with the media, to educate and sensitize them to the dangers posed to the unity of the country by hate speech, disinformation and fake news.
“Needless to say that we are also appealing to the media, the traditional media in particular, to show responsibility by repudiating the freewheeling and out-of-control purveyors of hate speech,disinformation and fake news.
“Unlike the Social Media, the traditional media is subject to the rigours of accuracy, fact-checking and fairness, among others. Sadly, even a section of the traditional media now apes the hate campaigners by lifting their unverified or distorted news and dumping such on their readers,” he appealed.
