Hate speech: FG directs NBC to sanction stations

It said this was part of efforts aiming at stemming the growing tide of hate speeches in the country.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the directive in Abuja on Thursday at the 3rd Annual Lecture Series of the NBC, which also coincided with the 25th anniversary of the commission.

He, however, did not mention the kind of sanction that the commission should impose on erring radio and television stations.

He said, “The challenges facing the NBC have never become more daunting, considering the increasing propensity of some radio and television stations across the country to turn over their platforms to the purveyors of hate speeches.

“It is the responsibility of the NBC to put these broadcast stations in check before they set the country on fire.

“As the NBC celebrates what is a milestone – a quarter of a century – of its existence, I urge the commission to double its efforts in discharging its mandate.

“The NBC must ensure a strict adherence to the broadcasting code, and errant stations must be sanctioned accordingly to serve as a deterrent.

“The nation looks up to the NBC to restore sanity to the broadcast industry. The commission cannot afford to fail the nation.”

Mohammed noted that it was an alleged ignominious role played by a radio station that fuelled the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

The minister said, “If you tune into many radio stations today, you will be shocked by the careless incitement to violence and the level of insensitivity to the multi-religious, multi-ethnic nature of our country.

“This must not be allowed to continue because it is detrimental to the unity and well-being of our country.”

He said the purveyors of hate speeches were also deliberately giving the impression that the Buhari administration had not achieved anything since assuming office in May 2015, adding, however, that no amount of hatred would obliterate the “solid achievements of the Buhari administration.”

He said, “Despite operating with just 45 per cent of the funds available to the immediate past administration, due largely to the fall in oil prices in our mono-product economy and the failure to save for the rainy day, this government has achieved so much more in so short a time.

Mohammed said figures just released by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed a growth of 95 per cent in capital importation/Foreign Direct Investment in the second quarter of 2017, over the first.

Criminalise fake news, Sultan tells FG

Also speaking on the occasion, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, said that the traditional institution was in support of the move by the Federal Government to criminalise hate speech.

He added that the traditional institution was in support of the recent declaration by Osinbajo that “none will be allowed to get away with making speeches that can cause sedition or that can cause violence.”

The monarch said the phenomenon of hate speech and fake news had reached an alarming state, adding that decisive action should be taken by the government.

The monarch said he was a victim of fake news on Wednesday when he was misrepresented at a Nigeria Labour Congress event in Abuja that “I kicked against restructuring.”

He said he was only against any restructuring that would lead to the disintegration of Nigeria.

The monarch said that he was also shocked by a television station’s report which claimed that there was “fracas” at the same event.

He said, “Many people called to ask what I was doing at the event where there was fracas.

“But there was nothing like fracas at that event as reported by a popular TV station which I will not name here.

“A former comrade governor, who was at the event, canvassed a position which did not go down well with the audience and people were shouting.

“The President of the NLC intervened and the comrade governor continued with his speech. At the end of the speech the former governor was given a loud ovation; how can that be described as fracas?’’

The monarch said the freedom of speech as enshrined in the constitution should not be used to violate other people’s rights.