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ANOTHER LOOK AT THE HATE SPEECH AND FAKE NEWS BILLS -BY MONDAY UBANI



I was opportune to tune into Raypower Radio today after my court session before the learned Justice Oshodi of Ikeja High Court, Lagos State to monitor the Round Table Conference going on presently at Abuja on the issue of some of the bills presently pending before the National Assembly.


The sponsors of the two bills that have their objective of curtailing freedom of speech in Nigeria were given time to advance reasons for those bills at this time as a nation. I must tell you the truth, I was totally disappointed.

They were pedestrian in their presentation and evidenced their veiled intention to discourage Nigerians from querying the present government through social media.

Not only were they giving wrong reasons for the bills, they also lied that many lives have been lost in Nigeria due the so called Hate Speech and Fake News in Nigeria.


Statistics of death which occurred for some years caused by criminals in Nigeria were released recently by one of the international bodies. The main cause of those deaths as shown in the report was attributed to herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents over the years. At no time was the cause of deaths attributed to the so -called hate speech or fake news carriers in Nigeria.

I urge the legislators of the 9th Assembly to throw out those bills as their passage will further dent the image of this government. It is in their interest to respect the rights of Nigerians to hold their government accountable.

We have enough laws in our books to take care of any infraction of our laws in the social media. I need not name them as they are many.

For their information, we made a choice by preferring democracy to dictatorship since 1999.

·         Monday Onyekachi Ubani, a Legal Practitioner and Human Rights Crusader is a one-time 2nd National Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association.

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