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Opinion: Hate Speech Redefined by Tola Adeniyi

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By Tola Adeniyi

I wouldn’t know where the bogus concept of hate speech came from or who brought up the idea to the floor of the National Assembly but I know for certain what purpose it was meant to serve. Having messed up the sensibilities and sensitivities of the Nigerian citizenry by incessant and unrelenting  butchering of Nigerians  in a fashion bordering on ethnic cleansing across the country the handlers of the cabal that is hell bent on conquering and subduing all the ethnic nationalities and re-colonize Nigeria in their own image believe the Nigerian masses should have their mouths permanently padlocked so that nobody should ever say a word about the gory atrocities being daily perpetrated.

The only objective the so-called Hate speech legislation being remotely sponsored by the Presidency is to further strengthen the growing dictatorship and cruel tyranny of the Buhari administration. The Military Constitution which was forced down our throats by the Abdul Salami Abubakar Junta already has built-in mechanisms for unprecedented dictatorship and over centralization of the government at the centre which will now go for the kill in the hands of an unrepentant dictator of power hungry Buhari.

What does Hate Speech really connote? Is to direct Nigerians to live in self denial? Is it meant to teach Nigerians to call a spade by another name? Is it to call a blackboard white when actually it is visibly black? This kind of arm twisting will not work in Nigeria of 193 million highly informed and incorrigibly vocal citizens. Nigerians may have been traumatized to the marrow, impoverished to the bones, and seriously humiliated and oppressed by the negligible minority wielding excessive power over them; they are not ever likely give up their freedom of expression. Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Africa’s greatest music machine who sang ‘the padlock of my mouth is not in your hand’ would turn in his grave if he found that his kinsmen and women in Nigeria ever yielded to a draconian legislation that would turn them into slaves in their own land.

Let’s face it. How do you describe a gang of Stone Age barbarians who plundered your farmland, destroyed your crops, fed your tubers of yam and cassava to animals, raped your wives and daughters, massacred innocent babies and shot your husbands to death? The simple word for such animals in human skin is Terrorists! It does not matter if such marauding drug-addicted lunatics are your next door neighbours or aliens from the moon or from the pit of hell fire.

There is no other word for nepotism but nepotism. And as said in popular advertisement, ‘if it is not Panadol, it is not panadol.’ Simplicita! My English teachers from Reverend S T Sheyin in the Secondary School, to Agbaje the father of Barrister Bamidele Agbaje at the HSC, to my Professors of English at the University of Ibadan the likes of Professors Whitehall, Izevbaye, Ogunba and the greatest of them Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo did not tell me there was another word for a rotten egg if the egg was rotten. No amount of deodorant or perfume can cover the stench of a fart from decaying anus.

The Naira chewing members of the National Assembly who may be contemplating approval for the Hate Speech agenda know in their hearts that majority of them are dead rotten by the mere size of their undisguised irresponsibility and greed.

President Muhammadu Aleko Buhari cannot cover up his proven ineptitude, gratuitous nepotism, gross insensitivity, his alliance with the third most deadly terrorist group in the world, his nonchalant attitude to serious national challenges, his confessed ignorance of what goes on in government under his watch and the charges of monumental corruption in his government by a so-called Hate Speech contrivance.

This Buhari government has failed woefully. And what it  is now doing is akin to what a thoroughly beaten boxer seeking cover and protection from the Referee does. If you are beaten, you are beaten. Just raise up your hands in submission and quit the stage. The hate Speech escape route is not going to fly.

There are so many laws in the land to adjudicate on matters bordering on slander and even libel. Anybody or any organization that feels slandered should go to court. Even if the government or any of its organs and operatives feels slandered, such agencies should seek redress in court. Nigerians are not prepared to tolerate any Decree 4 of 1984 being brought back through the back door. Nigerians no longer have sacrificial lambs like Tunde Thompson, Emeka Irabor or Diete Spiff’s Amachree! That era is long gone with the unsmiling generals Buhari and Idiagbon.

And imagine the audacity of the proponents of the Hate Speech nonsense! They are seeking death penalty for offenders of Hate speech and yet they are blind to the taunting, touting and menacing   AK47 marauders who are killing Nigerians with notorious glee. What the heck some people think Nigeria is? If some people are comfortable living in the Stone Age, do they think every other person belongs in the Stone Age?

Yes. Nigeria needs death penalty for a tribe of people: those who have stolen our patrimony. Let a more serious minded nationalistic government emerge that would give Nigerian looters the Chinese and South Korean treatment. Nigerians would welcome a national as opposed to a village leader who would Rawlingsitize and sanitize the bleeding country. Nigerians are not opposed to death penalty. Death penalty still obtains in some states even in the United States. Let all those terrorizing fellow Nigerians with guns and machetes be lined up and given public execution.

Death Penalty should not be for a harmless farmer who calls a thief a thief, or who calls the rapist of his daughter a rapist. If a Yoruba man goes to Sokoto to rape the wife of a Sultan he should be described for what and who he is. Such a person is a Yoruba rapist! He cannot be anonymous and should not be allowed to hide under anonymity. The Ijaw self determination groups do not hide their identity. And when they blow up pipelines they own up and the Press describes them by their identity. If the Fulani terrorist militia men are killing people in Taraba, they deserve to be described as Fulani terrorists. That is not hate. It is simple use of words.

A non-performing government cannot legislate against criticisms. If you are bad, you are bad. You cannot force people to create a new word for your badness. Bad is bad. If you are a murderer you are a murderer. If you are Igbo, you are Igbo. This is the universal Age of Aquarius. The world no longer tolerates sweeping matters under the carpet. This is why the Creator gave this Age the Computer and the Internet. This is why the creator allowed the Google, Face book, Instagram, Whatsapp and other forms of instant messaging and information dissemination to happen.

Come to think of it? How do you enforce the so-called Hate speech nonsense in a global village which the world has turned into? How does anybody prevent pseudo names and anonymous writings and postings? Are we asking for another radio Kudirat? How do you stop an Australia-based critic from posting commentaries on Nigeria?  Did the proponents of Hate Speech ever go to school? Are they aware of the Age we live in? And these are people making laws for the country!!!

Perish the thought on hate Speech, or find a new definition.


By Chief Tola Adeniyi, former Chairman/Managing Director of Daily Times Conglomerate.

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Army Buries 17 Personnel Killed in Okuama Community

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The 17 military personnel killed in Okuama community in Delta on March 14 have been laid to rest.

The corpses of the soldiers, which arrived at the National Military Cemetery in Abuja at about 2:26 pm on Wednesday, were committed to mother death after burial rites were observed.

President Bola Tinubu, Service Chiefs and other dignitaries were in attendance at the burial ceremony.

DAILY POST recalls that the troops of 181 Amphibious Batallion, Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, while on a peace mission to Okuoma Community were ambushed and killed by some irate youths.

The incident occurred when the troops responded to a distress call following a communal crisis between Okuoma and Okoloba communities in Delta State.

The personnel comprised one Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, one Captain and 13 soldiers.

The officers are Commanding Officer 181 Amphibious Battalion, Lt. Col. A.H Ali; Maj S.D Shafa (N/13976); Maj D.E Obi (N/14395) and Capt U Zakari (N/16348).

The soldiers are SSgt Yahaya Saidu (#3NA/36/2974); Cpl Yahaya Danbaba (1ONA/65/7274); Cpl Kabiru Bashir (11NA/66/9853); LCpl Bulus Haruna (16NA/TS/5844); LCpl Sola Opeyemi (17NA/760719); and LCpl Bello Anas (17NA/76/290).

They also include LCpl Hamman Peter (NA/T82653); LCpl Ibrahim Abdullahi (18NA/77/1191); Pte Alhaji Isah (17NA/76/6079); Pte Clement Francis (19NA/78/0911); Pte Abubakar Ali (19NA/78/2162); Pte Ibrahim Adamu (19NA/78/6079) and Pte Adamu Ibrahim (21NA/80/4795).

DailyPost

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Thomas Yormah Emerges As New WAEC Chairman

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By Eric Elezuo

The West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC) has a new Chairman, he is Prof. Thomas Brima Rick Yormah, a former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Fourah Bay College and former Pro ViceChancellor, University of Sierra Leone as the 21st Chairman of Council.

According to a statement signed by Demianus G. Ojijeogu, the Head, Public Affairs, WAEC Headquarters, Accra, Ghana, Yormah was elected during the just concluded 72nd Annual Council Meeting of the body, held in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He succeeds Prof. Ato Essuman from the Republic of Ghana.

The highpoint of the week-long Council meeting was the recognition and honoring of three Ghanaian candidates with the WAEC International Excellence Award for their outstanding performance in the WASSCE for School Candidates, 2023. They were Master Amo-Kodieh Leonard Kofi, (1st Prize), Master Dzandu Selorm, (2nd Prize), and Master Asenso-Gyambibi Daniel (3rd Prize). The three candidates were selected from 2,327,342 who sat the examination in The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

In the same vein, the Augustus Bandele Oyediran Award for the Best Candidate in West Africa, 2023 also went to Master Amo-Kodieh Leonard Kofi. In addition, two candidates from the Republic of Sierra Leone were honoured with the National Distinction, while one candidate received the National Merit Award. They were Miss. Mammah E. A. Raymonda, (1st Prize), Master Bangura Joshua, (2nd Prize), and Master Fillie Sahr Edward (Merit Award).

While the 71st edition of the Council meeting was hosted by Gambia, the next edition, which will be the 73rd in the series, will be hosted by Liberia.

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Kidnapped Edo PDP Chairman Regains Freedom

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The kidnapped chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi, has been released.

Dr. Aziegbemi, who was set free by his abductors in the early hours of Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Report has it that he got to his Benin City residence at about 3am to the waiting arms of family and close friends.

“I am back home with my family. I am fine. I am just trying to rest and will talk to you later,” he was quoted as saying.

Dr. Aziegbemi, a former member of the House of Representatives, who represented Esan North-East/Esan South-East federal constituency of Edo State, was kidnapped on Friday, March 15, 2024 when his abductors who rode in two Toyota Corolla cars, trailed him after he left a meeting.

The gunmen overtook Aziegbemi’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) at a speed break as it slowed down along Osaro Street, off Country Home Road, close to his house at about 11pm on Friday night before seizing him.

It is not clear yet if a ransom was paid for his release as the abductors had reportedly demanded a sum of N50 million before setting him free.

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