The Nation Newspaper

Tag: hate

  • Hate speech as harbinger of war

    SIR: Unless urgent steps are taken to address myriads of discordant tunes now dominating our socio-political space, the country may be fast gravitating towards war. We have in this country witnessed how a small gang led by late Mohammed Yusuf in Borno State which constantly gushed out vitriolic criticisms against the state government degenerate into the hydra-headed monster called Boko-Haram today.

    Our government is obviously deficit of the proactive approach in forestalling crises situation; ours is always at the reactionary side. For instance when Boko-Haram abducted Chibok girls, the government then dismissed it as a farce. It took the concerted efforts of civil society groups both home and abroad to galvanize it to the reality of the situation.

    Today many separatist groups have sprung up clamouring for secession, organizing and mobilizing supports from both local and abroad; still we feel they are pursuing their fundamental rights to self-determination.

    With quit notices generously released and retrieved at will across the two sides of the divide of the Niger, we carry on as if everywhere is just bright and right.

    Now with hate-speech being elevated to songs concurrently rendered in Hausa and Igbo lyrics against themselves, are we not on Rwanda’s gory lane? As tribal animus is gradually being entrenched in the fabric of our consciousness, should we still pretend as if nothing is wrong? Must we wait until we are trapped in the looming conflagration?  Recession, hunger, unemployment and even marginalization can be controlled and managed, but certainly not war.

    It continues to baffle my imagination, when l see a Nigerian like Femi Fani-Kayode championing the course of hatred in the country. Many have wondered what could be his mission and reasons for such actions. We understand, the party that he served as its election publicity committee chair lost at the centre during 2015 elections but won at some of the federating units. Why should a man who has benefitted so much from this country be the one fanning embers of disunity and acrimony? If he truly hates this country this much, why did he serve as a minister during Chief Obasanjo’s administration? What has suddenly gone awry in the structure of the country that he did not see when he was in power?  We can recall that he was so loyal to his boss and was irrefragably committed to the unity of this country to the extent that, he could not brook any dissenting view from anybody, no matter how highly placed. Was it a case of one not being able to talk while eating? Now that someone has decided to talk long after the meal, of whose interest and for what advocacy should we ascribe this to?

    May we stroll along memory lane; we could draw a remarkable analogy thereafter. In 1930s, Adolf Hitler’s publicized anti-Semitic views inflamed a universal hatred against the Jews in Germany, culminating in the infamous Holocaust.

    Events that built up to the 1967-70 civil war among many factors were aggravated by hate-speeches churned out by the then Radio Biafra which urged Easterners to see Northerners and indeed Nigeria as their enemies.

    In 1993, a broadcast station called Radio Mille Colline sponsored by Hutu extremists launched a massive verbal attack against their Tutsi brothers and the corollary pogrom that followed reportedly claimed more than 800,000 lives in Rwanda.

    Since Radio Biafra has been resurrected and repositioned as a major platform for dissemination of animosity, the proposed bill by the Minister of Interior, Abdurahman Dambazau against hate-speeches is a step well directed.

     

    • Itaobong Offiong Etim

    Calabar, Cross River State.

  • Hate speeches in national discourse

    SIR: Hate speeches emanating from various parts of the country has created anxiety and doubts on whether or not Nigeria will remain a sovereign entity.

    An undiscerning mind can easily draw the conclusion that these threats posed real and potential danger, especially when viewed against the backdrop that those who expected to speak against such threats in order to douse the tension it generated are either keeping quiet or reacting a bit too late.

    The situation lends to suspicion that the elite, who are expected to immediately condemn the hate speeches, are either in support of the utterances or are sponsoring such activities because of group interests.

    Over the years, successive administrations in Nigeria made efforts to foster national unity. A look at various universities and unity schools in the country showed that students from respective parts of the country studied under the same academic environment. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) also stands out as one scheme that has ensured national integration for several decades.

    A poignant question to ask is why must Nigeria remain one? The nation is the only African nation that possesses immense human and natural resources that attract most attention from the international community especially the super powers. Nigerians must also be mindful of the clandestine agenda of those nations that are envious of the dividends of our diversity.

    Ghana, Togo, Cote d’ Ivoire and Senegal overcame secession threats at different points in their history and this should be a lesson for Nigeria since it is the mouthpiece of the African continent. For the nation to continue enjoying such status, political stability, peace, security and development are key qualities.

    It is important to underscore the fact that no African nation, split through referendum or by civil war has really achieved high level of security and development. Most of the countries that experienced wars or civil strife still spend scarce resources to processes and purchase arms to fight against insurgencies. Nigeria should avoid such situation considering that fact that the nation survived a civil war that lasted three years.

    Inferences could be drawn from Libya and South-Sudan. Both countries depict the gloomy picture of divided nations torn apart by strife.

    The implementation of a dynamic policy of unity of purpose which the current leadership is leaning towards will ensure that all Nigerians have a better understanding of the collective interest. The full implementation of the strategy will halt permanently agitations for secession and consolidate the much desired unity of the nation.

    Any move to cause war or civil strife in Nigeria should be avoided because of its negative impact on the growth and development of the nation. George Kennan, an American diplomat and strategist who captures the frightful impact of hate speech purveyors said: “War has a momentum of its own, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.’’

     

    • Ayobami Akanji

    Abuja

  • Purveyors of hate speeches

    Purveyors of hate speeches

    It was Gina Greenlee who said ‘’experience is a master teacher, even if it is not our own.’’  I am sure many  have heard or read about how hate speeches and incitement to violence played a significant role in the 1994 genocide that left at least 800,000 people dead in Rwanda. Well, it is worth rehashing here for the purpose of this discourse.

    Anti-Tutsi articles and cartoons in the Kangura newspaper, as well as hate speech and incitement to violence on the radio station called RTLMC – Radio-Television Libres des Mille Collines (Thousand

    Hills Free Radio and Television) helped to set the stage for that genocide. The station was set up by hard-line Hutu extremists, and received the backing of many rich and prominent people in that country. Those who saw the danger posed by the station called for it to be shut down, but against the backdrop of freedom of speech, such calls fell on deaf ears, until it was too late. Some 23 years later, Rwanda is yet to fully recover from the impact of the genocide, triggered by hate speech and senseless incitement to violence.

    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. Unfortunately, even the hosts of such radio programmes do little or nothing to stop. Oftentimes, they are willing collaborators of hate speech campaigners. This must not be allowed to continue because it is detrimental to the unity and well-being of our country.

    Let me use my own personal experiences to make these more vivid. On Wednesday, 26 April 2017, after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, I briefed State House Correspondents on what transpired at the meeting. I said, among others, that President Muhammadu Buhari did not preside over the day’s meeting because he decided to work from home that day. In reporting my briefing, one of the correspondents quoted me as saying the President would work from home henceforth, rather than on that day only. The reporting generated a lot of uproar, until I issued a rebuttal. This is a clear case of disinformation – which is defined as false information deliberately spread to deceive the people.

    The following month, after I had briefed State House Correspondents on the proceedings of another Council meeting, one newspaper’s headline went thus: ‘’We do not know who will sign the 2017 budget – Lai Mohammed.’’ This is at variance with what I said.

    When I was asked a question relating to the signing of the 2017 budget, my exact words were: ‘’When it is transmitted to the Presidency, a decision will be taken.’’ The reporting is another clear case of disinformation.

    Also in May 2017, I travelled to China on official assignment. I had just arrived in that country, after a long flight, when I started receiving calls from Nigeria, seeking my reaction to a story making the rounds in the Social Media, quoting me as saying that though President Muhammadu Buhari is in a London hospital, he is using Made-in-Nigeria drugs. I purportedly made the comment in an interview with Channels Television, after the Federal Government’s launch of the Made-in-Nigeria campaign in Abuja a few days earlier. At first, I chose to ignore the story, saying Nigerians would easily see the folly of it. But the phone calls from Nigeria became more frequent and more intense, to such an extent that they could no longer be ignored. I had to put a call through to Mr. John Momoh, and Channels Television promptly issued a rebuttal, saying it neither interviewed me nor carried any such story. This is a clear case of fake news.

    Many 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.

    Let me be clear: all the instances I have cited did not happen by accident. No! They were all orchestrated. And who better to target than the President himself, or the official spokesperson of his government! The campaign is a multi-million naira project and the people behind this string of hate speech, disinformation and fake news are not about to stop. In fact, they will become more vicious in the days, weeks and months ahead. And what is the purpose of their campaign? Simply to discredit the government, destabilize the polity and make the country ungovernable. There is no doubt that the resurgent push for separatism as well as rising cases of ethnic and religious disharmony are all traceable to the growing phenomenon of hate speech, as well as the disinformation and fake news campaign.

    During my visit to the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) House in Lagos, I had said that any programme tagged Nigerian or local content programme, which is meant for the consumption of Nigerians, must be produced in Nigeria, rather than in foreign countries. The hate speech, disinformation and fake news campaigners quickly distorted what I said and went ahead to report that the Federal Government has decided to ban the production of music videos and films outside the countries. Gullible and malleable commentators, many of them recruited by the campaigners, went to town abusing me and the federal government, without even trying to know the truth. Such is the tragedy of our time.

    Now, what do these phenomena of hate speech, disinformation and fake news have in common? They are all capable of destabilising the system, inciting people to violence and weakening the people’s confidence in their government, just like I said earlier. Let me quote how a German newspaper described this phenomenon: ‘’For a society in which people are informed mainly through the media – and form their political opinions through it – this process is threatened when lies spread through the media. When it is no longer clear what is false and what is correct, people lose their confidence in the state’’.

    Nigeria is 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.

    This 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.

    What is the way out? We all must say NO to hate speech, either on our radio and television stations, newspapers, the Social Media, on our phones or in the public space. We must be resolute in tackling the canker-worm of hate speech, disinformation and fake news. We as government information managers must embark on a relentless campaign against these evil tendencies at our various levels, whether federal or state. 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.

    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. This is not right.

    A section of the tradition media is also now thriving on anti-government tendency. If you pick up copies of some newspapers, you will think the government of the day is doing nothing at all to alleviate the sufferings of the people, occasioned by the economic downturn. They ignore any positive actions of government, including the massive investment in infrastructure like roads and railways, and instead focus on anything that will make the government look bad.

    Instead of reporting the news freely and fairly, they have constituted themselves to an opposition bloc.

    It is only because we have a peaceful country that we have journalists, doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc all

    practising their trade. If we allow our country to be plunged into crisis just because of the antics of an irresponsible few, neither the journalists nor any other professionals will be able to practise their professions. This is the blunt truth. We all have a stake in this country, hence we must not allow hate campaigners and purveyors of fake news and disinformation to drag the country down with them.

     

    • Excerpts of a speech by Mohammed, who is the Minister of Information, at the extra-ordinary meeting of the National Council on Information in Jos on July 21.
  • DSS to descend on hate campaigners

    DSS to descend on hate campaigners

    The Department of State Services (DSS) yesterday warned all ethnic groups against misinformation and hate speeches capable of causing disunity.

    A statement by its spokesman, Mr Tony Opuiyo, said the DSS would stop at nothing to deal with any group found culpable in line with its mandate.

    On June 6, a coalition of Northern youth groups issued an ultimatum to the Igbo in the North to leave before Oct. 1.

    The coalition also ordered people of Northern extraction living in the South Eastern part of the country to return home.

    In response, a coalition of Niger Delta militants asked the Federal Government to return all oil blocks owned by northerners to oil-producing communities.

    Before then, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, had been campaigning for the disintegration.

    The DSS advised all those “charting the course of disunity among Nigerians to desist from their divisive actions.

    “The service is also not oblivious of the efforts of some miscreants to ignite fear and cause ethnic tensions across the country,’’ he said.

    Opuiyo said the service condemned the issuance of a quit notice to people against their wishes.

    “Such relocation order is not only illegal, but strongly viewed to be against the spirit of our Constitution, which allows for freedom of movement and association, among other things.

    “The service has already commenced detailed investigation to get the perpetrators of these hate campaigns as well as their sponsors.

    “At the appropriate time all those involved in these condemnable acts will be unmasked and decisively dealt with in line with the laws of the land.’’

    He advised law-abiding citizens to disregard persuasions by these tribal groups to cause disaffection”.

    The DSS spokesman assured Nigerians that the service would ensure that those bent on causing trouble did not go free.

    The statement added:  ”The DSS has watched with keen interest the disturbing trend desperate and mischievous elements have tended to steer the ship of our nationhood to calamity and irretrievable destruction.

    “Another group went to the extent of harvesting from the internet, a horrific accident scene, for the purpose of making it look like a site of massacre of Igbo ethnic group by Northern youths.

    ”However, the Service has been able to establish that the purported murder scene being depicted as a field of massacre was a high casualty accident scene which occurred along Owo-Akure road, Ondo State, on 3rd March, 2016.

    ”Those involved in these misleading and despicable acts have since been warned to desist from anything capable of causing disaffection and stoking nationwide tensions.

    ”The Service is also not oblivious of the efforts of some miscreants to ignite fear and cause ethnic tensions across the country. It strongly condemns in its entirety the call for relocation of anyone to places against their wishes. Such relocation order is not only illegal, but it is strongly viewed to be against the spirit of our Constitution which allows for freedoms of movement and association among others.

    ”It is time for us, Nigerians, to show our humanness and patriotism which have been our defining strength as one united indivisible nation.

    ”The Service has already commenced a detailed investigation to get the perpetrators of these hate campaigns as well as their sponsors. At the appropriate time, all those involved in these condemnable acts will be unmasked and decisively dealt with in line with the laws of the land.”

  • Curing the cancer of hate

    SIR: It is said in Africa that “a chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches” – meaning that you can easily foresee the future of something through the character and tell-tale signs it shows today.

    The overwhelming drums of discord emanating from various ethnic juggernauts calls for an intervention by Statesmen Response Team (SRT); they are needed to tackle the severe hate parasite infesting deep into national psyche, douse tension and calm frayed nerves in the interest of peace, development and national cohesion.

    Breaking the shackles of conflicts needs the commanding efforts of unbiased and sincere moderators.  The dearth of moderators early in conflicts results into hullabaloo, leaving on its trail tears and blood. The consequences of wars are far-reaching and breeds sores of vengeance in the aftermath. It is despicable to have such clamours at this globally revered and spiritually rewarding month of Ramadan-a symbol of love, empathy and compassion for one another.

    The three groups to be calmed are: people who feel really cheated whether in race or on personal grounds; the jobless –  tools waiting for the ticking time bomb to explode to cause mayhem; ,and the most dangerous of them all, people ready to stoke crisis for political calculations.

    Statesmen with bedrock of consistent principles, moral compass, vision and with abilities to build consensus across divides is needed at this crucial time.

    According to Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe “violence has never been an instrument used by us as founding fathers of the Nigerian Republic to solve political problems. In the British tradition, we talked the colonial office into accepting our challenges for the demerits and merits of our case for self-government. After six constitutional conferences in 1953, 1954,1957,1958,1959 and 1960, Great Britain conceded to us the right”. Dr. Azikiwe stressed that no single drop of either British or Nigerian blood was shed for it.

    Without unity of purpose, according to Julius Nyerere, there is no future for Africa. And Nigeria being a major brand in the African continent must make peace within to muster the moral courage to sell African ideals. But we are presently cursed by unrepentant politicians who have, over the years, funded and encouraged arms proliferation and consequently helping to hitch the idle but armed hands.

    Statesmanship is not an exclusive preserve or title of former political office holders but for persons possessing skills in managing public affairs for the common good as there is no sitting on the fence in nation building. If you can talk, speak up; if you can write, control those letters to initiate peace; if you can’t walk, then crawl; if you can’t talk, make sounds of attention because we must never again allow our limitations, as fallible mortals, to defeat our sole aim of peace and life more abundant.

    When Rome boils, everybody loses because as hunger is felt by a slave so is hunger felt by the king.

     

    • Akinola Iwilade,

    iwiakinola@gmail.com

  • ‘Hate comments‘ll worsen Nigeria’s unity challenge’

    The Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos State Area Unit has appealed to religious leaders in the country to stop making inciting statements.

    Its President, Dr Saheed Ashafa, told MSSN National Executive Council (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) members at the weekend that hate speeches were becoming worrisome.

    He warned that no religion would benefit from the consequences of hate speeches.

    Ashafa said: “We all should realise that Nigeria is passing through a very tough and challenging period. As religious institutions, we should mitigate tension and not heighten it. Our role should be to calm and enlighten our faithful on the path of peace.

    “Killings in any part of the country should be condemned and not given a place in any society. Those fanning embers of crisis should desist from that to save this nation from sinking beyond recovery. Our unity is more needed now than ever. We must not worsen the economic and unity challenge Nigerians are faced with.”

    Ashafa subsequently hailed members of the MSSN NEC and NWC for their sacrifice, adding that Nigeria leaders needed to emulate them in selfless service.

  • To love and to hate

    To love and to hate

    President Muhammadu Buhari is caught in between love. Everyone wants to show they love him.

    It is happening everywhere like an epidemic. The EFCC tries to show him love. The NNPC is keeling over with that delicate emotion. The NTA is transmitting it in pictures and words.

    Of course in politics, we see it in droves. Bukola Saraki says he loves Buhari. The Owu chief, too, who clobbered him electorally and in snide comments would show only love now.

    Atiku, the peripatetic harlot of Nigerian politics, who battled him with war chest after war venom is awash with PMB love.

    The first show of love was the staff of Aso Rock who reported early to work in the spirit of the gangling hero of the day. Soldiers in their high and peacock perches are saluting him in lusts of deference.

    Let us not forget the walks, the advertorials, the politicians who now know that they only can swear by PMB. The ethnic titans, the religious zealots, the men cocooned in conspiracies against the man whom they thought had no chance to topple the simpering hero who now clucks in Otuoke.

    We forget that not long ago, these same persons had the venoms of rhetoric against this man. This is the man who did not have the qualification in the Army. He was the man who was too old, too groggy, too northern, too Muslim, too austere for the times.

    Now, we see the love of Buhari. But the love comes in different incarnations. There are those who love in order to keep their jobs. See EFCC has suddenly woken as the moral avatar, dusting up all sorts of revanchist cases. If Buhari is the man who can change our moral tone, so let us go after the so-called bad guys. It does not matter that under Jonathan we only pretended except when we went after his enemies, like Timipre Sylva.

    The NNPC felt the shadow of love. The pot of gold is the vault of lies. Many stories of fraud tenanted that institution. Buhari is aware. Fear flew in the halls, screamed in the files, boiled in our crude oil, scarred our ears. They wanted to show love, but how? This was one place that the phrase tough love had a new meaning. It was tough to lie about what was clear thieving of the national treasury. Buhari knew about it and he took a first step and dissolved the board. The list of the board members told us what sort of men presided over the kleptomaniac bazaar of our resources.

    Like the denizens of the DSS. No resources of wit to tap in order to show love. Now the president does not want them near him, at least for now. But he will have to use them. In a democracy, the secret service is the fulcrum of security. He knows that. But he is confronting an irony. The bastion of love is the secret service for a leader. But it’s like what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet, love has become the hate. The bard called it “fiend angelical.”

    The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, now says he loves the President. He says he will work with the President. But he is at odds with the President’s directive and his party. He loves the President but humiliates his party. He benefited from a moral sewer of a process that installed him as president. He won a battle, and when his party with the President’s nod said he should conceded offices, he defied. Wasn’t that love, Saraki style?

    He loves the President and he is lying that he gave up his ambition for Buhari as though we were not in this country when he bowed out of the race. He knew better than Atiku that he did not want the humiliation and disaster of primary defeat. He bowed away from public disgrace, not for Buhari’s ambition. How does the PMB, whom he loves, implement his programmes when he, Saraki, cohabits with men who confess antipathy to the landlord of Aso Rock?

    He worked with Atiku, the man who now wants to play bee to Buhari’s honey. He spearheads mutiny so he can be the power Trojan of the APC. How does he explain his actions to his latest hero of today? That he undermines him in order to love him? If he loves him, he should tell his co-conspirator Saraki to yield to the party rule. Both are fair-weather men. They have always been. Within the PDP, or outside. As for Atiku, he never saw an opportunity of self-aggrandisement he did not embrace, even if it meant kissing Lucifer.

    As for the Owu chief, we saw him make a colourful act of tearing his PDP card in public. I hope we do not see, in the near future, another enactment of return. He would brandish a new card as the prodigal come home in a flourish. He did not tear PDP in his heart. He worked, in underhand shadows, with PDP men and Atiku to undermine Buhari. They plotted to make PMB’s early days a tempest. Is that not love, the Ota way? We know how he showed love in the past. Dance with the man’s wife today, oust him tomorrow. Dine pounded yam today, his office dies tomorrow. Remember Okadigbo, Ogbeh, etc.

    PMB will be taking a class in love these days with Judas’ silhouette in the background. He must feel special now that all those who knew him as enemy now bedeck him as the emblem of affection.

    He reminds me of a character in the most ambitious of all novels, War and Peace. Leo Tolstoy’s character was mocked all the time. No one laughed at his joke. He did not belong to the royal class. He was adopted by one of the mainstays of the upper class. He was renounced in love and society. But suddenly he came into a big inheritance. Suddenly Pierre was the most sought after in Russian society, anything he did made men cringe and any joke made them laugh. They craved the largesse of his purse if they sneered secretly at the large heart it came from. His new power became a lesson in understanding people. He eventually knew who loved him and who did not, but he learned later that the world was full of love, if in counterfeit expressions. United States President Harry Truman once said that if you wanted a friend in Washington, “buy a dog.”

    Graham Greene, in a short novel, titled the Third Man, shows how a man can be two at the same time. A man is buried supposedly and all mourn him as this great guy. But he is killed eventually after his lover knew him to be a fraud, the police know him to be a liar and his best friend know him to be a traitor. He dies once but mourned twice. The first fake burial calls him hero. The second knows him as villain.

    So, Buhari will worry who is real or fake among those brandishing love. But the real lovers are those who voted and who fought for him when he was mocked as a gangling zealot of tribe and faith.

  • Actress Ngozi Nwosu decries hate comments

    Actress Ngozi Nwosu decries hate comments

    As the collation of votes for the Nigerian presidential election wound down on Tuesday, veteran Nollywood actress, Ngozi Nwosu took time out to caution Nigerians on the need to exercise restraints.

    She was particularly concerned about the tension around the country between supporters of the candidadtes of the two leading political parties, that she painted a scenario of a civil war, urging party supporters who have been at loggerheads on the social media, to remain calm and accept the outcome of the election in good faith.

    According to the thespian, in the event of the break out of a civil war, those divided along party lines would be united in seeking refuge in neighbouring African countries.

    She said: ”Note that the elites you are fighting for on social media will survive with their families, and they will still sit at a peace accord meeting somewhere in Ghana, South Africa or the U.N to still decide your fate and fly back their families with their private jets to continue using those who survived. If I may ask where are their children? They are all abroad in safe keeping. Nigerian youths listen and listen well; we have only one Nigeria, what the radio did to Rwanda is what social media is doing to Nigeria now. We are all pushing Nigeria to war, there will be no winners or losers,” she said on naijahottestgist, a social media group which has celebrities, politicians and other members of the society as members.

    Nwosu, who has tried to be neutral unlike her colleagues, it will be recalled, received the support of the Lagos State government for a medical surgery abroad, recently.

    She further enjoined Nigerians to preach love and kindness, saying that “to keep Nigeria one is a task we must all achieve.”

    “You and I don’t own oil wells and private jets, then what are we fighting for? They want you to be counted as casualties so there would be a case. Please say no to violence! If GEJ wins he won’t feed his village. If Buhari wins he won’t feed his village, and nothing will change. There is no time a government will solve all your problems. There are more beggars and homeless people in the U.S than Nigeria even in Obamas backyard in Chicago homeless people queue up for food handouts daily,” she added.

  • Will presidential election be decided by hate campaign?

    Will presidential election be decided by hate campaign?

    For nearly three months now, the two main contending parties in the presidential election, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition party, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), the ruling party at the centre, have been seriously engaged in vigorous electoral campaigns for support in the forthcoming presidential election. There is a lot at stake for both parties and a hard fought and robust election campaign is an essential part of the democratic process. The electoral situation is more fluid today than ever before. Marginal votes are likely to be significant and these can swing the election one way or the other between the two main contending parties. Despite this, the public still expects that the election campaign should be conducted in a civilised and civil manner, with the main focus being placed on the critical political and economic issues of the day.

    Sadly, this is not the case now as this is increasingly looking more like a rancorous, hateful and divisive campaign, instead of one with the real focus on the critical issues of the day. It is perfectly understandable that the two main contending parties, the PDP and the APC, should engage themselves in a robust manner in the election campaign. But this is no justification for the resort to the kind of foul language the public is being treated to in the course of this electoral campaign. All decent persons must find this development reprehensible. We have been having elections in Nigeria long before independence in 1960 and after. But I cannot recall previous election campaigns in Nigeria that have generated such hateful and indecorous language as this one. Nigeria’s four pre-independence leaders, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Sardauna, and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, refrained during election campaigns from calling one another names, or heaping insults and vile attacks on their political opponents. The political rivalry among them was very intense, but they deliberately refrained from personal attacks on one another. Whatever their political differences, they were decent men and conducted themselves decorously. Only during the disgraceful era of Akintola/Fani-Kayode’s dirty politics were the electorate and the Nigerian public treated to such scurrilous and foul attacks on their political opponents as we now have it.

    In this current campaign climate of hate, and resort to ethnic and religious divides, the PDP, the ruling party, has been guiltier than any of its political opponents. Shopworn lies are constantly being concocted, fabricated and peddled by some of the party’s roughnecks, veterans of street fighting and, beerhouse brawls.  Femi Fani-Kayode, head of the PDP publicity in the elections who like his deceased father, Remi Fani-Kayode, is a Cambridge educated lawyer, has constantly hauled personal attacks and insults on General Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate. He is certainly not a proud product of Cambridge, that genteel and sedate university. President Goodluck Jonathan has not yet disassociated himself from this hateful campaign. In fact, he seems to encourage it.

    Femi Fani-Kayode claimed falsely that Buhari did not have the school certificate, the basic requirement for contesting the elections. When he was proved wrong, he came up with other incredible lies regarding Buhari’s Chatham House lecture, which were equally debunked. More recently, he claimed that the fuel crisis in the country was the handiwork of the APC, the main opposition party. Again, his allegation proved to be false as the crisis was due to the refusal of the oil marketers, who were being owed money by the PDP Federal Government to import refined oil. Femi Fani-Kayode has neither admitted his mistake in this regard, nor apologised to the nation for his misleading remarks. Governor Ayo Fayose has been equally totally unrestrained in his verbal attacks on General Buhari, going as far as to warn that if he won Buhari would die in office. This is most uncharitable and has been roundly condemned in the country. It is a real pity that Jonathan has chosen these indecorous propagandists to lead his campaign. They have done his campaign more harm than good. But what else should we expect when President Jonathan himself irreverently dismissed former President Olusegun Obasanjo as ‘a motor park tout’. How can he then call his men to order?

    In contrast to the desperate campaign of the PDP, the opposition party, the APC, has been more restrained in its approach to the electoral campaign. It has conducted a brilliant, skilful and impressive electoral campaign that has fully exploited the weakness of the PDP Federal Government. It has refused to be drawn into personal attacks on President Jonathan, Buhari’s opponent in the election. Instead, it has identified the main issues on which the elections should really be fought, namely massive corruption in the PDP Federal Government, colossal mismanagement of the national economy, Nigeria’s woeful infrastructure, the increasingly violent Boko Haram insurgency that has led to thousands of death in Nigeria, the vast number of the internally-displaced refuges in our country and Jonathan’s Abuja land grab.

    To some extent, ensuing economic and political events have also been broadly favourable to the APC. The falling oil prices, the 30 per cent devaluation of the naira, the continuing dispute over how much money exactly is missing from the national accounts, and the inability of the PDP Federal Government to maintain security, law and order in the country have all contributed to the growing unpopularity of the PDP in the country. The APC has wisely anchored its campaign on the inherent incompetence and inability of the PDP to run a clean, honest, transparent and effective government in the country. Its poor record on employment, creation of jobs, reduction of poverty level in the country has been its Achilles heel. The Nigerian economy may be the largest in Africa. But Nigeria, under this PDP government, has one of the lowest par capita incomes in Africa. Evidently, the man in the street is mystified that the country is so rich but that its people are so poor, and that there is still such mass poverty in the middle of such opulence in the country.

    The resort to vile language and personal insults by agents of the PDP shows quite clearly that its campaign has no real merit and that the party cannot defend its appalling record in office. Vast sums of money, most of it public funds, illicitly acquired, are being expended by the party to bribe the churches, the mosques, and the traditional rulers. But it is doubtful, given the structure of Nigerian politics, that this will have any effect on the electoral fortunes of the party in the March elections. In the case of Afenifere that has so shamelessly and so strangely declared its support for President Jonathan, its support is worth little or nothing to the PDP. Afenifere is no longer the formidable political organisation or movement that it once was. None of its present leaders can win elections in the Southwest. They have become irrelevant in the politics of the Southwest where their political influence has fallen considerably. Equally, the traditional rulers in the Southwest that President Jonathan has been trying desperately to woo have little or no influence on the electorate in the region. Even in Ife, the Ooni, the leader of the pack, has little or no political influence now. So trying to bribe the Obas is a waste of money, time and effort. They cannot deliver the votes Jonathan needs to win the elections, if they are free and fair.

    Instead of focusing its attention on the real issues of the elections and defending its record in office, the PDP has been trying desperately to scuttle it. First, it fraudulently procured a shift in the date of the elections. Then it rejected the use of the voters’ card reader for which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was provided by the PDP Federal Government with the necessary funds. Then its leading spokesmen, particularly Chief Edwin Clark, the self-acclaimed ‘god father’ of President Jonathan, attacked Professor  Attahiru Jega, the fair-minded chairman of INEC, demanding his premature suspension from office. Altogether, the PDP has run a negative electoral campaign, which is counterproductive. It has alienated quite a lot of the few uncommitted voters and will not secure for Jonathan the marginal votes he needs to win the election.

    It must be said to the credit of Buhari that he has stood above the petty electioneering of the PDP propagandists. He has looked more confident, charismatic and presidential than Jonathan, his main opponent. He has refused to be drawn into any negative campaign, preferring instead to focus on the main issues of the day. He has his own faults too, but on the basis of his campaign strategy and his steady and unwavering commitment to defining the real issues of the elections, many consider him to be a far better candidate than Jonathan. He deserves to win the presidential election.

  • Hate speech: APC reports First Lady to NHRC, ICC 

    Hate speech: APC reports First Lady to NHRC, ICC 

    First Lady Patience Jonathan has been reported to the International Criminal Council (ICC) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

    The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign Organisation accused the First Lady of threatening the lives of members with her pronouncement at a rally in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, when she asked PDP supporters to “stone” anyone who came to the state asking for “change.

    The Organisation’s Director-General and Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi said in a letter of complaint is expected to be dispatched to the ICC, NHRC and the Inspector General of Police today: “Change, as the entire country must know by now, is the slogan of the APC – the rallying cry of a political party that wishes to bring hope of greater and better things to come for Nigeria and Nigerians. By her statement, Mrs. Jonathan was clearly calling on PDP supporters in Calabar to attack supporters and campaigners of the APC in the state.”

    He likened some of Mrs. Jonathan’s inciting statements and conduct during the political campaign season, to those of Mrs Simone Gbagbo, wife of the former President of Cote D’Ivoire, Mr. Laurent Gbagbo, prior to that country’s 2010 election. He recalled that the ICC indicted Mrs. Gbagbo for her part in planning to perpetrate brutal attacks,  including murder, rape, and sexual violence, on her husband’s political opponents in the wake of the 2010 election.

    The governor added:  ”Mrs. Jonathan does not occupy any formal office in the Nigerian government, as the position of First Lady is not recognised by the Nigerian constitution. But Mrs. Gbagbo’s case shows the ICC’s awareness of how someone beyond formal governmental and military hierarchies can be identified as responsible for serious international crimes.”

    Mrs Jonathan said at another rally in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari the APC’s presidential candidate, is “brain dead.” That statement has equally attracted condemnation by many Nigerians.

    Amaechi added that Mrs. Jonathan’s “incontrovertible hate speech” not only contravenes the laws of the land, but also goes completely against the Abuja Peace Accord jointly signed by the two presidential candidates Gen. Buhari and President Goodluck Jonathan – a gesture which is aimed at forestalling violence before, during and after the 2015 elections.

    “PDP supporters in the state who may not know better could easily yield themselves to the First Lady’s admonition and embark on a process of wanton stoning and other attacks against APC members,” Amaechi said.

    He urged the police to plan emergency measures to protect the lives and property of APC members in Calabar and the entire Cross River State.