Nigerians In Rage Over Hike In Hate Speech Fine!
By Ayodele Oluwafemi
Reactions have continued to trail the report that the Federal Government has increased the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to N5 million.
The Punch had reported that the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday, in Lagos, while unveiling the Reviewed Broadcasting Code, announced the development.
After the 2019 election, President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly gave the information minister the mandate to create a framework to address hate speech in the Nigerian broadcasting space.
The increase of the fine has generated reactions from many Nigerians who raised salient questions on the microblogging platform, Twitter, regarding the new policy.
Reacting, Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project, SERAP, called on Buhari to reverse what it described as the “unconstitutional and illegal” increase, stressing to institute the legal action against the policy.
“We’re calling on President Buhari to immediately reverse the unconstitutional and illegal increase in ‘hate speech fine’ from N500,000 to N5m. We’ll fight to challenge this illegality in court to make sure that the fine doesn’t become another tool for repression,” SERAP fired on its twitter page.
Some Nigerians lambasted the Federal Government for being undemocratic and planning to subdue freedom of expression.
A section of Twitter users queried the effectiveness of the policy on hate speech, despite the plethora of hate speeches in the country political space, especially among politicians.
Some Nigerians wondered about the number of persons that was convicted, when the fine was N500,000.
One of the most incisive comments came from social media activist, Fisayo Soyombo and former newspaper editor, Fisayo Soyombo who piqued thus:
GWG gathered the following reactions from twitter;
