By Ishaya Ibrahim
What is hate speech? Who defines it? This is what formed the theme of the first public lecture of the League of Nigerian Columnists held on December 4 in Lagos.
Former Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Newswatch magazine, Dan Agbese, who is also the guest lecturer, explained that the elements of hate speech include; attacks on race, religion and sex, profiling of ethnic attributes, incite, injure or traumatize and discriminate.
“A personal insult does not amount to hate speech. You can call somebody stupid, or say the police are inefficient, and you are safe. But you could end up with a broken head,” Agbese said.
He said police arrest of civil rights activist, Deji Adeyanju over comments he made against them was an abuse of his right to robust speech.
“We must ensure that those who are minded to act on hate speech know the distinction between hate speech and robust speech,” Agbese said.
Chairman of the event, and former chairperson, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Professor Anya O. Anya, said Nigeria has never been so embattled in the last 58 years.
“Why? It is because the journalists of conscience which the columnists are, are no longer sticking with the facts,” he said.
Anya said the columnists must realize that they are not only opinion moulders, but moral agents who should always be guided by moral ethics.
He regretted that one of the members of the League, Sam Omatseye, was absent at the event. He said if Omatseye who enjoys a robust relationship with the All Progressives Congress (APC) had written on the Akwa Ibom political crisis which saw five members attempting to effect leadership change in a House of 26 members, the politicians would have known that there is a line that cannot, and should not be crossed.
West Africa director of Ford Foundation, Innocent Chukwuma, quoting Timothy Snider, said hate speech and fake news is a new tool in the emerging cold war between Russia and the rest of the world. He said Nigeria is not isolated in this war against truth where it is now the context that defines what the truth is.