Photo credit: Pulse Nigeria
Nigerian senators are obviously doing a very hard day’s job for the millions of Nigerian Naira they collect.
Or how else can any sane person interpret the bill which is currently making its rounds with them.
‘National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech’, may soon become a law and woe betides anyone who feels they could just poke their mucus filled nose into the internal affairs of Nigeria.
The icing on the cake is that it even carries the maximum penalty.
That’s death!
Forget about the fact that many civilized nations are graduating from the penalty.
For those who’re lucky it may even be life in prison. For others it could be a five year imprisonment or some millions in fine.
The laws of libel and defamation of character are apparently seen by the Senate as being too weak. Where they are strong, the Senate, in its considerate wisdom, is thinking quite rightly that the courts of competent jurisdiction are overburdened.
Why not have a commission which will deal with perceived enemies of government while at the same time creating a job for the boys.
Of note is the provision that the commission has the right to deal with so-called cases of racial and linguistic harassments.
But the major point is the abridgement of people’s freedom of speech.
Those guys in the senate are just not feeling comfy about how people peddle the amounts being earned by the Nigerian ruling class in public Neither are they pleased with the frequent broadcast of the lives of extreme pleasure which they’re living in while the common people are living in extreme squalor.
Not that the people are minding, it’s the few trouble makers who claim they are enlightened that are causing trouble. And it must be nipped in the bud before it’s too late.
Hence the resurrection of decree four of 1984 which metamorphoses into the so-called hate speech commission.
I know the executive arm of government couldn’t wait for too long for the bill to go through final reading and be presented to it for assent.
This bill is very necessary because it will erase poverty, it will raise the standard of education, it will make perfect the roads which a minister has tongue in cheek declared as, ‘not as bad as Nigerians say’. Above all, the bill will surely put food on the common man’s table.
Let’s give kudos to the Senate!
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