From: Shitile Mbayansa, Abuja
“The Federal Government has today drawn the line on hate speech. Hate speech is a specie of terrorism. Terrorism as it is defined popularly is the unlawful use of violence or intimidation against individuals or groups especially for political ends.”
With those words, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo declared that peddlers in hate speeches will be treated as terrorists as a rash of them continue to fly all over the country, especially on social media.
From the South-East to the North-West, it has been a pot pourri of such speeches and songs that have put the country on edge.
But Osinbajo in Abuja during the National Economic Council (NEC) Retreat on National Security at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, disclosed that the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 (as amended), defined terrorism as an act which deliberately done with malice which may seriously harm or damage a country or seriously intimidate a population.
The council meeting governors was also told by Osinbajo: As I have said, we’ve drawn a line against hate speech, it will not be tolerated, it will be taken as an act of terrorism and all of the consequences will follow it.”
He added: “Hate speech, and the promotion of the same throughout history from Nazi Germany and the extermination of Jews to the Rwandan genocide succeeded in achieving their barbarous ends by the silence of influential, voices from the aggressor communities.
“When leaders in communities that speak in such a manner as to create dissension or to intimidate a population are quiet, they do a great disservice to our unity and nation.
“This is why I urge all of our political leaders, religious leaders, business leaders and all of those who truly want a united country and a country where there will be peace and security, to ensure that we do not tolerate by our silence the hate speech that we hear every day in our community.”
But for Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Abdullaziz Yari of Zamfara State, a massive investment in Agriculture will mitigate insecurity as more youths roaming the streets will be gainfully employed.
“We have not been paying attention to agriculture. My reason, in the last 10 years only N400 billion was invested from either Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) or the capital markets.
“But in 2010 AMCON came to rescue banks with bad debts and over N4trillion was injected into AMCON and not much impact was made on agriculture…