Tobias Sylvester
A former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has reacted to a bill sponsored by Senator Sabi Abdullahi, seeking death by hanging for anyone found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person.
KanyiDaily had reported that a bill titled, ‘National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches Bill 2019’ passed its first reading in the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday, November 12, 2019.
The hate speech bill was first sponsored in the last assembly (2018), but the bill did not make it through to third reading.
The bill prescribed death by hanging for any person found guilty of any form of hate speech that results in the death of another person.
Reacting to the bill, Fani-Kayode on his Twitter page described it as “perverse sham and aberration seeking to silence opposition.”
He also alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari-led government are planning to silence everyone by establishing a totalitarian fascist state in Nigeria. He wrote:
“The #Antisocialmediabill is a perverse sham and aberration that seeks to stiffle opposing voices.@MBuhari wants everyone to be silent and to bow before him.He wants us all to be spineless cowards and quislings like his dogs @ProfOsinbajo and @FemAdesina. This will NEVER happen.
“They want to hang people for so-called hate speech and they want to regulate social media. These people are worse than Hitler’s Nazis and they seek to establish a totalitarian fascist state. After they silence everyone they will set up Nazi concentration camps for their enemies.
“If you want Nigeria to be like North Korea keep playing the fool. Support the death penalty for free speech and support the regulation of social media. Do so just to please Buhari and his cabal. By the time they come for you & yours there will be no-one left alive to defend you.”
The hate speech bill is coming barely one week after the Senate introduced a bill to regulate social media and prevent the spreading and broadcasting of falsehood and manipulations using social media platforms via internet broadcasts and transmissions.
The anti-social media bill proposes a fine of N150,000 or three years imprisonment for any offender.
