ICHEOKU says apparently freedom is indeed not free; not even when it is guaranteed and provided for in the constitution. The oppressors, as usual, will always try and find a way to take it away. This is the reason freedom is always fought for and defended by the people for whose benefit it is enshrined in the constitution and meant to serve. Freedom, when not defended, is easily trampled upon and eventually taken away from the people by their oppressors or budding oppressors.
Over the years, Nigerians have been complacent in defending their rights and freedoms, leading up to all the maltreatment the citizens have been getting from their governments and uniformed personnel, the police, the army, paramilitary etc, who abuse them daily and without recompense. Feeling much emboldened, the current leaders in Nigeria have now taken the notch up, yanking the peoples rights and freedoms and finally resulting in their pursuit of a Hate Speech law with a death sentence attacked to it. ICHEOKU says Nigerians are witnessing the early stages of a full blown dictatorship and if they do not rise up to fight to stop it now, they will wake up someday to find out that they are totally and completely shackled down inside a gulag of no mean proportion.
Nigerians are beginning to experience life under a dictatorship as the despotic regime of President Muhammad Buhari is incrementally taking Nigerians' freedom away, one freedom at a time. First to go was the right to a peaceful assembly when innocent placards carrying IPOB protesters and Shiites Muslims were indiscriminately massacred by the government. Now comes the latest Hate Speech bill making its way through the completely emasculated and National Congress; another one of this rapid encroachment on the peoples freedoms including their right to freely express themselves.
Over the years, Nigerians have been complacent in defending their rights and freedoms, leading up to all the maltreatment the citizens have been getting from their governments and uniformed personnel, the police, the army, paramilitary etc, who abuse them daily and without recompense. Feeling much emboldened, the current leaders in Nigeria have now taken the notch up, yanking the peoples rights and freedoms and finally resulting in their pursuit of a Hate Speech law with a death sentence attacked to it. ICHEOKU says Nigerians are witnessing the early stages of a full blown dictatorship and if they do not rise up to fight to stop it now, they will wake up someday to find out that they are totally and completely shackled down inside a gulag of no mean proportion.
Nigerians are beginning to experience life under a dictatorship as the despotic regime of President Muhammad Buhari is incrementally taking Nigerians' freedom away, one freedom at a time. First to go was the right to a peaceful assembly when innocent placards carrying IPOB protesters and Shiites Muslims were indiscriminately massacred by the government. Now comes the latest Hate Speech bill making its way through the completely emasculated and National Congress; another one of this rapid encroachment on the peoples freedoms including their right to freely express themselves.
ICHEOKU says why Nigerians are not yet up in arms protesting and protecting their freedom to speak freely is the most surprising thing in the whole unfolding scenario. You speak the truth you die, you don't speak, you die; so why not die speaking truthfully? Why not for the future of our children's tomorrow, we sacrifice our today, building a society that is indeed truly free and not subjugated to just one man's wish. The first thing any emerging dictatorship takes is the people's freedom of speech and if successful, it will go after other rights, knowing fully well that the people have been emasculated and can no longer complain, are both vulnerable and conquerable.
Hate speech as defined "is a communication that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred for some group, especially in circumstances in which the communication may provoke violence. It is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and the like. Hate speech can be any form of expression regarded as offensive to racial, ethnic and religious groups and other discrete minorities or to women."
ICHEOKU says with this as a backdrop, is it then such an egregious offense as would elicit death by hanging, as the Nigerian authorities are planning to institute, when the probability of violence is the outcome? Why would an ordinary speech, what was said by somebody, now become punishable with death. This is the sixty four thousand dollar question which the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is not answering; and this is the same question which 190 million Nigerians are not asking nor reacting to. Very soon, it will be too late to do something about it and the country will live to regret their inaction when their action would have helped avert the disastrous bad intention of the government.
First of, the law as intended is generally too broad as the speech which will qualify as "Hate Speech" is not specifically defined nor discernible; but will be left at the subjective whims and discretion of whoever or whatever commission that is put in charge of determining what constitutes and qualifies as Hate Speech. ICHEOKU is emphatic that the constitutionality of this bill could be successfully challenged in court for being over broad; as courts have been known to not take so kindly to such not thought through legislation, especially one attracting the death penalty. It was the same mindset that once made drug trafficking a death penalty offense and retroactively carried it out on some four innocent Nigerians. ICHEOKU says how any sane country, in this 21st century, could be legislating speech out of fashion is simply beyond pale. If these mongrels take the Nigerians peoples right to freely express themselves now, what else would they also take next.
What other rights or freedoms would they come after following a successful yanking of free speech? What other rights of Nigerians would come into their purview and which they would want to take as they continue to become more and more autocratic; yet Nigeria is a democracy. What democracy is it when the people cannot freely express themselves and say what they are actually thinking; and these are the same people who said all manner of things prelude to their taking over the leadership of Nigeria; castigating and criticizing, as well as accusing the former President Jonathan Goodluck and his government of everything under the sun, including blue murder. But suddenly, what was okay then has now become an abomination for which offenders lives must be taken and this is in this 21st century?
ICHEOKU says and calls on all Nigerians to rise up and defend their right to free speech as such fundamental right cannot be taken away just because some despots in agabada feel insecure being called out for their sins of mis-governance. How then is Nigeria different from Vladimir Putin's Russia, Kim Jong Un's North Korea, Xi Jinping's China, Saudi Arabia, Erdogan's Turkey, Iran and such other despotic enclaves where the people are living in a country wide prison called a society under the thumb of a ruthless dictator. It is a fight that need to be fought now and by all Nigerians, in order to prevent Nigeria from descending into a Stone Age regulation era where expression is completely emasculated. ICHEOKU says Nigerians must demand of their representatives to kill the Hate Speech bill now or forever lose their country, as well as their freedom to say what they think. Who amongst Nigerians wants to live in a prison called a muzzled Nigeria. Away with the Hate Speech bill; kill the Hate Speech bill NOW!
ICHEOKU says with this as a backdrop, is it then such an egregious offense as would elicit death by hanging, as the Nigerian authorities are planning to institute, when the probability of violence is the outcome? Why would an ordinary speech, what was said by somebody, now become punishable with death. This is the sixty four thousand dollar question which the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is not answering; and this is the same question which 190 million Nigerians are not asking nor reacting to. Very soon, it will be too late to do something about it and the country will live to regret their inaction when their action would have helped avert the disastrous bad intention of the government.
First of, the law as intended is generally too broad as the speech which will qualify as "Hate Speech" is not specifically defined nor discernible; but will be left at the subjective whims and discretion of whoever or whatever commission that is put in charge of determining what constitutes and qualifies as Hate Speech. ICHEOKU is emphatic that the constitutionality of this bill could be successfully challenged in court for being over broad; as courts have been known to not take so kindly to such not thought through legislation, especially one attracting the death penalty. It was the same mindset that once made drug trafficking a death penalty offense and retroactively carried it out on some four innocent Nigerians. ICHEOKU says how any sane country, in this 21st century, could be legislating speech out of fashion is simply beyond pale. If these mongrels take the Nigerians peoples right to freely express themselves now, what else would they also take next.
What other rights or freedoms would they come after following a successful yanking of free speech? What other rights of Nigerians would come into their purview and which they would want to take as they continue to become more and more autocratic; yet Nigeria is a democracy. What democracy is it when the people cannot freely express themselves and say what they are actually thinking; and these are the same people who said all manner of things prelude to their taking over the leadership of Nigeria; castigating and criticizing, as well as accusing the former President Jonathan Goodluck and his government of everything under the sun, including blue murder. But suddenly, what was okay then has now become an abomination for which offenders lives must be taken and this is in this 21st century?
ICHEOKU says and calls on all Nigerians to rise up and defend their right to free speech as such fundamental right cannot be taken away just because some despots in agabada feel insecure being called out for their sins of mis-governance. How then is Nigeria different from Vladimir Putin's Russia, Kim Jong Un's North Korea, Xi Jinping's China, Saudi Arabia, Erdogan's Turkey, Iran and such other despotic enclaves where the people are living in a country wide prison called a society under the thumb of a ruthless dictator. It is a fight that need to be fought now and by all Nigerians, in order to prevent Nigeria from descending into a Stone Age regulation era where expression is completely emasculated. ICHEOKU says Nigerians must demand of their representatives to kill the Hate Speech bill now or forever lose their country, as well as their freedom to say what they think. Who amongst Nigerians wants to live in a prison called a muzzled Nigeria. Away with the Hate Speech bill; kill the Hate Speech bill NOW!
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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