Voice from the East asks Buhari on hate speech?

Buhari  Flags off   Campaign with a  warning on Hate  Speech: What  really  is  Hate Speech , a  Group  queries.

Refers: Many Nigerian Newspapers, 19th November  2018,   Front pages

Voice  from the East- VEAST, an Igbo  advocacy group, has critically evaluated the  statement said   to have  been  made by  Buhari and  world  bodies   today  November  the  19th , 2018   on front pages  of  many of Nigerian Newspapers   calling on all politicians    to desist   from hate speech as they flag off their campaigns  today. 

This call  is claimed to  have  come  from several sources. VEAST has raised the rhetorical question  on what  hate speech really is. In a  statement endorsed by its Convener, Comrade Kindness  Jonah , the group alleges that  hate speech  started   in Nigeria’s  political space  when Nnamdi  Nnamdi  Kanu  fired the first salvo on the personality of  President Muhammadu Buhari as  he was  said  to be preparing to  be returning to Nigeria  from his medical trip in London .

According to the group, hate speech  has been  a  compound word  without  real definition in Nigerian political and social lexicon  , and it appears  to  be used to be gagging political opponents  from trailing the  alleged  purposive – divisive contour  of  Nnamdi  Kanu  in  referring to Buhari  as  Jubrin from Sudan.

 The group  rather   took a  sweep at those  calling on  avoidance of  hate speech without  first  defining  what it really means  in the context  of  political  and Kanuish grandstanding. Comrade Jonah  enthused : ‘‘ Atiku  Abubakar  was  quoted  on dailies to have  said:  ‘ I won’t  contest  with a  foreigner’: who  is that foreigner ?; Bukola  Saraki  was quoted to have said on Nigerian dailies : Vote for Atiku,donot  vote for a  foreigner. Who is that  foreigner? ; Buhari   was quoted to have said  as soon as  he could  not get into  his  finger-print  coded  Aso Rock  Villa :   ‘rodents(rats)   could  not allow  me  enter.’

How  come  rats  were  discovered  inside a  house  that no one had entered, that is, discovering  rats inside  a  house   from  outside  the house , without  entering the  house ? How  come  the  finger-print  of  President Buhari could  not  first open the house coded  with his  own finger print  initially ? ; How  come  that  Aisha Buhari   is  often seen to  have been rebuffing moves to be  going   around  with ‘ her  husband’    President Buhari ?; How  come  that  President Buhari   has not deemed it  necessary to  address  Nigerians  in media  chart  where  the rank and file  of Nigerians  would  ask him  questions  of  varied types  and  he  responds  to them from his own perception? ;

  How  come  it  now  becomes  very difficult  for President Buhari  to speak his own Fulfude  Language  to cool  national tension on his  nationality?  What is wrong   with  President Buhari removing his  cap  to prove Nnamdi Kanu wrong ? Why  has Mr.  President   been  rather using his  Vice  to be talking to Nigerians  rather than  speaking to them himself  in any Nigerian language  he is  adept at, and not compusorily  English  ?   ’’ 

VEAST  believes that until these  questions  are  addressed  dispassionately  and  President Muhammadu taken bold steps to  respond to  them , the   nerve-chilling  evocation of his  Sudanese  origin by Nnamdi  Kanu  and  his  subjects   cannot   stop, even when they are clearly  perceivably  wrong, and  any attempt  to  hanker  on  hate  speech ,  not  clearly defined ,  would  end  up  registering  hate speech  the more.