Nigerians Urged To Shun Hate Speech, Divisive Comments

Carefronting Nigeria in collaboration with Peacetech Lab has admonished Nigerians to shun hate speech and divisive comments ahead of the forthcoming general election.

The programme manager, Carefronting Nigeria, Tessy Gusim, made the call yesterday in Kaduna at the “Training and Workshop on Strategic Communication- Countering Hate and Dangerous Speech” of stakeholders in Kaduna State.

She advised Nigerians to shun hatred and inciting statements that could lead to violence in the country.

The country director, Equal Access International, Dr Maji Peterx, urged the stakeholders to create relationships instead of violence.

“We expect the participants to be media literate, to also have respect for one another. We should all be cautious of what we say, how we say them and who we target with what we say because it could lead to a more devastating situation,” he added.

He said hate speech poses danger to the unity and stability of the country, adding that it  can lead to  acts  of  violence  and  conflict which can also lead to genocide.

“Hate speech, for whatever reason, covers many forms of expression but all incite,  promote  or  justify  hatred,  violence  and  discrimination  against  an individual  or  group  of  people. We should all say no to hate speech,” he said.

Peterx who is also the facilitator of the programme said, “Hate speech leads to dangerous speech that causes genocide, a lot of hate speech has led to entire community being razed down, it has caused a lot of people being maimed and attacked”.

One of the participants, Anita Nchat from Amina Dyslexia Centre thanked Carefronting Nigeria for the opportunity, adding that there is need to continue the process.