When the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, met with online publishers last week, he made a declaration that at once elicits cheer and dread. It should elicit cheer from everyone who is witness to the scourge of fakery and incendiary claims. And that should be all of us. And it should strike fear in everyone who roots for democracy in Nigeria. And that too should be all of us.
“This administration has no intention of muzzling the media or stifling free speech,” the News Agency of Nigeria quotes Lai as saying. “Our campaign is against fake news and hate speech. And we will not rest until our media space has been rid of fake news and hate speech.”
We may well set aside the obligatory assurance that the government has no intention of censoring free speech. The substance is in the second half of the quote. It may well be a case of political bravado. But given that Lai is making the rounds explaining the need for the stiffened broadcasting code, he must be at least somewhat serious.
Problem is that it is impossible to get rid of fake news and hate speech in “our media space” without also squelching democracy in Nigeria. In fact, to purloin the biblical expression, it will be easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for Nigeria to be rid of fake news and hate speech.
And that speaks to the enormity of the challenge Lai faces. During the recent major outbreak of violence against Nigerians in South Africa, lots of videos were circulated purportedly showing what was going on there. In one of them, flames were jutting into the sky from the roof of a storey building, which was supposedly the Nigerian embassy. In reality, it was a building in India, I learned later.
The most horrific videos showed rapid gun fire and charred bodies. I didn’t have to look too closely to notice that those were the same videos circulated to depict the supposed carnage in Nigeria during the 2019 elections.
I understand that some of these videos made it from social media into some broadcast outlets. That’s something routine professional gatekeeping should have prevented. And that’s part of Lai’s fury.
And then, there are the incendiary comments and social media posts, most of them heaping invectives at other ethnic groups.
And so, the Ministry of Information and Culture has coordinated with the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission to stiffen the regulatory code and extend its reach. Among other things, it raises the penalty for broadcasting hate speech and incendiary comments from N500, 000 to N5m. It also upgrades such breaches to Class A violations, which means that they may incur license suspension. Moreover, the ministry is seeking to have the NBC Act amended to extend the agency’s reach to webTV and radio.
What is of greatest concern is the draconian penalty of N5m. To many stations, that’s worse than license suspension. It is the death penalty.
More than that, there is the question of what that harsh penalty will do to Nigeria’s free-wheeling political discourse. Will it intimidate broadcasters and cause them to steer away from critical comments?
If the “June 12” era is a guide, that will probably happen. However, as also happened then, it will also radicalise some media and drive some underground. The overall result will be the shrinkage of Nigeria’s robust media landscape — as also happened then.
The media landscape is radically different today, however, thanks to the advent of private broadcasting and especially the Internet and social media. It has become near impossible to control information flow. Lai conceded that his 2018 crusade against fake news and incendiary comments failed.
“While the national campaign has succeeded in putting the issue of fake news and hate speech on the front burner of national discourse, the menace has yet to go away,” NAN quotes him as saying. “Let me be clear: we didn’t think the issue will suddenly disappear, but we also didn’t think it will get worse, which is what it is now. In fact, it remains a clear and imminent danger to the polity.”
And that raises the question, why does Lai think the stiffened penalties will do the job? The only action that might do it is the drastic measure India just took in its Kashmir province. That is to suspend all phone and Internet services. And while at it, take over all broadcast operations as well.
Mercifully, Lai wouldn’t dare. And so, he may find himself back to square one and pondering what next? The answer may well be that there is no alternative to moral suasion, backed with reasonable regulation, of course.
Lai may also want to turn some of his attention to ridding our political space of the misdeeds that fuel hate speech. When there is inequity or injustice, for example, Nigerians will speak out virulently regardless if the law. Lai could play his part to keep the misdeeds from happening in the first place.
When it is a matter of perception, he could also do his best to disabuse those who so perceive. In this regard, nothing better serves the ends of government than transparency and proper procedures. And nothing serves that end worse than stonewalling and political machinations.
Police chief asks to be investigated
Talking of transparency in government, here’s a story that puts a human face to it. Two Thursdays ago, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was found lying in his car at a stop sign.
A passerby saw him and called emergency. When his officers arrived, Johnson told them he was feeling lightheaded and had to stop and put his head down. They examined him for signs of alcohol or drug impairment and found none. Before they were done, he had recovered well enough to drive himself back home not far away.
Johnson had recently had a kidney transplant and was having problems with high blood pressure. That apparently caused the lightheadedness that forced him to park at a stop sign and put his head down.
But just so people don’t begin to suspect a cover-up, Johnson ordered that the incident be formally investigated. In Nigeria, it would have been officially hushed up. And social media would have lit up. There’s no limit to what the speculations would have been.
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