The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday, November 26, spoke about the hate speech bill, saying that the death penalty aspect of the proposed bill should be scrapped.
The Herald gathered that the UN’s deputy secretary-general, Hajiya Amina Mohammed, disclosed this when she led a delegation on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
She said: “The way the legislation is being followed to try to put that in place, I think is commendable. We, of course, did not support the death penalty.
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“I am also happy to see…that that portion was taken out of the legislation that was being put forward. The Secretary-General had also put in place a special ending on hate speech.”
The UN’s deputy secretary-general added that both the international and regional levels, have also condemned the hate speech.
Meanwhile, The Herald reported that Aliyu Abdullahi, sponsor of the hate speech bill, has disclosed that the death penalty aspect would be amended in line with the wish of Nigerians.
Abdullahi made this known in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, November 24. He maintained that the bill will undergo some fine-tuning to ensure that the clauses contained in its provisions to be passed into law reflect the views of Nigerians.
According to him, the senate will accept contributions and input by critics and supporters of the bill, saying such will go a long way towards giving Nigerians the law to address the disturbing trend of hate speech.
Earlier, The Herald gathered that the UN and the United Kingdom disapproved the death penalty which is the punishment for violators of the Hate Speech Bill.
The UN said: “Every human being has the right to life and you cannot cut off people’s lives just because someone has expressed his opinion. Nobody is saying hate speech is good.
“Hate speech and fake news have been there from time immemorial and it is barbaric to say now that we want to hang people because they expressed their feelings or what they had in mind.
“So, censoring people or limiting people from participating in politics might not be the correct thing. As I said, the best thing to do is to educate the people.”