UN condemns hate speech against Igbo

                    

UN condemns hate speech against Igbo

The United Nations (UN) is not glossing over hate speeches and other anti-Igbo actions in Nigeria. The glob­al body, which reviewed ethnic trends in Nigeria on Monday, asked the Federal Government to investigate and prosecute persons involved in issuing hate speeches against people of Igbo extraction in the country.

The United Nations Human Rights through the Office of the High Commissioner, stressed that the ultimatum that Nigeri­ans of Igbo ethnic group should leave certain parts of the coun­try was of “grave concern.”
In a statement made avail­able to journalists yesterday in Abuja, the UN group of human rights experts “deplored a hate song and audio message being circulated on the internet and on the social media.

“The Hausa language audio message urges northern Nige­rians to destroy the property of Igbo people and kill anyone who refuses to leave by October 1, the same date given in the ul­timatum.
“We are gravely concerned about this proliferation of hate messages and incitement to vi­olence against the Igbo and their property, especially condering the previous history of such violence,” the experts em­phasised.
The experts are Mr. Mutu­ma Ruteere, Special Rappor­teur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intoler­ance; Mr. Fernard de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, and Ms. Anastasia Crick­ley, Chairperson of the Commit­tee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as Spe­cial Procedures of the UN Hu­man Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that addresses either special coun­try situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.
They said: “The Nigerian government must be vigilant, as hate speech and incitement can endanger social cohesion and threaten peace by deepening the existing tensions between Nige­ria’s ethnic communities.”

Similarly, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Dis­crimination, in another state­ment titled “Prevention of Ra­cial discrimination, Including Early Warning and Urgent Ac­tion Procedures”, Decision 2 (93) on Nigeria warn of similar con­sequences.

The body deplored rising hate speeches and songs, includ­ing the ultimatum, as well as the seeming lethargy by the govern­ment to tackle the problems ef­fectively.
The AUTHORITY recalls that the ultimatum was issued on June 6, 2017, during a press
 briefing by the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum in Kaduna.
The human rights experts noted that some local and na­tional figures, as well as some media representatives, had pub­licly denounced any form of hate speech and incitement, but said other officials still needed to fol­low suit.

“We are deeply concerned that some prominent local lead­ers and elders have not con­demned the ultimatum, hate speech and the perpetrators,” the experts stressed.
“We call on the govern­ment, media and civil society representatives, and local and religious leaders, to reject and condemn hate speech and in­citement to violence unequivo­cally and in the strongest possi­ble terms.”
The UN experts said that any incidents of hate speech and in­citement to violence had to be investigated and the perpetra­tors prosecuted and punished.

ADF Cautions

Meanwhile, a prominent Igbo group, the Alaigbo De­velopment Foundation (ADF), has called on President Mu­hammadu Buhari to jettison any plan to re-arrest the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Bi­afra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to avoid plunging the country into more crises.
In a statement made avail­able to The AUTHORITY in Abuja on Monday and signed by its President, Prof. Uzodin­ma Nwala and Secretary, Prof. Nath Aniekwu, the group said that Nigeria is now flooded with many people like Kanu.

The ADF admonished the President to “take it easy and begin by clearing the dangerous debris around him. He needs” God-fearing men around him, the statement said.
Nwala said: “His (Buhari) headache is not Nnamdi Kanu or IPOB or the Igbo nation. It is not even the South-South, the North Central or the West. His headache is how to create an en­abling environment for the vari­ous nationalities to come togeth­er to decide which way Nigeria.

“Mr. Nnamdi Kanu is a pris­oner of conscience. Nigeria is now swarming with many peo­ple like him. If you incarcerate him again, it will not relieve your headache, it will even explode.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this type of attitude of creating two kinds of citizens: one, those above the law (Arewa youths) and the other, those that will be blackmailed by the punishment of the law even when they com­mit no offence (IPOB), is one of the things that fuel most of the
 agitations all over the country.”
While saying that no rea­sonable person would want to live in a nation with such level of inequity, ADF said that Ni­geria has never been as divided as now except during the “gen­ocide against Ndigbo (1967-70).

“Nigeria’s unity is negotia­ble, that’s all that Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB are pointing at and therefore needs redressing. No­body is a slave of the other in this country. If there is no law obliterating divorce in Nigeria, it is ironical to think that by mere wishful thinking that Nigeria will remain as it were a model of abusive marriage,” they added.
ADF further decried the handling of the quit notice is­sued by Arewa youths to Igbo in the northern part of the coun­try and the failure to arrest the youths by the government.

“The Arewa youths had giv­en the Igbo ultimatum to leave Northern Nigeria latest by Oc­tober 1, 2017. Many people re­garded their action as treasona­ble and a threat of genocide.
“The governor of Kaduna State and the Inspector-Gen­eral of Police declared that they should be arrested. They were not arrested. Rather what we heard were a series of state­ments from some Arewa lead­ers supporting their action. Consequently, the Arewa youths continued in their belligerent threats and mocked the arrest orders,” ADF said.

While noting that President Buhari since his return from the United Kingdom (UK) failed to address the quit notice to Ndig­bo nor condemn the virulent Hausa hate songs being circu­lated and other pressing issues in the country, ADF wondered why the President used his re­cent speech to declare war on IPOB.