I am the least perturbed by the recent bill on “Hate Speech” said to be before the National Assembly in so far as the bill does not affect “hate writing”. Nevertheless, even if “hate writing” were to be covered by the bill, it is unthinkable that I will be willing or ready to surrender to anybody, my God given right to air my view, my opinion, on issues which I consider important or necessary.
Freedom of speech or freedom of expression is a divinely ordained right. It is an inalienable right of man or the law according to nature, as Thomas Aquinas would have asserted, which nobody, and no institution, has the power or authority to abrogate, alienate or to take away from any living human being. And anybody who acquiesced, who compromised, or who accepted any such right to be taken away from him, must be seen, or considered to be a coward, and therefore, is not fit to live.
Many many years ago, there was a man called Socrates. Socrates would go from one place to the other, asking questions, or cross examining people, particularly those who claimed to have knowledge or to wise, to find out how truly wise they were. Through persistent questioning in form of dialogue, known as the Socratic Method, those who ordinarily claimed to be wise, or who laid claims to knowledge were proved not to know anything, or were made to look foolish by Socrates. In consequence, many of these people were not happy, and they took offence.
The good thing in life is that the world moves in cyclic form. If care is not taken, it could be those who are current sponsors of the “Hate Speech Bill” that would be its first victims. The late Major General Mamman Vatsa was said to be among those who sat at the military tribunal that sentenced Dimka and his coconspirators to death in 1976. Just ten years later, in 1986, it became the turn of Mamman Vatsa to face the hangman, courtesy of the same military tribunal.
Now, Socrates was in trouble. They dragged him to court on charges of corrupting the youth and worshiping gods different from what the people worshipped. Two of his accusers, Anytus, a democratic politician, and Meletus, a tragic poet, said Socrates was a criminal and a busy-body, prying into things under the earth and above the heaven, and making the worse appear the better cause, and teaching all these to others.
In his defence, Socrates denied all these charges. He said that he was not a man of science and had nothing to do with physical speculations. He also denied the charges of corrupting the youths.According to Socrates, it was the Delphic Oracle that had proclaimed him to be the wisest. When he set out to inquire why, because he believed that the gods cannot lie, he discovered that all those who laid claims to wisdom, were indeed not wise, but foolish, and that it was he, Socrates, that was the wisest, because he recognized his own limitations. He made this known to them, and they were not happy. That was why they hated him.
Socrates disclosed that when he was a soldier, he never deserted his duty post, even when he was told to do so. “Now, God orders me to fulfill the philosopher’s mission of searching into myself and other men, and it would be as shameful to desert the post now as in time of battle”.He stated that if he were to be offered his life on condition of ceasing to speculate as he had hitherto done, he would reply:
“Men of Athens, I honour and love you, but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength, I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone who I met”.Socrates said that he was “a gadfly”, given to the state by God, and that if he were to be killed, it would not be easy to find another like him.
“The state”, he says, “is like a big thorough-bred horse”, so big that it is a bit slow and heavy, and would need a gadfly like him to wake it up.After his testimony, the jury found him guilty by a simple majority. Socrates was then told to propose his own punishment. He said the only punishment that befitted him was to put him on a horse and drive him around the town like a person who won gold in an Olympic Game. The reason was because he did more for the people than those who had won gold at the Olympics. The jury got angry and they voted with greater majority to have Socrates executed. Accordingly, they gave him hemlock to drink, and he died.
That was the fate, which they say, would equally befall anybody who contravened the bill on “Hate Speech”, which is now before the Nigerian Senate. But we are not going to be intimidated. We are not going to surrender. We are not going to give up. Like Socrates, we are going to maintain our ground. We are endowed with the God given right to do what we consider to be right and to always stand by it, no matter the consequences.
We have crossed the proverbial nine rivers and climbed nine hills during the long years of military dictatorship with their many draconian laws in order to be where we are today, and therefore are not going to succumb to any form of intimidation by some anti-democratic forces aimed at gagging freedom of expression.
A bad workman, they say, always quarrels with his tools, therefore those currently at the helm of affairs should not use freedom of expression as excuse for their nonperformance. Like in every human organization, it is possible that some of those who ply the trade of communication could err. If they do, there are enough laws in our statute books that could have been used to adequately deal with any such transgressor, rather than to propose another bill called “hate speech”.
The good thing in life is that the world moves in cyclic form. If care is not taken, it could be those who are current sponsors of the “Hate Speech Bill” that would be its first victims. The late Major General Mamman Vatsa was said to be among those who sat at the military tribunal that sentenced Dimka and his coconspirators to death in 1976.
Just ten years later, in 1986, it became the turn of Mamman Vatsa to face the hangman, courtesy of the same military tribunal.When retired General Olusegun Obasanjo was brought before a military tribunal on account of an alleged coup plot against the Sani Abacha regime, and there was public outcry, and Abacha simply replied the people that Obasanjo was being tried under the very law he made! That is the beauty of life.It is equally important to note that no earthly king or kingdom lasts forever. So, those who today do things with impunity, because they are in power, should realize that one day they must surely come down from their exalted position. Then, they would be made to give account of their stewardship.
THE ECHO 