Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has disclosed why he opposed the hate speech Bill proposed by Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi.
Soyinka explained that he was opposed to the hate speech bill because it would limit free speech and access to information.
The Nobel Laureate, who spoke at a summit to mark the United Nations
International Anti-Corruption Day in Abuja on Monday, said even though
he had been a victim, he would not support any attempt to “terminate
recourse to information”.
According to Soyinka: “We all are disgusted with fake news, hate
news, destabilising and toxic news, but let’s ask ourselves seriously
what we think we are doing if we start chopping off the heads of those
whom we think have offended our sensibilities, either as individuals or
as institutions, especially if such actions terminate the possibility of
free expression, even though sometimes there is abuse of that
expression.
“I stand here as one of those individuals who have been most affected
by hate news, fake news, even to the extent that I had my identity
stolen, abused and used in all kinds of ways, against what I really
believe in.
“But I’ll be the last person to support any idea of terminating a
recourse to information simply because some people abuse the means of
that. And the answer to that is to kill people or put them before a
firing squad?.
“When you take a combination, therefore, of a major principle, almost
core security institution, you take that side by side with that of a
legislative house, it curtails the possibility of an open society and
looks as if we have all been put in a slave plantation.”