A Kano-based, NGO, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called on religious and community leaders to desists from making hate and dangerous speeches in the country.

Mr Isah Garba, the CITAD Programme Manager, made the call while briefing newsmen in Kano on Saturday.

He noted that religious and community leaders have important roles to play in the promotion of peace and unity in the country.

“Religious and community leaders are close to the people and they can use their respective positions in the society to influence their actions.

“We appreciate the efforts of some religious and community leaders who have spoken against the culture of hate speeches,”he said.

Garba alleged that most traditional and religious leaders seemed to be quiet about the issue which is dangerous to the corporate existence of the country.

“The complexity of the problem is beyond the management of civil society organisations alone as other stakeholders have to lend their support so that together, we can curb the menace.

He said between June 2016 and December 2016 no fewer than 6,258 hate speeches were reported to CITAD by its trained monitors.

He said the organisation would continue to counter the hate speeches it comes across through public sensitisation, deployment of moral sanction and advocacy to enlist influential voices to the campaign against hate speeches.

Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/centre-cautions-religious-leaders-on-hate-speeches/181840.html#aWCZV1Jd3h8GiIde.99

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Senior Programme Officer, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Isah Garba, has said that the Centre had made considerable inroad in stopping hate speech via the social media as it constitutesda threat to national security.
Speaking at its monthly press conference in Kano yesterday, Garba said in November alone, CITAD reported 942 hate speeches out of which religion and ethnicity took 837 with religion taking 432, while ethnicity taking 405, respectively.

Garba said the media was critical in the fight against hate speech and hate speakers, affirming that it was an abiding responsibility on the shoulders of media houses to enforce coverage and reportage of sanctions on well-defined hate speakers that “often do that to get relevance.”
He said CITAD observation had consistently shown that 97.9% of hate speakers in “Nigeria do not care to address their speech in coded language,” instead they used freely and plainly language indicating that no one cares to listen to what others were saying.
While commending the actions and support of other stakeholders for supporting the cause for eradicating hate speech, the CITAD Senior Programme officer condemned the “cavalier attitude of some prominent people who reduce themselves to becoming habitual hate speakers and perpetrators of inflammatory comments.”

By Najib Sani
Bauchi

A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has urged the Police to bring the former Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, to order over his alleged persistent hate speeches in the media and social networks which, it believed, were capable of causing chaos and disunity in the country.
In a press statement signed by its Team Leader, Sagiru Ado Abubakar, in Bauchi yesterday, the NGO said Fani-Kayode “is a statesman and should, therefore, watch his utterances,” adding that “for some time now, we have been monitoring his speeches which are aimed at only defaming the character of President Muhammadu Buhari and inciting citizens against fellow compatriots.”
“While condemning his hate speeches, we urge the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) and Department of State Security Service (DSS) to prosecute Femi Fani-Kayode over inflammatory statement she makes against President Muhammad Buhari,” the statement read in part.

It also recalled that Fani-Kayode in a recent article in some newspapers said President Buhari might either die or be overthrown as no core northern Muslim leader had ever ended well at Aso Rock.
The statement also quoted the former minister as saying: “The truth is that every single core northern Muslim leader that has ever ruled this country has either died on the throne or been removed from power in a military coup. None of them ended well. Whether the second coming of Buhari will end any differently remains to be seen. One thing that is clear to me, though, is that the whole thing is spiritual. It is being orchestrated and effected by the finger of God and not by any man. It is God’s way of saying that they were never meant to rule and be there in the first place and that He has rejected them. It is the work of the Ancient of Days and the Lord God of Hosts.”