On 15th October, 2016 Monitoring and Countering of Hate and Dangerous Speech team of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), paid an advocacy visit to the emir of Bukuru in Plateau State.

After opening prayer, Leader of the advocacy delegation who is the Hate and Dangerous Speech Coordinator, Isah Garba briefed the emirate on the purpose of the visit and solicited the support of the emirate saying “traditional leaders are important in any activity that deals with people, and especially this that has to do with campaign against hate speech, hate speeches have been the sources of so many unfortunate incidences which do nothing but always break the bond of mutual coexistence among people, as such people need to be highly sensitized on the dangers of hate speeches, in place of it they can be sharing peace messages among themselves which will enhance respect for one another and unity”.    

Representative of the emir, Alh Ali S. Muhammed welcomed the advocacy team and said the emir is away and has asked him to convey his esteem regards to the team and pledge his support for the timely and vital project, social media is now everybody’s business, almost every category of people use it but unfortunately not as expected, instead of harvesting its true potentials some people misuse it for misguided reasons, but it is commendable that a project called “Monitoring and Countering Hate Speech” is initiated to check dangerous speeches online because if you look at what is going on online you will understand that something needs to be done to make people know the consequences of what they do and educate them on it so that they stop, otherwise the speeches may be posing danger to our peace, I assure you of our continued support to this project. We will subsequently sensitize our community leaders, youth groups and religious leaders on this, said Muhammed.

Alh Ali S. Muhammed requests that when next CITAD is visiting the palace it should please notify the palace at least one week before the visit so that they can invite relevant leaders and youth groups to also be present so that the advocacy becomes more interactive. CITAD advocacy team included Isah A. Garba, Abubakar Yusuf Auyo, Ibrahim Nuhu, Abdullahi Balarabe Yakubu Dotsa, Zahra Y. Z Ya’u and Ashshaza Sunusi Shazali Sulaiman