Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has revealed that 6,258 hate speeches were recorded between June and December 2016, stating it is not a good development for the country.

The Senior Programme Officer of CITAD, Isah Garba, while giving the outcome of the 2016 Monitoring and Countering Hate and Dangerous Speech Project Report, noted that rumour was one of the most inflammatory and violence causing mechanisms.

He also noted that non-adherence to journalism ethics, especially on social media and its heterogeneous users, makes proliferation of rumor easy.

Garba observed that government appears to be slow in tackling drivers of hate speech in the society, which he listed to be unemployment, hunger and poverty.

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has revealed that 6,258 hate speeches were recorded between June and December 2016, stating it is not a good development for the country.

The Senior Programme Officer of CITAD, Isah Garba, while giving the outcome of the 2016 Monitoring and Countering Hate and Dangerous Speech Project Report, noted that rumour was one of the most inflammatory and violence causing mechanisms.

He also noted that non-adherence to journalism ethics, especially on social media and its heterogeneous users, makes proliferation of rumor easy.

Garba observed that government appears to be slow in tackling drivers of hate speech in the society, which he listed to be unemployment, hunger and poverty.

Report says Nigeria records 6,258 hate speeches in six months

By Hamza Ibrahim Chinade.

Curbing Hate and Dangerous in Nigeria especially on social media is a project that Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) carries out, the project has components such as Monitoring and Countering, Forming Students for Peace Associations or Peace Clubs in tertiary institutions and secondary schools, Public Sensitization, Peace Competition etc. As the year 2017 began, the organization draws participants from Peace Ambassadors, Peace Advisers, Members of Students for Peace Associations and the media to review the challenges, share experiences, interact, explore new opportunities and the way forward towards strengthening the campaign against Hate Speech and peace propagation. The event holds at Oasis Hotel in Damaturu, the Yobe state capital.

During the evaluation meeting three presentations were facilitated by different presenters thus: What Has Been Done So far, Focus on Students for Peace (S4Ps): What Can We Do to Improve the Effectiveness of Peace Clubs and Curbing Hate Speech in Nigeria: How Do We Make the Campaign More Effective? The participants engaged in a General Discussion on the Implementation of the Project session where they brainstormed and deliberated on issues, problems, challenges and success stories around the project.

Some of the peace ambassadors and leaders of students for peace shared varied challenges and success stories as can be seen: we have strengthened our peace club with lectures to the students on social media particularly Facebook and Twitter, how they can campaign for peace, help resolve disagreements, our ICT center that the students use during training is not fully functional-Peace Adviser GSS Gulani. Our peace club has been functional, it normally organizes drama on peace from time to time with invitation to neighbouring schools in attendance, we equally came up with a periodic calendar that is peace based, in essence, our peace club preaches peace in a drama form-GSSS Kofar Nasarawa Peace Ambassador.

Part of the challenges we face at Bayero Univerty Kano Students for Peace is that the Students Union Government regard us as their opposition because of the increasing number of students joining the association, as the university resumes for the 20172018 session we embarked on a free registration for new and returning students with support from CITAD, again BUK-S4P raised money to pay for the registration of three indigent students, we are going to hold what we called “Peace Summit” where we scheduled to invite religious leaders from both Islam and Christianity also from within and outside the university to further sensitize students on peace, we also want to expand the horizon of the association to accommodate more Christians and traditional religious followers because at the moment most members are Muslims, there is an outreach we developed that will be mentoring students of secondary schools on peace and how they can find peace clubs when they get to higher institutions, we will start this shortly with Kofar Nasarawa Secondary School-leader of BUK-S4P. Peace Club in my school has made a lot of impacts on our students, now we don’t witness quarrel among students, a student once admitted to me that she used to be trouble maker but the peace club has transformed her to even becoming a mediator whenever there is misunderstanding among students. The impact is not only on students, I can say it also has impact on the teachers themselves, as a teacher I also used to be a hot-tempered person, whoever approaches me with a trouble I react aggressively and instantly whether I will regret it later, but coordinating peace club has made me more tolerant and understanding-Peace Ambassador of Government Girls Secondary School Bauchi, Bauchi state. We used to experience crisis between the school cadet members and prefects almost on frequent basis but the introduction of peace club now serves as the crisis resolving ground, because of the continuous mediation of the peace club members, we don’t witness crises anymore-Peace Ambassador of Commercial Secondary School Dutse, Jigawa state. In Government Secondary School Damaturu we sensitize our students on Hate Speech and Peace because our school was affected by Boko Haram insurgency, and created a Facebook account where our students post peace messages, we offer our students free data in the school computer center to post peace messages. The Hate Speech and Peace propagation issue really demands the support of the media, and I will discuss with the management of Yobe Radio Corporation as a correspondent to facilitate amplifying the voices of the peace clubs. Even though S4P is not officially commissioned in my school but I learned the membership keeps increasing every time we meet-Students for Peace member, Aminu Saleh College of Education Azare.

Giving a closing remark, Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) Dr. Yunusa Zakari Ya’u observed that peace initiative is a self benefitting initiative because without peace there can be no development as such striving for peace should be a collective commitment, he appreciated the commitment of both teachers and students for making sacrifices towards peace. Ya’u said “we combine peacemaking with entrepreneurship skills so that the students will be more marketable and excel better in their various endeavours”.

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.”

Are you a peace campaigner? Here is a chance to win some prizes for your passion. Starting from November, CITAD is starting a monthly social media peace campaign competition for youth.  The competition will offer prizes in four categories namely:

1. The Most Engaged Person  in Twitter
2. The Most Engaged Person in Facebook
3. The most Influential Message (Twitter)
4. The most Influential Message (Facebook)

How to enter?

There is no special entry form. Once you have a twitter or Facebook account, you can join. All you need to do is as follows:

1. Tweet or retweet anti-hate speech campaign messages making sure you use the hashtag #No2HateSpeech
2. Post or share anti-hate speech campaign messages (post to Peace Now! Page and Group)

How to win?

At the end of the winners will be selected as follows:

1. Most engaged person on twitter will be the person who posted the highest number of tweets that speaks to either against hate speech or support peace campaign
2. Most engaged person Facebook is the person who has posted the most on our peace campaign platforms, The messages must speaks to either against hate speech or support peace campaign
3. The most influential message (tweeter) is the single anti-hate speech message that has the higher number of likes and retweets during the month
4. The Most Influential Messages of Facebook is the single anti-hate post with the highest number of likes and share on our platforms

Disqualification

Members of CITAD, Monitors and their relatives are not entitled to participate in the competitions.

The Prizes

1. Each winner will be have  campaign branded t-shirt, campaign branded wall clock and certificate
2. First runner up with a campaign branded t-shirt and certificate
3. Second runner up with campaign-branded wall clock and certificate

Repeated Entry?

As each month is a fresh campaign, previous winners are qualified to continue to enter.

By Bashir Mohammed
Kano

Senior Programme Officer, Centre for Information Technology and Technology and Development (CITAD), Malam Isah Garba, has said that the centre had captured 653 hate speeches in the month of September, majority of which were made by youths via the social media.
Speaking at its monthly press briefing in Kano yesterday, Garba said allowing hate speech to continue online, the greater the danger its poses to the unity and existence of the nation especially when the contents of online hate speeches begun to manifest in physical and societal relations.
He said the continued exchange of hate speech on the social media by people who should be educated was a major source of concern, adding that the greater percentage of hate speeches was done by young people who should be the future mirror of the society.

Garba said hate speeches found fertile ground when social conditions were bad and competition for resources was extreme, stressing that the economic crisis in the country had led to increased impoverishment of the people and the collapse of local businesses.
He pointed out that monitoring without countering was counterproductive and that CITAD had alongside the monitors constantly took actions to counter hate speeches.
He affirmed that the effort was made by using strategies which included inoculation of individuals, public sensitisation, deployment of moral sanction and advocacy to enlist influential voices.
Garba called on religious and ethnic leaders to refrain from using inciting language and caution their followers against using hate speech to voice their grievances and to publicly condemn hate speech where it was made and take the task of enlightening the public against hate and dangerous speeches.

http://www.blueprint.ng/2016/10/05/citad-captured-653-hate-speeches-in-sept-official/