Monday, November 19, 2018

AN ASSESSMENT OF HATE SPEECH EFFECTS AND ELECTION VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA:


                                                   ABSTRACT.
Although  extant  literature  agrees  that  election  violence  are  caused  by  multilateral  factors  which include:  pervasive  poverty,  weak  institutionalization  of  democratic  architectures  particularly, political  parties,  election  management  bodies  and  the  judiciary,  they  have  not  satisfactorily examined the  effect of  hate speech on  electoral  violence  in  Nigeria  especially  from  2010  to 2015. This study explores the effect of hate speech on pre, during and post election violence
in Nigeria. The  study relies  on  interview  of  religious  leaders,  youth  leaders,  traditional  leaders  and  leaders of  civil  society  groups  selected  from  the  six  geopolitical  zones  in  Nigeria.  Observation and secondary data supplemented the data generated from the interview.  The study also used content and discourse analyses.  The  study argues  that:  hate  speeches  in  Nigeria  are  mostly  credited  to political  leaders  and  their  ethnic,  regional  or  religious  based  supporters.  Again,  political  leaders in  Nigeria  neglect  the  provocative  tendencies  of  hate  speech  so  long  as  it  enables  them  to  capture and  retain  political  power.  More  so,  hate  speech  has  been  elevated  to  the  status  of  political campaign  strategy  and  it  accounts  for  the  escalation  of  pre,  during  and  post  election  violence  in Nigeria.    This  study recommends  among  others  that  speaking  out  loudly  against  hate  speech  is no  longer  enough.  Independent  National  Electoral  Commission  and  other  civil  society organizations  should  identify  and  prosecute  individuals  and  organization  that  breach  relevant laws governing  electoral  campaigns and public  speech in Nigeria.
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