As the Bayelsa governorship election, scheduled to hold on November 16 approaches, a civil society organisation, CSO, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), has cautioned the people of the state against hate speech and violence especially against women.
CITAD) is implementing Countering Hate Speech Project in Nigeria with support from National Democratic Institute (NDI).
The project tracks and counters hate speech and online violence against women with a view to raising awareness as well as campaign and advocacy towards addressing the consequences of the phenomena.
Addressing Journalists on Wednesday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa, Hamza Ibrahim, Coordinator, Countering Hate Speech Project, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), said the call was necessary in order have peaceful election, not only in the state, but the nation at large.
“As we approach gubernatorial election here in Bayelsa state, it is instrumental that awareness is intensified to ensure that people desist from hate speech and violence against women, particularly in the social media space in order to have peaceful election and continued peace in the country.
“Bearing in mind that the population of Nigerians on social media platforms is speedily growing, and the online visibility of conventional media also gives room for discussion, hate speech and online violence against women are sadly becoming rampant.
“It is against this background that CITAD implements the project,” Ibrahim stated.
According to him, CITAD) had monitored and tracked a total number of 420 hate speeches online violence against women items from different social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, blogspots and websites of conventional and online newspapers.
“On social media, the speech items were tracked from groups, pages and individual posts on Facebook, on Twitter from tweets and replies to tweets. On webpages of conventional and online newspapers as well as blogspots, the speech items emerged from the comments sections.
“The speech items tracked also included those done offline particularly under election category in Bayelsa state. Presented below is the breakdown of the speech items based on category, medium and gender of the perpetrators,” he further stated.
CITAD expressed concern that hate speech, especially online, by followers of both parties may be undermining the peaceful conduct of the election.
“Use of pictures of animals and derogatory symbols are continuously becoming common amongst members of different political parties particularly on social media platforms.
“The volume of hate speech we are seeing as the election continues to approach is frightening and even more frightening is the fact that some influencial voices are also involved in making hateful remarks/comments.
“We must, at this juncture, warn and caution those influencial voices, that, countries such as Rwanda and Kenya had a disastrous experience of hate speech, and therefore, they must shun making hateful or dangerous expressions especially at a critical moment like this, when the gubernatorial election here Bayelsa is days away.
“We have noticed a trend of using inciting or hateful language in pictorial form, that we have seen done particularly by members or supporters of the leading political parties in the gubernatorial election-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Contest shouldn’t be made a “do or die affair”, rather, electioneering in every form should be conducted in a manner that is peaceful and respectful,” the CSO further stressed.
As recommendations, CITAD appealed to actors in both APC and PDP in Bayelsa state to sanitize their political statements/ comments in verbal, written or any illustrative form.
“We call on the managers of especially, Facebook groups and pages of the APC and PDP in the state to study and ensure content they publish are not hateful or inciting.
“We urge all political parties in Bayelsa state to desist from using hateful or inciting remarks during campaigns. We urge specifically, APC and PDP and their gubernatorial candidates – Hon. David Lyon and Sen. Doye Diri to take audit of the pages and groups that appear in their names on Facebook as well as deactivate any platform they find making hate speech in their names.
“We are appealing to all social media users in the state to desist from sharing any hateful or inciting content, instead, they should discourage and report it to the platform. We urge the entire good people of Bayelsa state to be peace-loving and tolerant before, during and after the elections as well as shun act that will jeopardize the conduct of the gubernatorial election holding on 16th November, 2019.
“We call on administrators of various page and groups on Facebook to critically read and ensure content are not hateful, inflammatory or inciting before posting them. We urge religious and traditional leaders in the state to join us in cautioning politicians against hate speech and any form electoral violence.
