FRAMING OF HATE SPEECH IN SELECTED BROADCASTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFRA(IPOB)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND TO STUDY
Hate Speech is a speech which attacks a person or group on the basis of attributes such as gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability, or sexual orientation. In the law of some countries, hate speech is described as speech, gesture, or conduct, writing o display which is forbidden because it incites violence or prejudicial action against or by a protected group or individual on the basis of their membership to the group or because it disparages or
intimidates a protected group. According to Matt Slick on www.carm.org/hate-speech, “Hate speech is a term one used by liberals in their attacks against Christians.”
www.usaeducationguides.com further reiterates the it is “A term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability. The term covers written as well as oral communication.” Hate speech sets itself at unfettered liberty thus disparages without reason and incites without logic. Hate speech sets a person or group of persons against another. The 2016 Presidential election in the United States was a fertile ground for hate speech and up till this day, long are the election was won and lost,
the American society remains bifurcated on account of the unprecedented hate speech that attended the election. In Nigeria, Hate speech is thick in the air. First, it was PDP vs APC hate speech campaign of 2015 that birthed the current President Muhammadu Buhari
government. Both parties were unrelenting in their wild orgies of hate speech campaigns including profiling of candidates and trying to incite different ethno-religious groups against each party’s candidate. The Nigerian polity has become a huge hate-field and it shows in the myriad abuses, threats, curses and tantrums that stalk the social media space. It is evident in the winner-takes-all attitude of the government especially in the area of appointments.
Jideo for Adibe in his article titled Ethnicity, Hate Speech and Nation Building, states that Hate Speech is so pervasive in Nigeria that it is doubtful if there are many Nigerians that are completely free from the vice.
Nigeria has been described as an anomalous entity (Ekanola 2006), in which different
ethnic groups that constitute the Nation have no shared history, culture or language. Even the physiognomy of ethnic groups is very different.
Such that members of particular groups are easily identified by their physical
attributes. The British colonial incursion into Africa has been credited with the existence of this nation. A fact that is constantly reiterated in discussions; o- line and online. The absence of a collective identity by ethnic groups in Nigeria worsens its experience of hate-speech.
