Hate speech and the 2015 general elections in Nigeria

Fasakin, A. and Oyero, Olusola and Oyesomi, Kehinde Opeyemi and Okorie, Nelson (2017) Hate speech and the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. International E-Journal of Advances in Social Sciences (IJASOS), 3 (9). pp. 948-953. ISSN 2411-183x

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Abstract

Elections in the world are not taken with levity as it is one of the major determinants of what would become of the certain country in some years to come. During the 2015 general election in Nigeria, the political environment was intensified with the proliferation of adverts, political innuendos and propaganda messages. Media organisations in Nigeria, as always, became vehicles and channels of expressions and propaganda. A significant number of these messages had elements of hate speeches which were targeted at ridiculing opponents and opposition parties. Nigeria has witnessed several elections and campaigns with the intention of securing the people‟s vote, however, the political environment of Nigeria is not which that can be describe as conducive with candidates attacking personalities and political parties. Questions are being raised as citizens want to find out the role hate speeches plays in election campaigns and how it affects voter‟s choice of candidate with their perception about such candidate before, during and after the election. The essence of the hate speech is to ridicule and lower the esteem of others before well-meaning voters. This paper evaluated the extent at which hate speeches were used during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria. This paper was anchored on the social responsibility theory, which explains how media should ideally operate in a given society of social values and it is the standard against which the public judges. The paper concluded that many hate speeches were used across all the mass media during the 2015 general elections in Nigeria but as none of these people who uttered the hate speeches were not punished. The paper recommended that political actors that engage in the use of hate speeches during electioneering should be punished according to the electoral laws of the country. Furthermore, stringent punitive measures should be meted to media outlets that publish or broadcast hate speeches as a form of deterrent for the growth of democracy in Nigeria.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Hate Speeches, Television, political campaign, elections and Nigeria
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Humanities
Depositing User:	Dr O S Oyero
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2018 09:28
Last Modified:	30 Jan 2018 09:28
URI:	http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/eprint/10118

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