Senator Femi Okurounmu, former Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on the 2014 National Conference on Thursday said the Muhammadu Buhari administration is fast moving towards dictatorship by raising the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to N5m.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Independent, monitored by 9news Nigeria, the Afenifere chieftain who also described Nigerians as docile people said the action would have led to massive protests in other countries of the world.
According to Okurounmu, the action of the Federal government is a calculated attempt at barring critics of the government from expressing their views.
The current administration is a confused lot. They are moving towards absolute dictatorship”.
“Who determines what is hate speech? So, anything that is critical of their government, they term it as hate speech”.
“Even when something is true but it is pointing out their inadequacies, they call it hate speech”.
If we say they are allowing the killing of innocent Nigerians, they label it as hate speech and impose fines. These are tentative steps towards a complete dictatorial regime”.
“Unfortunately our society does not believe in protests. This is enough to get everybody out on the streets, protesting against them”.
“But because we so docile in Nigeria, everybody just complains and keep quiet. That is why they are getting away with murder”.
