…Establish Incident Centre on Election Atrocities
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, some civil society organizations (CSOs), including Global Rights, Centre for Community Excellence, African Initiative for Peace Building, Advocacy and Advancement (Afripeace), Alliances for Africa, We the People, Srarina Initiative for Peace, Justice and Development and Sector Empowerment Foundation, have called on Nigerians to be vanguards of the civic space to work against hate speech, fake news and other forms of incitement and electoral violence.
The CSOs, under the umbrella of Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities in Nigeria, made the call Monday in Abuja, during a high-level dialogue on election atrocities and hate speech in Nigeria organised by Global Rights.
Speaking on behalf of the group, the Team Lead, Srarina Initiative for Peace, Justice and Development, Mr Redzie Jugo, called on the government to secure vulnerable communities and address insecurity ahead of the elections.
He said that, if elections do not take place in communities or if they are marred by violence, then the elections cannot be considered to be free and fair and would have failed, irrespective of who wins.
He said the group was moved to address the issues of fake news, hate speech and others because they could affect peaceful and credible elections in 2023, saying Nigeria is already suffering from multidimensional forms of violence, apart from the endemic sufferings Nigerians are enduring.
“In the period since Nigeria’s general elections in 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission has suffered at least 50 violent attacks across 15 states in Nigeria, some of which have resulted in the killing of its staff , apart from the loss of property and election materials.
“With balloting scheduled to take place in 68 days, a rising tide of violence, hate speech, intolerance and election related atrocities now threatens to derail Nigeria’s 2023 elections.
“As its contribution towards averting this possibility, the Community of practice against Mass Atrocities in Nigeria is establishing a capability to monitor all acts of election related violence with a view to pursuing accountability for them within Nigeria if possible. ”
Jugo said that for this purpose, the community established an Incident Centre on Election Atrocities (ICEA) to harmonise and co-ordinate evidence collection, preservation and advocacy on violence connected with the 2023 elections.
He said that the group observed the history of violence trailing Nigeria’s elections, adding that there is uncontrolled access to small and light weapons increasing the odds that violence could get deadly.
He said that contextualising the 2023 elections within Nigeria’s ongoing endemic insecurity the proliferation of arms, the devisive political rhetoric of ethnicity and religion, high levels of citizens mistrust among others may challenge the elections.
“The warning signs are clearly being escalated through the manifest desperation of politicians and their supporters who are resorting to hate speech and fake news to control the polity, Nigeria cannot afford any further violence.
“Added to this dimensions is the level of digital penetration which affords immediately to the amplification of hate speech and disinformation to an extent that was previously unknown.
“This is especially in the hands of desperate politicians and their supporters, who are using these platforms as tools to propagate and instigate violence against opponents and dissenting views.”
Jugo said the group is therefore, seeking the collaboration of the public reports hate speech, fake news and others to them, revealing that Nigeria’s justice institutions are key to addressing this menace.
“Impunity has been the fertile ground upon which hate speech, fake news and other forms of electoral atrocities have flourished. INEC had complained that they faced over 600 cases in relation to pre-election matters alone and arising.
“We, therefore, call on the judiciary and law enforcement to act in the interest of democracy and the wellbeing of our mission, there should be no sacred cows,” he said.