A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State and former Commissioner for Information, Mr. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa has said that the ruling party has no moral right to sponsor the hate speech bill or any law for that matter that seek to gag the press.
Speaking at the Social Media Summit in Minna, organised by the Progressive Media Practitioners (PMP), Vatsa said the ruling APC invented and benefitted immensely “from this thing we call hate speech”.
He said, “Before 2015, I can remember, we used all forms of propaganda against the ruling PDP, we said anything to make sure that the people hated the party.
“Our focus at that time was to ensure that we discredited the then ruling party and we won. We should not be afraid of the poison we gave PDP that time.
“Personally I will not be a party to a law that will gag the press. In some other climes, people would have commenced the process of recalling the sponsor of that bill,” Vatsa asserted.
He commended former Military Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida for throwing his weight behind those opposed to the bill and advised those behind the bill to sponsor bills that will impact positively on ordinary Nigerians.
The convener of the summit, Prince Daniel Atori in his welcome address, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to impress upon the lawmakers on the need for them to provide dividends of democracy to the people rather than embarking on a wild goose chase of making laws that are of no benefit to the people.
