The Dying Nature of Free Speech

Free speech in the sense has never really existed in the Nigerian context. Successive years of military rule and a shaky democratic transition championed by a former military leader ensured the status quo was going to remain for some time to come. We did make some improvement in the early 2010s though, with the FOI bill passed into law in the year 2015. Things have quicken regressed to their previous state since then, especially with the on-boarding of another ex military leader as president.

Free speech guarantees the right to expression and security after expression. As of now, both are in very shaky waters as there does appear to be both a direct and proxy war on speech under the guise of false narratives and 'fake news'.

Particularly in the political sphere, expression of dissent right now is a sure fire way to be hounded by one of the governments agencies under one allegation or the other until such expressions are withdrawn. For the ordinary man on the streets, things are a lot worse. Explaining in detail how the government treats common citizens over dissent will have to involve a look into the countries poor human rights records, which is best discussed another day.Putting it into perspective though, the average citizen has no voice against the system, and those who are ensnared hardly get out.

There is now a rarely acknowledged but clearly visible element of fear among citizens in sounding offensive or going against government wishes. The few who have a voice are lost to the hundreds of millions whose voices cannot be found. With the Nigerian situation it is as they say "If you want to deal with a man, first take away his mouth so he can't call for help".