Hate Speech in Nigerian Politics: An Islamic and Christian Perspectives

Abstract

The prevalence of hate speech in Nigerian politics is alarming. This paper aims to examine the remedy for hate speech in the Islamic and Christian perspectives. To achieve the designed objectives, qualitative methods involving historical and contextual approaches were used in data collection and analysis. The findings reveal that nowadays, in Nigeria, hate speech causes political sentiments and manipulations, religious insinuations and misinterpretations, and tribal jingoism and still is being used by some undesirable elements among the politicians. The findings further show that hate speech leads clergies and tribal jingoists to cause disaffection and civil insurrection among Nigerian citizens. This caused a huge setback to Nigerian sustainable development, both religiously and economically. The paper, therefore, recommends that Muslim scholars and priests should endeavour to create a conducive environment where a public lecture would be organized to emphasize the impacts of peaceful coexistence among Nigerian Muslims and Christians just to remedy the disease of hate speech.