Subtext of violence is defamation

[Editor's note: The following is an edited excerpt from Mr. Alechenu's speech at The Media Project's Jakarta conference. The full text of this excellent case study is available for download below.]

After nearly three decades of military dictatorship, Nigeria, a multi-ethnic and multi religious country of over 140 million has often found itself in the news, mostly for the wrong reasons, since the return of democratic rule about a decade ago.

For better or worse, religion has been a driving force in these news stories. Nigerians are, by any measure, a deeply religious people who take the issue of faith seriously.

Religious tensions - often laced with the quest for socio-political dominance - have led to violent upheavals that have claimed thousands of lives and destroyed property worth millions of dollars.  Elites' religious convictions and their struggles for control of Nigeria’s resources along with fights for political dominance often obliterate the thin line between religion and state.

In fact, the immediate cause of a number of so called “ethno-religious” conflicts in Africa’s most populous country is traceable to acts or allegations of defamation of religion. There have been skirmishes between mobs claiming to protect the Prophet from being defamed and persons accused of defamation in the past.

The politically motivated introduction of the stringent version of the Islamic sharia legal code by 12 predominately Muslim states in the north (2000-2002) raised the already-high stakes.

This has threatened the largely peaceful co-existence between adherents of two of Nigeria’s prominent religions- Christianity and Islam.

Despite the clear links between defamation and recent conflicts, there is currently no debate in the public domain on the subject. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, Ayogu Eze told me, “No such issue is before us to the best of my knowledge.”

This is because Nigeria prides itself as a secular nation where every one is free to hold and propagate his/her religious belief.

The country currently does not have any direct laws targeting religious defamation apart from the general laws against defamation of persons.

Article 10 of the 1999 Constitution states: “The Government of the Federation or of a State shall not adopt any religion as State Religion.”

This is re-enforced by Article 38 (1) which states: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

Several riots were recorded since the introduction of the legal code.

None perhaps, stands out for its infamy like the Miss World Riots in 2002.

The riots led to the burning of the Kaduna State office of ThisDay newspaper after the Lagos-based daily, published an article critical of Muslim groups that condemned the Miss World pageant.

Muslim groups say the pageant to be held December 7 in the capital, Abuja, promotes sexual promiscuity and indecency.

A young intern, Isioma Daniel who had studied Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston wrote an article which the Muslim community considered defamatory. The riots that followed left about 200 people dead.

Opinions vary across newsrooms as to what the limits are or should be in reporting issues, which have the potential of being labeled defamatory.

Most of the editors who spoke on the subject were of the opinion that since our society is still evolving, it would be “suicidal” to stretch media freedoms to some of the limits seen in developed countries.

Although Nigeria is a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), it was one of nine countries which abstained from voting on the OIC sponsored resolution entitled: “Combating Defamation of Religions” On 12 April 2005.

According to that resolution, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance was to continue examining the situation of Muslims and Arab peoples in various parts of the world, monitor defamation of Islam, and report back to the Commission at its 62nd session (April 2006) and make recommendations to improve the situation.

Nigeria however voted in favour of the resolution when it came up in April 2010. This is more out of an obligation to the OIC than out of conviction.

A prominent defamation issue currently before Nigeria's domestic law courts addresses the decision of a Nigerian Muslim Senator, Ahmed Sani, to marry a 14-year-old Egyptian girl citing his religious convictions as reason for doing so.

For good measure, Sani who married the minor (in breach of Nigeria’s Child Rights Act) said he was following an example set by Prophet Mohammed hundreds of years.

He was quoted as saying in an interview: "I don't care about the issue of age since I have not violated any rule as far as Islam is concerned. History tells us that Prophet Muhammad did marry a young girl as well. Therefore, I have not contravened any law. Even if she is 13, as it is being falsely peddled around."

"If I state the age [of the girl], they will still use it to smear Islam," Sani alleged.

Sani's final comment led many in the media to conclude that further comment on the propriety of the Senator's choice could lead to defaming his religion.

Off the record, most editors agreed that the Senator went too far, and some editors would reference the historical record about the Prophet, none of them dared to write publicly what they thought.