BY Fredrick Nwabufo
Ejike Mbaka, an Enugu-based Catholic priest, breached the electoral act twice by his “on-the-pulpit” comments on political matters, Chidi Odinkalu, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has said.
In November, Mbaka expressed support for the president when Patience Jonathan, the first lady, paid him a visit at his Adoration ground.
During the visit, he derided those asking President Jonathan to release the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, saying that the girls were not in the custody of the president.
In a New Year message, Mbaka had declared that President Goodluck Jonathan “must go” for failing to herd the nation out of the woods, and described him as “bad luck.”
Reacting to Mbaka’s outburst at a media parley on curbing hate speech in Abuja on Wednesday, Odinkalu stated that the priest breached Section 95 of the Electoral Act.
“What Mbaka did was unlawful. Section 95 of the electoral act says you cannot use the pulpit to preach partisan messages,” he said.
“He breached the law twice; first when he showed support for President Jonathan and when he later showed support for Muhammadu Buhari. We must not put a reverend father above the law nor beneath the law.”
He also described Ayo Fayose’s death-wish advertorial in some national newspapers on Monday as “hate speech”, saying the ction was unfortunate considering the office he occupies, and expressing delight that violence did not break out as a result of his advertorial.
He did not spare the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) either, describing the party’s tagging of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a “Janjaweed” party, hate speech.
Odinkalu revealed that the commission was setting up an election violence incident centre, which would track hate-speech perpetrators. He said that the centre would document all hate speeches and name their perpetrators.
“Nigerians have seen enough blood. We must not let what happened in Kenya happen here,” he said.
“Politics is for living people. Hate speech should not have a place in our polity because it leads to violence. Politics in our country must be humane. Politicians have the duty to invite our people to discover the angels of their nature.
“We do not want to see Nigerians being wasted because of power. Election is not war. Some politicians will have us believe it is war, but it isn’t. When the elections are over, we want to tell the world we are Nigerians and not savages.”
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