Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo Wedneday, warned state governors against playing politics with national security. The Acting President also reiterated that the Constitution guaranteed all Nigerians to live in any parts of the country without molestation, just as he warned people talking carelessly in a way that would threaten the unity of the country.
Prof. Osinbajo who gave the warning when he met with the 36 governors at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, further noted that the Constitution guarantees freedom of expressions but he said that it must be done in a decent way. According to him, “There is a part of all of these agitations and statements that are made that is fair and may well be considered as freedom of expression.
Clearly, we are all allowed to express our views and there is a part of this that is expected in any healthy and robust democracy, people arguing and disagreeing sometimes even silently. “But borderline has to be drawn and that is when conversations or agitations degenerate into hateful rhetoric where the narratives degenerate to pejorative name-calling, expressions of outright prejudice and hatred.
“We must sometimes ensure that even in the use of words, we are careful essentially because the kinds of problems that we have seen, the kinds of conflagration that we have seen all over the world even in our own society…..the use of words. Some words can carry a lot of weights and so important that responsible use of words, the responsible expression of dissent is taken as priority.
(Vanguard)
