By Ibrahim Abdul’Aziz
Yola
Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, has endorsed #IStandForNigeria, a social media campaign initiated by students of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Adamawa state.
#IStandForNigeria is a peer-to-peer (P2P) global digital challenge
organised by Facebook and Edventure, designed to tackle the persistent
level of hate and radical conversations on social media.
The Nigerian campaign features students offering online and digital reporting in the communications and multimedia department of the AUN.
In a special call to the campaign coordinator, Ibanga Isine, the presidential spokesperson said he resolutely support the initiative.
Adesina urged Nigerians to abhor hate and extremist comments and called for the people to root for a united and indivisible country.
“I stand resolutely against hate speech and I stand against anything
that has the slightest affinity to hate speech. I urge Nigerians to love and respect one another. This is the only country we have. If we mess it up, then we have messed up not only ourselves but our future and the future of our children.
“I stand for a united and indivisible Nigeria. Things may be hard. Things may be tough. Things may not be exactly the way we want them to be but I believe we are on the way to a better Nigeria. Join me to stand for Nigeria,” Adesina said.
Responding, spokesperson for the #IStandForNigeria team, Salome Nuhu,
expressed appreciation for Adesina’s endorsement of the campaign and called on well-meaning Nigerians to join the campaign.
“We found that religion, politics, and ethnicity are the major drivers of hate and radical expressions, especially on social media, saying the dangerous speech monitoring system of the Kano-based Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) recorded 5978 dangerous speeches targeting ethnicity while 5276 targeted religion in Nigeria between May 2016 and October 4, 2017,” she said.
