Nigeria and The Freedom Of Expression

The way our legal system was designed to function is that if a man named his dog BUHARI, inscribed the name on the dog's body and took it on a stroll through a Muslim neighborhood in Abeokuta, and in consequence got the beating of his life, the offended muslim who beat him black and blue could then set up the defence of PROVOCATION, and the defence could succeed and excuse the beating!

But the defence would not automatically succeed just because it was set up. The defence would have to show that A REASONABLE MUSLIM, living in cosmopolitan Abeokuta, in the 21st century, would have felt so outraged at such a mere parody, as to physically assault and batter the dogman!

There is no offence in our criminal laws known as "naming a dog Buhari", or giving a dog a human name. As a matter of fact, dogs have historically borne human names! Grave violence is done to libertarian democracy and freedom of expression when an act which is not otherwise unlawful is unduly strained and criminalized on orders from above!

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Just last week, the world witnessed the unveiling of naked effigies of both Hillary Clinton and of Donald Trump. Imagine the pedestrian absurdity of the American legal system subjecting the sculptors to trial for " actions likely to cause a breach of the peace"!

The intendment of our Constitution was to entrench a liberal democracy in which fundamental rights would flourish, including that of free speech; the intendment was never an autocracy or theocracy in which basic freedoms are truncated whimsically.

The freedom of expression is not exercised only when citizens chant " Sai Buhari!" Free expression can also take an irreverent hue, and find expression in the body of a dog! The Abeokuta dog man may have been stupid or irreverent, but he he is not by any stretch of the imagination a criminal. Twisting the law of crime to deny a citizen the right of free expression is the worst form of intolerance and tyranny.