At the National Economic Council Retreat, Prof Yemi Osinbajo took a stand against the use of hate speech, calling it terrorism. Moments after tweeting his thoughts on the matter, Twitter attacked, calling his utterances hypocrital. Nigerians reminded the Acting President of the pending cases of hate actions by the Federal Government that have been left unattended.

See below:

FG has today drawn the line on hate speech. Hate speech is a specie of terrorism. The Terrorism Prevention Act 2011 as amended (1/3)

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

defines terrorism as an act which deliberately done with malice which may seriously harm a country or is intended or can be (2/3)

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

reasonably be regarded as having been done to seriously intimidate a population (3/3)

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

Silence in such situations can only be seen as an endorsement. Hate speech & the promotion of the same through history from Nazi (1/3)

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

Germany & the extermination of Jews to the Rwandan genocide succeeded in achieving their barbarous ends by the silence of influential (2/3)

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

voices. The silence of leaders at this time – in our country- will be a grave disservice to our country, its peace & its future. (3/3)

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

The above comments are part of my opening remarks at the National Economic Council, NEC, Retreat on (cont) https://t.co/maCjWD8Hjx

— Prof Yemi Osinbajo (@ProfOsinbajo) August 17, 2017

Reactions:

This is priority? How about dealing with root causes?

— CHYCHY CHUKWU (@CHYCHYCHUKWU) August 17, 2017

Nothing is more hateful than keeping Zakzaky &his wife in custody in defiance of several court orders. Prof, "change" starts wt u& ur party

— Jude C. Ndukwe (@stjudendukwe) August 17, 2017

Nothing is more hateful than Buhari's "dogs & baboon" statement or his wife's "lion, hyena & jackals" statement. Deal with that first

— Jude C. Ndukwe (@stjudendukwe) August 17, 2017

The 97% vs 5% policy of ur @APCNigeria govt is root cause of hate. U ppl ve continued that without apologies. Fix that first

— Jude C. Ndukwe (@stjudendukwe) August 17, 2017

Can there be anything more hateful than the minddless murders of defenceless Shiites & IPOB members by state agents? You need d line, not us

— Jude C. Ndukwe (@stjudendukwe) August 17, 2017

Am waiting patiently for the day law will be made against mismanagement and unnecessary medical trip abroad.

— THE SITUATION! (@mosbestdemoon19) August 17, 2017

Sir can you please relate this thread to the Zaria Shiite massacre, the Onitsha IPOB massacre and the Kaduna Igbo quit notice. Thank you. https://t.co/1CJIGRXo6W

— Ebube. (@EbubeIsaac) August 17, 2017

That's a welcome development sir. But do something more to dollar rate. Also get it known to the APC that Nigerians are loosing hope on them

— Bright Iroegbu Emman (@IroegbuBright) August 17, 2017

Instead of you to focus on fixing the cause of the hate speeches. Nigeria has never been this backward, your party has just less than 2years

— BOI AMANI. OHAMADIKE (@BOIAMANI) August 17, 2017

https://twitter.com/afalli/status/898153936166821888

this administration came on board through hate speeches, APC fuelled the fire that is burning in Nigeria today through hate speech.

— Ugi Augustine Ugi Jnr (@docaustyne) August 17, 2017

We dont even know if we still have a country; we have never ever been so divided and this happened all under the watch of APC.

— Ugi Augustine Ugi Jnr (@docaustyne) August 17, 2017

It's time you acted Presidential or just return to your church.

— Obinna Ukwueze (@ObinnaUkwueze) August 17, 2017

Coordinator-in-chief and Motivational speaker of the Federation. Fire on o. https://t.co/SBa5ufJ34S

— Mr Stanley Nwabia (@MrStanleyNwabia) August 17, 2017

Good development. Please can you also draw the line on epileptic power supply in Nig. today?

— Ganiyat Akin (@ganiyat_akin) August 17, 2017

Nail on the head, darling.