Defamation
can be defined as an act of damaging someone’s reputation by saying or writing
bad or false statement about the person which may lead to suing the persons
involving in this act to Court for damages. It is an act of sedition which
harms individual or government as to oppose their powers to duty or activities.
We
have series of defamation that exist in different sectors of life and economy
in Nigeria. And it is a crime to unjustly defame someone’s reputation in the
society as this will go a long way to damage his/her career as well as slow
down his progress in life. This is a call for serious case because if the
victims to this act should stand out for human right abuses; the instigators to
the act are liable to punishment of imprisonment according to Nigerian
constitution or they pay fine to consolidate the damages they cause the victim.
We
have had people published defamatory statements against opponents or political
opponents in the past especially in Nigeria, out of ignorant of constitutional
law governing this act. And this is where we centre our discussion of Character
defamation. Once again, we can say that defamation is any publication of a
statement which tends to lower a person in the estimation of right thinking members
of the society, generally or which tends to make them shun or avoid that person.
It is also any publication that points out and bring down a person’s prestige
in the society resulting to that person’s exposure to hatred, contempt,
ridicule and as well as make people to avoid and shun the victim or victims. It
includes any expression that exposes individual to be shunned or avoided as
this will go a long way to cost them, damages to their business or careers in
life. Defamation is any statement or publications that make people think worst
of you.
Now,
People had been defamed in one way or the other without given fairly justice to
their plight due to corruption ravaging the nation. Some others are even being
defamed with their photographs and video records as these are being displayed
before the social medias like Facebook.com, twitter.com and whatsup.com, yet
the bodies in charge of these media are doing nothing to stop the molestation
and ignorant of these touts that engage in indolent corruption.
Like
in Nigeria, it is an offense and equally unsafe to publish the photographs of
an accused person or mere suspect who has not yet been charged. But today, teenagers
between the ages of 12-18 years use social media to insult dignitaries. There
is urgent need for the government officials of nations to look into social media
as well as warn the managements of social media to sanction illegal and
unsupported pornographic pictures of innocent people being uploaded to the media
for mockery and shame. There are series of illegal publications with intention
to defame in the facebook.com especially. If proper arrest will begin from
Nigeria, People will stop this nonsense because Nigeria remains the backbone to
these corrupt practices.
Finally,
a lot of people were unable to attain to their future goals due to character
defamation. One thing is to destroy someone’s reputation in the society, and
another thing is when the law catches up with the suspects and found guilty of
the accusation. The punishment to this wickedness is in line with the human
right infringement, just like personating
which
means using someone’s name or position
to receive something without proper consultation of the person for permission
from such person is criminality. This act is liable to 14 years imprisonment
according to chapter 46 section 484 of Nigerian Constitution which state:
“Any person who,
with intent to defraud any person,
falsely
represents himself to be some other person,
living or dead,
is guilty of a felony, and is liable to
imprisonment for
three years. If the representation is
that the offender
is a person entitled by will or operation
of law to any
specific property and he commits the
offence to obtain
such property or possession thereof,
he is liable to
imprisonment for fourteen years.”
I
am not specifically saying that defamatory statement is 14 years imprisonment
as personating but it is treated as infringement on human right which should be
reported for high court of law for subsequent arrest of the culprits but as
specified in the Nigerian constitution is as follows subject to Chapter 33 section
375-376:
375 “Subject
to the provisions of this Chapter, any person
who of publishes any defamatory matter is
guilty of a
misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment
for one year;
and any person who publishes any
defamatory matter knowing
it to be false is liable to imprisonment for
two years.
376 Any person who publishes, or threatens to
publish,
or offers to abstain from publishing,
or offers to prevent
the publication of defamatory matter, with
intent to extort
money or other property, or with intent to
induce any person
to give, confer, procure, or attempt to
procure, to, upon, or for,
any person, any property or benefit of
any kind. is guilty of a
felony, and is liable to imprisonment
for seven years.”
To
this end, I am encouraging the federal government officials to set up anti
defamatory strong bodies that will look into Social media publication, News
paper Publication, Bloggers, and Broadcasting services etc. to wipe out
unsupported publication with intention to defame personalities rather than
curbing corruption and encouraging peace and unity in our Nation Nigeria. Long
live Federal Republic of Nigeria, Long live nations of the world.
Written
by
ONYIA EMEKA HARFORD
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