A major relic of the colonial era in Nigeria was the use of some
draconian statutes to suppress press freedom and freedom of expression
basically because of the inherent power of the media of mass communication to
serve as effective tool for mass mobilization against the colonialists seen
largely as oppressors.
The then colonial masters became jittery when pro-independence
campaigners like Alvan Ikoku, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ojike Mbonu, Kingsley
Mbadiwe; and Obafemi Awolowo to mention only but a few, began gaining control
of the local media in which they used it so well to preach nationalism and to
enlighten the people on the essence of self government.
Azikiwe who was schooled in the United States of America returned
during the colonial era to establish a chain of newspapers including the
Nigerian Pilot that generated a lot of interest across the then British colony
in West Africa. Awolowo was instrumental to the establishment of television
stations in Nigeria and he was behind the establishment of Tribune group of
newspapers that remains the longest serving privately published print medium in
Nigeria.
From a work titled “African Nationalism and the struggle
for freedom” published in http://www.pearsonhighered.com/ we
were told the simple truth why nationalism and anything related to it evoked
fear in the ruling colonial elites before Nigeria gained independence in 1960.
According to this social historian “African nationalism is a
subjective feeling of kingship or affinity shared by people of African descent.
It is a feeling based on shared cultural norms, traditional institutions,
racial heritage and a common historical experience”.
Soon after Nigeria gained political independence thanks to the
vibrancy of the activities of locally run print media among other patriotic
activities, the military struck and controlled the machinery of governance for
nearly forty years and the first casualty was media freedom. The common
denominator that linked these military dictators of post- independence Nigeria
with the colonial rulers, who retreated back to Britain from Nigeria on 1st
October 1960, was the resort to the use of many draconian anti-press laws left
behind by the Colonialists to suppress media freedom.
The history of how the then General Ibrahim Babangida’s
regime persecuted and imprisoned some three Journalists for alleged
treason is a notorious fact even as one of Nigeria’s famous journalists Mr.
Dele Giwa was killed by suspected/alleged State sponsored killer gang at
that time for his fearless journalism practice which gave the military
dictators sleepless nights.
In 1999 when civilian rule returned up until now, the expectation
of most Nigerians is that freedom of the media and other fundamental freedoms
enshrined in the constitution would be jealously guided, protected and
promoted.
But the opposite seems to be the case especially with the current
administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in which several instances of
press antagonism from the armed security operatives has assumed frightening
dimension.
Apart from the Nigeria police Force and the State Security
Services (SSS), the federal government under the current dispensation has been
accused of manipulating the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the
National film and video censors Board (NFVCB) to suppress media freedom as
against several constitutional provisions which ought to serve as safeguards
against these types of primitive attacks by the Nigerian State against the
media.
Before delving into the historical account of the many brutal
encounters the media practitioners of different media houses have experienced
over the last few months in the hands of the security agents, I will hereby
state some of the fundamental constitutional provisions that specifically
protects media freedoms.
Section 22 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) provides thus;
“The press, radio, television and other agencies of mass media shall at all
times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter
and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the
people”.
Chapter four of the constitution is replete with related
provisions in which the basic freedoms of expression and the media are
promulgated and are therefore binding on government to protect.
For the specific purpose of this reflection, section 39 of the
constitution comes in handy and will remain relevant. That section
aforementioned provides thus; “(1) every person shall be entitled to freedom of
expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas
and information without interference’.
But under the current dispensation, three ugly events have
happened which signpost hard times for media freedom in Nigeria similar to the
experiences of the founding fathers of journalism prior to the emergence of
independence.
On Tuesday February 12th 2013, The Guardian of United Kingdom ran
a story of the prosecution by the Nigerian police of three Kano-based
Journalists for allegedly inciting murders of polio workers.
The reporters who anchored a live program on the privately owned
Wazobia Fm radio Station in Kano State were picked up and charged to court for
airing a program that was critical to the polio vaccination program of the
federal government only hours before nine polio vaccinators were gruesomely
murdered.
The killing of the nine women volunteers conducting the polio
vaccination program in Kano state received national condemnation from a
cross segments of Nigerians particularly because of the ugly fact that Nigeria
is one of only three remaining countries in the World alongside war -torn
Pakistan and Afghanistan where the wild polio still afflict children.
The National Broadcasting commission [NBC] swiftly clamped
down on the Wazobia Fm radio station in Kano for allowing the airing of this
program which linked the polio vaccination program wrongly with a so-called
sinister plot of the Western powers to depopulate Northern Nigeria – whatever
that means!
Significantly, the British media house-The Guardian widely
interpreted the prosecution of these three reporters as another instance of
government persecution of the press.
Opinion, is however split on this particular case, because of the
obvious fact that precious lives of innocent women volunteers were ruthlessly
wasted by terrorists.
The guardian of Britain saw the prosecution of the three Kano
journalists in the following way; “The allegations against the journalists
working for Wazobia FM illustrate the continuing struggle over free speech in
Nigeria, a nation that only came out of military rule in 1999 and where
simply taking photographs on the street can get a person arrested. Attacks on
journalists remain common and unsolved killings of reporters still haunt the
country.”
The three journalists so charged but later granted bail are
Suleiman Gama, producer of the Hausa program; Sandar Girma, and Yakubu Musa;
also, Mr. Mubarak Malam, a reporter with the same Wazobia Fm was also
quizzed by the police.
On March 10th 2013, local media reported the arrest from the
state owned radio Nigeria station in Kaduna by the Kaduna police command
of the opposition Senator from Zamfara state and former governor of that North
West State of Zamfara – Mr. Ahmed Sani Yerima.
Senator Yerima, who was a guest was on the radio programme was
reported to have said if the Independent National Electoral Commission failed
to register the newly formed All Progressives Congress, leaders of the
party would embark on a peaceful protest to the Eagle Square, Abuja until INEC
registered the party.
The statement drew the ire of the state Police Commissioner, Mr.
Olufemi Adenaike, who stormed the radio station with his men and whisked Yerima
away to the police headquarters where the former governor was held for three
hours.
It was learnt by the local press present in Kaduna state that
supporters of the Senator later mobilised themselves to the police headquarters
but were resisted by the policemen on guard even as Yerima was however
released after being interrogated by the police.
At the police headquarters, the former governor was made to write
a statement on what he said during the radio program.
The statement as reported by Journalists read in parts: “My name
is Senator Ahmed Rufai Sani former Governor of Zamfara State, a Nigerian and
now a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Federal Radio
Corporation of Nigeria Kaduna invited me for a phone-in programme which took
place today March 9, 2013 at 10am and ended at 12pm. I was asked if there is
any move not to register our new party, APC, what can we do? And my response
was that if we met all the legal requirements and INEC refused to register us,
we shall embark on peaceful protest to INEC until we are registered. Then, the
moderator asked me what I meant by peaceful protest? Then I responded by saying
just like it happened in Egypt.
“We can go to Eagle Square together with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Sardauna Kano, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, and others to
mobilise people without using any weapon for a peaceful protest until our party
is registered.”
The arrest of this politician is a clear infraction by the police
of the freedom of expression of this Nigerian citizen and this is also another
grave attempt to muzzle press freedom.
As if the above instances of media repression were not sufficient
to warrant change of heart by the government officials, the local press has
also reported the alleged ban by the Nigerian film and video censors board of a
30 – minutes innocuous documentary program on the devastating effects that
theft of fuel subsidy fund by the powerful cabal with links to government has
wrecked on the nation’s economy.
Titled “fueling poverty” ,the documentary film titled “fueling
poverty” in the considered assessment of open society foundations, a
United States – based Non-Governmental organization, is an attempt to examine
the corruption and mismanagement of oil wealth in
Nigeria.
Mr.. Ishaya Bako’s film “fueling poverty” was set against
the backdrop of the January 2012 protests after the removal of the fuel
subsidy.
According to Open Society Foundations, the documentary is a story
that brings to life the plight of every day Nigerians, caught up in the
reckless policies of a government where corruption is the norm, rather than
exception, and impunity reigns. This is a home truth.
The reported ban of this beautiful documentary which I have
watched with admiration on the internet[YouTube] is not only an attack by the
Nigerian state against press freedom but also a negation of the constitutional
duty incumbent on government to fight corruption.
Section 15(5) of the Nigerian constitution obliges government to
fight corruption in all its ramifications and by all means possible including
production by both government and good citizens of Nigeria of any enlightenment
media program that will generate interest among Nigerians to fight corruption.
That provision aforementioned stated specifically that; “The State
shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power.” This film by citizen
Bako is a sincere attempt to expose corruption.
Lastly, the recent arrest and detention by the police of four
reporters of the Leadership Newspaper over a story on a
presidential directive which was repudiated by presidency officials, is a
return to suppression of the media reminiscent of military
dictatorship.
The Police Force Headquarters said the three reporters that
anchored the story and the Group News Editor of the Paper were required to appear
before the Deputy Inspector General of Police for interrogation on Monday April
8th 2013 but when four reporters from Leadership Newspapers responded to the
police summon they were immediately clamped into detention for failing to
disclose the source of their information on the said Presidential directive.
Following public outcry and a claim by the publishers of Leadership
Newspaper that the arrest and detention of the now freed four
Journalists was on the instruction to the police by President Jonathan, the
presidency denied but insisted that the police did the right thing.
The presidential Adviser Dr. Reuben Abati had defended the
police thus; “... President Jonathan did not have to issue any order before
those who have as much constitutional responsibility as the media, the police
to see the need to act in the public interest”.
But the sacred fact is that Nigerians roundly condemned the police
harassment of the leadership Newspaper not necessarily because
the media is above the law but because police arbitrary intimidation of the
media and the use of psychological torture to extract confessional statement
from citizens are fundamentally unconstitutional, illegal, and tyrannical and
must be eradicated if Nigeria’s democracy is to advance.
The presidency’s erroneous comparison of the Lord Justice
Leveson inquiry in the United Kingdom in the phone-hacking scandal of 13th July
2001, with the recent arrest and illegal detention of the four journalists
in Nigeria is inherently faulty even as the fact remains that unlike in
the United Kingdom whereby the Metropolitan police used civilized and rights –
based approach to obtain statement from the British Journalists indicted for
breaching privacy laws in their reportage, Nigeria police operatives believe
and indeed practice the use of crude tactics of psychological torture to compel
confessional statements from persons allegedly in conflict with the law.
As a signatory to the universal Declarations of Human Rights
[UDHR], and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and as a candidate
for consideration to join the United Nations Security Council
[UNSC], Nigeria is obliged to respect media freedom and the police must be
compelled to use fair means to investigate alleged breach of extant statutes by
Journalists.
*
Emmanuel Onwubiko is head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA and blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
15/4/2013
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