{"id":20104,"date":"2018-08-21T20:24:49","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=20104"},"modified":"2018-08-21T20:24:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:24:49","slug":"before-buhari-tampers-with-press-freedom-again-by-martins-oloja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=20104","title":{"rendered":"Before Buhari Tampers with Press Freedom Again by Martins Oloja"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.newsroom247.com.ng --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Even if we encourage ourselves by wishing for peaceful coverage of the 2019 election processes, as journalists, there are warning signals for us to prepare for war with this administration. Reason: most of us are beginning to discern that despite their assurances since May 2015, they are set to tinker ruthlessly with press freedom for their \u2018Project 2019\u2019.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">On March 16, 2015, the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari told the newspapers\u2019 proprietors and editors: \u201cI won\u2019t tamper with press freedom\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Buhari, who then said a change revolution was imminent in the country without firing a shot also assured the influential members of the Newspapers\u2019 Proprietors Association of Nigeria( NPAN) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors ( NGE) at an interaction in Abuja: \u201cI want to give you my full assurances that in this democratic dispensation, I will ensure that the Nigerian constitution is upheld. This includes respect for the media, respect for the right to free expression and freedom of speech\u2026.I have said elsewhere that I cannot change the past. But I can change the present and the future. Dictatorship goes with military rule as do edicts such as Decree 4\u2026However, I am a former-former\u2026, note the emphasis on the word \u2018former\u2019\u2013 military ruler and now a converted democrat, who is ready to operate under democratic norms&#8230;.I give you my full assurances that the Nigerian media will be free under our APC government.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">After his speech, Buhari responded to questions from some publishers and editors at the session.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But it was not without some drama when the President of NPAN, Prince Nduka Obaigbena, asked Buhari if he was ready to apologise \u00a0to two journalists who were jailed in 1984 under Decree 4.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Immediately after Obaigbena asked the question, the Director-General of APC Presidential Campaign Organization then, Governor Rotimi Amaechi said: \u201cGen. Buhari had already answered that question by saying he cannot change the past but he can change the present and the future.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Sadly, there have been stark realities and recent signals that the Buhari administration will not honour his covenant with the Nigerian Press organization: he is set to tamper with press freedom again, this time for re-election.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">No doubt, the administration\u2019s hit men will go after opposition figures ruthlessly and the independent journalists will be treated as part of the opposition and detained.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In the end, the loose cannons and spokespersons in the administration will give the journalists of conscience the Jones-Abiri treatment: link them to terrorism and other related criminal activities, detain them and tell the human rights and international press bodies that the journalists are all criminals and scoundrels.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Even when they report the truth, they can be charged with a dead law such as sedition and there will be court orders to detain them as they just did to \u201cPremium Times\u201d Samuel Ogundipe the police curiously detained and asked to disclose the source of his information about police letter.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Sadly, yes sadly, some media organs and even journalism professional bodies, which artfully serve the interest of state actors and governing parties will keep quiet as we did to Jones Abiri before \u201cThe Guardian\u201d robust editorial exposed the lies, complicity and curious silence of even the Nigerian Press Organisation when the International Press Institute (IPI) asked for the release of Jones Abiri on\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_275979604\"><span class=\"aQJ\">23 June<\/span><\/span>\u00a0this year when President Buhari was declaring the IPI annual convention open in Abuja.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Recall that government had lied to the IPI saying no journalist was detained in Nigeria and the NUJ officials kept quiet.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Same for citizen Samuel Ogundipe: some local newspapers never published the detention of the \u201cPremium Times\u201d reporter just as some others curiously kept the story inside.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I have a dream that the current DSS acting boss will retire very soon and another hit man, another Daura\u2019s nominee will emerge to replace Daura as DSS chief executive. I remember my old Pastor Kunle Omotosho\u2019s book titled, \u201cGoliath Hath Children\u201d in which he exposed the hasty celebration of the enemies of Goliath who did not know that the fallen strongman, (Goliath) actually had some chips off the old blocks, yes, some callous children too who actually rose to terrorise the Davids of the time.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=16867&amp;ad_type=62&amp;rl=180\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Behold, I have a dream that this Inspector General of Police who meretriciously responded the other day to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo\u2019s directive to overhaul SARS that same day with just a name change and replacement of Commissioner in charge of SARS and ordered arrest of three journalists of \u201cPremium Times\u201d that same day, will do more when election campaigns proper begin soon.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Certainly, the Commander-in-Chief who appointed the hit men, including the EFCC Chairman who wears Buhari\u2019s second-term campaign lapel everywhere he goes, the IGP, etc returned to the country last night. He is expected to nominate a new DSS boss who may be more resourceful than Daura.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">It is within his powers to even reinstate the man (Daura) who kicked out his former boss, Kayode Are, (former DG, DSS)from his Lagos home on December 2, 2015, detained Jones Abiri for two years and denied it, raided the homes of Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Justices at dawn, broke into Akwa Ibom Government House\u2019s cash vaults and claimed he carted away dollars never reported as exhibits anywhere.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">President Buhari can reinstate Daura and nothing will happen. In February this year, the President ignored the Health Minister and asked the suspended NHIS Executive Secretary, Usman Yusuf being investigated by the EFCC and ICPC to return to his office and that ended the investigation.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">There was a confirmation that the Acting President actually obtained some digital evidence from the President before the sack of former DG, DSS, Daura two weeks ago.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But that evidence will not be significant if the Commader-in-Chief decides to reinstate Daura. After all, there is no Gani Fawehinmi here anymore to issue a statement against indecency and impunity and thereafter head for the court to charge the leader with indecency and improper reinstatement.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Before we recall Femi Adesina\u2019s assurance on November 26, 2016 that Buhari had no intention of tampering with press freedom again when he spoke with then new executive of State House Correspondent\u2019s Corps, we should remember that the present administration has no respect for the independent press, after all.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">And that is why \u201cThe Punch\u201d State House correspondent, Lekan Adetayo who was unceremoniously sent packing by the CSO to the President, Bashir Abubakar since April 2017, has not returned to his beat because the powerful CSO refused to apologise as decently demanded by the management of \u201cThe Punch\u201d. The President, his Information Minister and his two spokesmen who are former Presidents of the Nigerian Guild of Editors have not intervened since April 2017.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">In the same vein, before we quote our only Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka who in June this year at the same IPI convention curiously noted that President Buhari would not tamper with press freedom again, we should also remember that even in global context, strong men would always temper with press freedom. They will tell you they will not tamper with freedom of expression, but as Idi Amin of Uganda, once a strong man, had noted, unfortunately, there would be no freedom guaranteed after expression.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">First, they came for the jugular of free and independent press when they collaborated with the federal legislature to introduce an anti- \u00a0social media bill, sponsored by Senator Bala Ibn Na\u2019Allah (APC, Kebbi State). The sponsor said then that the bill was intended to prevent unwarranted negative spotlight on public and political office holders. All stakeholders roundly rejected the hateful bill as a masked gag on the media.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Then in March this year, they came with another toxic one called \u201cHate Speech Bill\u201d again sponsored by Senator Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger State), who said the bill, which carried a death sentence seeks \u201cto eliminate hate speech and discourage harassment on the grounds of ethnicity, religion or race among others. The veil is not there as it is obvious Nigeria\u2019s state actors would like to limit press freedom through that subterfuge approach.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">According to a provision in the bill, \u201cany person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and\/or directs the performance of any material, written and\/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words, commits and offence\u201d. The penalties are scary: a jail sentence of not less than five years or a fine of not less than N10 million or both and a death sentence \u201cwhere any form of hate speech results in the death of another person\u201d. Both bills are dead.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">But in the media, we are still vigilant as \u201cthe snake, (the antisocial media and hate speech bill) \u201cis only scotched and not killed\u201d.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Barely a month ago, the same stakeholders were in the same National Assembly where they had to condemn the appearance of a more hateful, anti-media bill called \u201cPress Council Amendment Bill 2018, to regulate the news media and \u2018assist\u2019 in registering journalists in Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">So, as the lion returned at the weekend from the U.K, we will remember that in 1984, he fulfilled his promise in a \u201c<span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_275979605\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Sunday<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Concord\u201d interview that he would tamper with press freedom. He did and two journalists at \u201cThe Guardian\u201d, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor were jailed on July 5, 1984, no thanks to Decree.No.4 enacted because of the perceived role of the press in the then N2.8 billion oil money controversy when Buhari was Petroleum Resources Minister.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">All told, state actors who seek to suppress press freedom for politics should note that no strong man in history has survived attempts to suppress freedom of expression, which is fortified by the notion of press freedom.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">So, they should expect tough questions now on their stewardship and service delivery in the last three years and three months. Reason: Nigeria is too important to be left to the whims and caprices of strong and hit men in the country at this moment.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Besides, Nigeria\u2019s state actors should take some time to study most of the significant editorials in the 350 U.S newspapers and magazines the \u201cBoston Globe\u201d coordinated last week on the U.S President\u2019s consistent attack on press freedom.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">All the editorials concluded that, journalists are not the enemy (of the people).<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Specifically, our state actors should read a U.S Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on a libel case in 1964 on the role and freedom of the press as quoted (last week too) by \u201cThe New York Times\u201d sued then:<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u201cPublic discussion is a political duty\u2026 to the extent that, that discussion must be, \u201cuninhibited, robust, and wide-open\u201d and \u201cmay well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials\u201d.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">I hope some news media managers in Nigeria too would learn from this judicial pronouncement, which defines our role at such a time like this, even as we enter the most sensitive election coverage in our history.(Guardian)<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.newsroom247.com.ng --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even if we encourage ourselves by wishing for peaceful coverage of the 2019 election processes, as journalists, there are warning signals for us to prepare for war with this administration. Reason: most of us are beginning to discern that despite their assurances since May 2015, they are set to tinker ruthlessly with press freedom for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[1228,2479,4997,1046,4998,212],"class_list":["post-20104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-bala-ibn-naallah","tag-jones-abiri","tag-lekan-adetayo","tag-nduka-obaigbena","tag-samuel-ogundipe","tag-wole-soyinka"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/buhari-4.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-5eg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20105,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20104\/revisions\/20105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}