This article is meant to achieve three objectives. First, to demonstrate that since the Farouk Mutallab incident of attempted suicide bombing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been making frantic efforts at de-listing Nigeria from the list of countries tagged state sponsors of terrorism. This writer insists that Nigeria has been neck-deep in domestic terrorism even against the mass media.
Secondly, the article is not only designed to catalogue state terrorism against the mass media but to make a clarion call to all Nigerians to urge the National Assembly to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, which has been confined to the morgue for upwards of two years, to pass it into an Act. Finally, to thank the online media for the courage to publish articles which, otherwise would not have seen the light of day in the conventional print media in Nigeria, some of which operate on the basis of market principles .
The freedom of expression and the press is one of the rights nature has given man. Democratic countries around the world have clamoured for the sustenance of this fundamental right. Similarly, democratic constitutions have provided for the enjoyment and protection this unique freedom in tandem with the law of natural justice and the ethos of constitutionals.
This right enables the citizens to express their opinions concerning public policy. And such views, when expressed in a constructive manner can help to chart a safe direction for government in policy formulation and Implementation. The freedom of expression and the press is a veritable tool in the hands of the fourth estate of the Realm to articulate the views of the masses on issues that bother on governance it is the freedom of expression that empower the citizens to engage constructive criticism and make their input into the business of governance.
It is on the strength of this law that Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution stipulates the right to freedom of expression and the press, which entitles every citizen to hold opinions, and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. In Nigeria, the ordinary man was denied this natural right during the despicable era of military tyranny. But now, the suffocating mask of military rule has been unveiled Nigerians are breathing the free air of democracy, and those who exercise their freedom of expression in the benefit of society should not be subjected to any form of discrimination or victimization.
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When people express their frank opinions about what they feel should be the ideal, such opinions should not be interpreted to mean an affront on political power holders. The press owes the Nigerian public the obligation of fighting for progress and reform. In doing so, the press should never tolerate injustice and corruption; oppose privileged class and plunderers of the common wealth without regard for the welfare of the masses. The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, oppression and injustice. And the protection of this freedom is the obligation of the press journalism is not a flotsam jetsam profession but a profession of serious minded people committed to fighting for the survival of the people.
From 1979 to the return of the Military in Dec. 1983, several decrees and anti-press laws were made to curtail press freedom. Some of the laws include: Circulation of Newspaper Decree No 2, 1966; The Defamatory and Offensive Publications Decree No. 44, 1966; Newspaper Prohibition of circulation Decree No 17 1967 and the Public Officers (Protection against false accusation) Decree No 11 1976. Others are the Newspaper (Prohibition of circulation) (validation) Decree No 12, 1978; Nigerian Press Council Decree 31, 1978, Daily Times of Nigeria (Transfer of Certain Shares) Decree No 101, 1979.
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From Dec. 31, 1983 when the military returned to power till the Buhari Idiagbon regime, most of the anti-press laws were churned out. Some of them deserve a mention here. There was the Constitution (Suspension and Modification) Decree No, 1 1984; the State security (detention of Persons) Decree 2, 1984 public officers (protection against false accusation) Decree No 4 1984; and the Federal Military Government (Supremacy and Enforcement of Powers Decree No 13, 1984. This trend continued till the time of General Sani Abacha.
The Buhari regime promulgated the (Public Protection Against False Accusation) Decree No 4 of 1984. Under this law, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor were jailed for one year and the Guardian fined N50,00 on July 4, 1984. In October 17, 1989, Dele Giwa was invited by the State Security Service and accused him of gun running. Two days after, Dele Giwa was killed by parcel bomb. This was followed enough, in April 1984, s proscribed for reporting the decision of the Cookey led political Bureau. Decree No 6 of 1987 was later promulgated to lift the earlier proscription.
Under the Babangida and Abacha regimes newspapers/magazines were proscribed and media houses were shut at will for daring to “inform the public of their dubious activities.” As if closing down would not do, arsonists, hired killers and hit squad (Strike Force) were let loose on the press, to burn media houses (arsonists were caught setting Guardian Newspapers office on fire in 1996 or thereabout), kill journalists (Dele Giwa got ‘parcel bombed’ in 1986
In August 1998, Okozie Amarube, a journalist working for News Service in Enugu State, a magazine that has been forthright in its criticism of officialdom and corruption, was shot by the police when they raided the magazine’s printing press and later died in hospital from his wounds. Latest reports suggest that a policeman was arrested and remains in detention in connection with Amarube’s death.
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In November 1998, Ayodele Akele, a civil servant working for Lagos State, was sacked by the state administration for his trade union activities and criticism of the military government. He remains out of work. The outgoing military governor of Lagos State has stated that he should never be re-employed and should be re-arrested if he tries to enter government premises.
In early February 1999, a team of policemen stormed the editorial offices of The News and the premises of the Satellite Press, a printing company, and detained three journalists for several hours before releasing them. They also seized and confiscated copies of The News. The News was intending to publish a story on official corruption during the Abacha era.
On 11 February 1999, Lanre Arogundade, Chairman of the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), was arrested and briefly detained, apparently in connection with his peaceful trade union activities. On 25 April 1999, he was once again arrested. On 4 May 1999, he was formally arraigned before a Magistrates Court in Ibadan on charges of conspiracy and murder in connection with the death of Bolade Fasasi, the former treasurer of the Lagos State Council of the NUJ in March. The police acted on the basis of petitions from well-known political opponents of Arogundade who had been expelled from the Lagos State Council of the NUJ. On 14 May 1999, Lanre Arogundade was granted bail by Ibadan High Court on payment of Naira 250,000 (US$2500) and the nomination of two sureties of the same value, one of which should be based on landed property in Ibadan. These bail conditions were met only with great difficulty by supporters of Lanre Arogundade. Several days later, Lanre Arogundade was released on bail. ARTICLE 19 calls for the dropping of all charges against him.
There were also incidents of harassment of journalists working in the publicly owned media at state level. For example, in late February 1999, two journalists working for the Nigerian Observe in Benin City, Edo State, were suspended for having published criticisms of the parliamentary elections by international observers.
There are a number of unresolved cases which need to be addressed urgently. By the new civilian government, one of those is the politically-motivated charges against Lanre Arogundade. But there are also the cases of Bagauda Kaltho, Kaduna correspondent of The News, and Chinedu Offoaro, a journalist with The Guardian. When the UN Special Rapporteur on Nigeria visited Nigeria in November 1998, ARTICLE 19 and Media Rights Agenda asked him to raise the cases of these journalists, who “disappeared” in 1996. The Nigerian authorities claimed during 1998 that Bagauda Kaltho died while engaging in an act of terrorism. Both men are rumoured to be dead after being detained by security agents. ARTICLE 19 calls on the new civilian government to institute an independent judicial inquiry into these “disappearances”. Such a step would represent a blow against the culture of impunity which has reigned in Nigeria for so long and bring hope to the families of both men that the truth about their fate may be finally uncovered. Failure to do so will only strengthen the case made by some within the human rights and pro-democracy movements that an independent truth and reconciliation commission is required in Nigeria if the country is to honestly reckon with the past. This is, in any case, something which the new civilian government should actively consider. The “disappearances” of Bagauda Kaltho and Chinedu Offoaro are specifically referred to in the Ota Platform of Action.
On 13 January 1999, Kennedy Esi, aged 30, was arrested by police officers in Omoku, Ogba-Egbema, Ndoni Local Government Area in Egiland, Rivers State, in possession of IYC leaflets. He was detained for 22 days before the intervention of the Civil Liberties Organization helped to secure his release on bail. He came before Omoku Magistrates’ Court on 23 March 1999. The charge sheet gave the charge as possession of two leaflets “likely to cause a breach of the peace”, citing Section 430(1) of the Criminal Code of Eastern Nigeria. The Civil Liberties Organization pointed out that this section actually referred to the offence of burglary and called for the case to be struck out by the magistrate on the grounds that it was a political case. The prosecution applied for permission to amend the charge sheet, without specifying how or why. The magistrate adjourned the case.
Godfrey Okolo, the 49 year-old External Relations Coordinator of the Movement for the Survival of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality for the Niger Delta (MOSIEND), related to ARTICLE 19 and Media Rights Agenda the circumstances surrounding his recent detention and brush with death at the hands of “Operation Salvage”, the Bayelsa State variant of the special anti-crime squads established across large parts of the country established during the Abacha period. These squads, whose equivalent in Lagos is the notorious “Operation Sweep”, combine army and police personnel.
Okolo was amongst those who ousted a more “moderate” MOSIEND leadership in 1995. In 1998 he became involved in a dispute between youths and elders within the Peramabiri community, near Diebu Creek flow station over 5 million Naira (about US $50,000) which had allegedly been paid to the elder dominated Community Development Committee (CDC) by Shell. He supported the youths against the elders, who lost control of the CDC. Some of the youths were later accused of embezzlement and seizing Shell equipment. The elders sought to regain control over the CDC.
On 6 March 1999 Okolo alleges that he was arrested by “Operation Salvage” personnel in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, at the instigation of one of the elders from the Peramabiri community, who called him a “terrorist” and “subversive”. He claims that he was taken to an “Operation Salvage” office for interrogation. While there he was allegedly beaten on the back with a horse-whip and told he was going to be killed. Shots were fired close to where he sat on the ground. He claims that he was rescued by the officer in charge, a Major Oputa, who took him to the main police station, where he was held until 19 March before being released without charge. Okolo showed a representative of ARTICLE 19 the scars on his back from the horse-whipping.
In Nigeria, the trial and execution in 1995 of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni minority activists prompted widespread international revulsion. Yet hundreds of Ogoni had already died during 1993-4 in a campaign of informal repression orchestrated by the security forces, who had encouraged rivalry between the Ogoni and the Andoni, Okrika and Ndoki. Else where in Nigeria, the authorities have a long track record of using religious and ethnic divisions to weaken the opposition and target individuals and communities opposed to military rule for example, the Zango-Kataf conflict in Kaduna State in the north in the early 1990s.
Decree No. 35 of 1993, the Offensive Publications (Proscription) Decree was promulgated to prohibit the publication of what government regarded as offensive. This was followed by the promulgation of Decree No. 48 of 1993 while proscribed Concord Group of Newspaper. The Newspapers registration decree was an attempt by the Babangida regime to regulate the press by laying down stringent conditions. However, on Nov. 18 1999, Justice Ilori of Ikeja High Court annulled the Decree.
The military government went to the bizarre extent of prescribing death sentence for any journalist that published what the government perceived to be inciting. The Abacha regime clamped down on three privately owed newspapers: Guardian, Concord and Punch. When Babangida mounted the podium of power he repealed Decree No 4 which turned the press into a toothless bulldog. Within a year the Abacha administration descended heavily on the privately owned press. The Tell Magazine was prohibited from circulation and vendors who were found with the magazine in public were promptly arrested and detained without trial.
On September 10, 1997, Arit Igiebor wife of the Tell Editor-in-chief was arrested and detained. On November 18 1997, Nduka Obaigbena Editor- in-Chief of ThisDay was detained by security operatives. In 1996, the offices of the Guardian, the News were torched by government arsonists. Chris Anyawu, publisher of TSM, Kunle Ajibade, editor the News George Mba Senior Editor Tell, Charles Obi, Editor of defunct Classique all were jailed 15 years for making unbiased reports on the 1995 video coup saga. Niran Malaolu, editor of the Diet also bagged life imprisonment (Daramola, 1999:43-44.
Journalists in performing their civic responsibilities are often accused of subversion, espionage and plotting coup. Baguada Kaltho-the Kano State correspondent of the News was branded a terrorist and murdered in mysterious circumstances. Femi Adeoti, Editor Sunday Tribune and 40 others were charged with sedition in May 18, 1998. A Journalist with the Champion was attacked and robbed in Abeokuta before Tunde oladekpo was assassinated. Indeed the press in Nigeria has suffered violence and Journalists have passed through the crucible of fire especially under military tyranny.
Since the return to civil rule on May 29, 1999, the Nigerian press has not witnessed too much official harassment.” But there are few reported cases of isolated official high-handedness against the press. The one that readily comes to mind is the brutalization of the Vanguard newspaper’s photojournalist by security operatives attached to the Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, early 2005.
The journalist was beaten to a state of coma and almost lost his life. However, lately, the government seems to be after the press again. Two journalists, Gbenga Aruleba and Rotimi Durojaiye of African Independent Television (AIT) and Daily Independent newspaper respectively, were arrested and arraigned in June 2006 for calling the recently purchased Presidential Jet a fairly used or Tokunbo (second-hand) jet while the Federal government claimed the jet is brand-new. The irony of it all is that the journalists were charge under a moribund law, the Sedition Act, a law that has been declared null and void by a competent court of law, the Court of Appeal, since 1983.
Under the military, the freedom of expression and the press is repressed because a free press exposes the evils of primitive accumulation and its attendant negative effects on the society. Corruption is said to have rendered our social infrastructure inefficient and has contributed to the prevailing problem of unemployment. Nigeria is a nation where there is high level of contract inflation, embezzlement and diversion of monies in banks, industries and other parastatals. All these evils weaken the rule of law and constitutionalism. A nation that neglects accountability pushes her population to frustration, anomie and criminality. It is high time world leaders knew that the horrendous calamities caused by the Nigerian ruling class, amount to terrorism at least in a domestic sense. It then remains to be seen whether the terrorist-minded 23 year old Farouk Mutallab is not as guilty as the corrupt, inept leaders who have imposed untold suffering to the people. My verdict is that the ruination and bastardization of the economy by the corrupt political poses a growing and graver danger than terrorism in our landscape.
This is why the National Assembly should resurrect the FOI Bill and fast-track its passage into an Act to enable media practitioners have access to vital information that would enable them carry out their social responsibility functions to the Nigerian society and the global community. For now, the Nigeria state is notorious for terrorism against the mass media, and only in 2009, more than 15 Journalists were assassinated. Until the FOI Act is past and the state stops press censorship, Nigeria should also be listed as a terrorist nation by the International Union of Journalists and other associated international pressure groups, Civil Society Groups, Non-Governmental Organizations and media organizations.
Idumange John, is a University Lecturer and Activist
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