‘Koboko’ versus the pen

Editorial

In a warped and wryly poetic twist of the iconic proverb, “The pen is mightier than the sword” first written in 1839 by an English novelist, Edward George Bulwer Lytton, to portray the superior value of communication over action in conflict resolution, the Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi, last week told journalists, “If you have the pen, we have the ‘koboko”.

This outburst from the governor preceded the euphoric and authoritarian ‘ban’ he handed two journalists, The Sun’s Chijioke Agwu and Vanguard’s Peter Okutu, from the government house and all government facilities in the state. In his words, “Okutu is fond of degrading Ebonyi State, and I don’t know why my officials have allowed him to continue to do that, because he is not from Ebonyi State. I want to ban him for life with Chijioke Agwu. I don’t want to see them anywhere in any government facility”.

The governor also upbraided the Nigeria Union of journalists (NUJ) in the state for ‘failing’ to discipline their members. He threatened to seize their two months allowances. He told the journalists that he cannot guarantee their safety as they might be attacked by the angry people of the state for causing panic through false reports about Lassa fever infestation and the invasion by the military in one local government.

Following the media backlash after his utterances, the governor held another press conference to offer what we consider a very perfunctory apology that again showed how some Nigerian leaders show contempt for journalists and the media in general. His comparison of his unconstitutional action of banning journalists from government facilities that are not his personal property, and a misunderstanding between a father and his sons, is regrettable. This merely shows how some Nigerian leaders abuse power.

For the chief security officer of a state that swore an oath to protect and secure people in the state, we consider his threats of not being able to guarantee the safety of the journalists, and reminding one that he is not an indigene of the state as very inciting, discriminatory and an abdication of responsibility. The journalists were arrested and later released.

Bandying a puerile apology to journalists with an annoying father and son analogy just shows the governor’s gross messianic complex. Perhaps his apology would have been sufficient if this was his first brush with journalists. But the governor has been very notorious for harassing journalists since his first term. Jeff Amechi Ogbodo, Obinna Odogwu and Emmanuel Uzor, all of The Sun newspaper,  the publisher of People’s Leader Newspaper, Samuel Nweze, Charles Otu of Conscience Newspaper and many others all have sad experiences with the governor.

While we do not support journalists peddling rumours or reporting falsehood, we are sad that Governor Umahi has serially harassed journalists. Even if he feels that any journalist had published any false report, there are channels and agencies that he can approach for redress. We find it curious that the governor, while alleging unfair reporting, has not cared to present what he feels to be the correct story. His actions and verbal threats are all characteristics of authoritarian leaders who assume, like Louis XIV, who at the height of his despotic rule declared, L’etat c’est moi (I am the state). Calling journalists his sons is not only very disrespectful but symptomatic of the attitude of most Nigerian leaders who behave as though all other professionals and citizens exist at their mercy. The governor has his job cut out just like the journalists have theirs. And these are not necessarily mutually antagonistic.

It is high time the NUJ devised means of gaining financial independence to stop media owners or government officials from taking undue advantage of journalists because of financial issues. It is wrong for the journalists to be collecting allowances from the state government that is not their employer. So, the union must stop this unethical practice in the state and any other place where such exists. He who pays the piper is bound at some point to not only dictate the tune but to add some other indignities to the payment.

We hope that the governor can now learn to work with journalists as watchdog of the society that owe neither him nor any other politician any form of allegiance. We equally hope he realises that the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) was signed into law for a reason. Let him do his job and leave the media to do theirs in peace. That is the best form of apology in a democracy.