The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has called for the establishment of an Electoral Offences Commission to deal with electoral offences that will arise from next year’s general election.
The commission’s Director of Legal Services, Mr. Ibrahim Bawa, said the commission should be set up because INEC does not have the resources to prosecute electoral crimes.
He spoke in Owerri, the Imo State capital at a programme by the Lawyers in the Media (LIM) forum of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) during its Annual General Conference.
Removing the responsibility of prosecuting those involved in electoral fraud and offences, he said, would enhance INEC’s concentration on logistics.
According to him, the commission will deter potential offenders from violating the electoral laws.
Presenting the Keynote address titled: “Media, law and the struggle for good governance in Nigeria: 100 years after, the journey so far”, Chairman, NBA Election Working Group, Dafe Akpedeye (SAN), said no institution, not even the body of lawyers, civil rights activists or other civil society groups, has done and sacrificed more in the fight for good governance in Nigeria, than the media.
According to him, the media has been the most persecuted and vilified by the authorities in power.
“The press (electronic and print media, and in recent times online media) of any nation is regarded as the fourth estate of the realm: It is saddled with the responsibility of serving as watch-dogs of the activities of the government and their various agencies, reporting on events and occurrences.
“The press is also expected to enlighten the citizenry of these occurrences, proffering solutions to socio-cultural and economic challenges. In so doing, the Press helps in shaping the mindset of the populace and in effect the policies of the government,” he said.
Tracing the history of the media, Akpedeye said its vibrancy dated back to the colonial times, saying the country can boast of the freest and most outspoken media in Africa.
The media, he said, had however, been the target of harassment by both the past military dictatorships and the civilian governments.
“Many agents of the media have been imprisoned, exiled, tortured, or murdered. Among them was the late Ogoni activist and television producer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was tried by a kangaroo tribunal and executed for treason on the orders of the late General Sani Abacha in 1995. This was done without recourse to the accused right of appeal (resulting in the expulsion of Nigeria from the Commonwealth of Nations and sanctions from many nations),” he said.
Akpedeye who recalled the activities of the media from pre-Independence era to post-Independence Nigeria, canvassed an urgent need to protect its practitioners.
“Despite the backing of the judiciary to extend protections for a free press, Nigeria remains a dangerous place to practice journalism. Sharia, or Islamic law courts, which operate in 12 northern states, demonstrate antagonism toward free expression, and Sharia statutes impose severe penalties for alleged press offenses,” Akpdeye said.
He continued: “One major threat to press freedom and public safety in 2011 was the violent campaign by the militant Islamist sect, Boko Haram, whose wave of bombings, assassinations and intimidation have claimed hundreds of lives during the year. The group is seeking to impose strict Islamic laws over all of Nigeria. In October of that year, the group carried out one of its most brazen attacks on journalists, when its members allegedly shot and killed Zakariya Isa, a reporter and cameraman for the state-owned Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) as he covered the aftermath of one of the sect’s bomb attacks in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.”
Other acts of intimidation against the press in 2011, according to him, included more than 30 attacks on press freedom before April 2011 presidential, legislative, and gubernatorial elections.
Journalists, he said, were targets of ill-disciplined police and State Security Service (SSS) agents, who arrested and detained them for brief periods without any authorisation. “Separately, in October 2011, the police raided the offices of The Nation newspapers, seeking information on how the medium obtained a letter from former President Olusegun Obasanjo to President Jonathan outlining former’s desire for Jonathan to replace the leaders of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and four other agencies with his own candidates. After the newspaper refused to disclose such information, police arrested four editors and two journalists. However, they were released and charges against them were never filed. There are motley of cases of the murder of journalists’over the years which have remained unsolved,” he noted.
According to him, the journalistic fervour and zeal inherent in traditional journalism have gradually faded, giving way to biased reportage, money-induced, favourable reviews and lazy journalism.
“Of utmost concern is in the obvious lack of investigative journalism. It is rare, if not uncommon, to find present day Nigerian journalists going through the drudgery of researching on events, stories or expected occurrences.
“The unfortunate norm in present day Nigeria is the knack for journalists to sit in front of computer screens, typing on the key-board, manufacturing baseless stories with the intention of second-guessing the minds of the Nigerian populace who have over the years been deep in high scale gullibility (an attribute the media men exploit by filling the newsstand with stories suited to feeding the populace with concocted stories they love to hear.)
Akpedeye accused politicians of helping in dragging the profession in the mud. “This is done in connivance with deep-pocket politicians, who are mainly interested in furthering their political benefits, notwithstanding the potential negative effects their actions will have on the nation. The extent of politicians’ desperation and press-manipulative tendencies is evident in their insistence to perpetuate laws that are inconsistent with modern progressive journalism,” he said.
He, however, said blogging on the social media (online journalism) has become a much safer and easier conduit for Nigeria’s growing internet-enabled minority to express their dissatisfactions with the current state of affairs in Nigeria.
Speaking on the topic: “Pronouncing and enforcing legal penalties for the violation of political advertisements in Nigeria: Apcon’s role and journey so far”, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) ‘s Registrar, Alhaji Garba Bello Kankarofi, represented by the former LIM Chairman, Mr. Charles Odenigbo, said: “To check political advertising abuses, we urge you to contact APCON if you see, read or hear adverts that seem to contain such abuses.”
He asked them to write to the Registrar/CEO, APCON, noting that APCON alone could not enforce the law.
He urged the media to collaborate with council to ensure that politicians play according to the rules of the games.
The former NBA chief, Mr. Joseph Bodunrin Daudu (SAN) said the media has been very proactive before and after the independence. He noted that without a virile and independent press, no nation, no matter how highly gifted, could develop.
Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama (SAN), represented by the Director-General, Vox-Populi, Mr. John Egwuonwu, said the journalistic zeal of the media had remained undaunted from pre-independence era, noting that the advent of social media has its own challenge for traditional media.
He urged the media to continue its watchdog responsibility in the interest of the country by holding governments accountable to the people.
