Tag: Daily Trust

THE Abuja-based national newspaper, Daily Trust, must by now be reeling from accusations of being indiscrete in publishing a story on the Nigerian military’s effort to retake Baga and some other five towns in Borno State lost to Boko Haram in recent weeks. Most journalism analysts, including the President of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chris Isiguzo, believe that the paper erred in publishing the story entitled “Military prepares massive operation to retake Baga, others”, complete with a map of the contested areas. The publication, the analysts and the military suggested, undermined national security and compromised the safety of troops and the success of the campaign. Beyond this general and disputed conclusion, the analysts and the military have offered no specifics against the January 6, 2019 story.

While none of the analysts has justified the military invasion of the Daily Trust offices in Maiduguru, Abuja and Lagos, during which computers and phones of editorial staff were carted away, the critics are almost unanimous that the paper should have restrained itself from publishing the story. Restraint is not a bad thing at all for anybody, not to talk of a newspaper whose stories could lead to terrible consequences and conflagrations. But in this case, by publishing the story, the paper has in fact served journalism very well. Daily Trust must be encouraged to continue to trust its carefully considered judgements on news. While it is a little obvious that the paper’s editors must have debated whether to publish the story or not, especially at the time it did, Nigeria and Nigerian journalists must be grateful that the paper finally published the report and helped to throw up a lot of issues surrounding the publication, the military, the state of the rule of law, and Nigerian democracy as a whole.

There are indications that before the paper published the controversial story military authorities had invited some Nigerian newspaper editors to Maiduguri for a background briefing on the counterinsurgency operations in the Northeast. The discussions were said to be strictly off record. It is not clear whether the Daily Trust report contained some of the confidential discussions, but eventually, after debating whether to publish or not, the paper went ahead to present the story to the public. It is healthy for newspaper editors to debate stories, but it is even healthier that stories such as the paper published on January 6, 2019 get published. The paper has been damned with faint praise by many commentators. This column applauds the paper unequivocally for many reasons, and encourages them to retain confidence in their editorial judgement.

Having read and reread the story, this column can find no part of the report where national security or troops safety was undermined, no matter how strictly or liberally the report is read and interpreted. The newspaper accompanied the story with a map. But it was neither a military nor tactical map. It was an ordinary map showing the areas Boko Haram had taken, and which the military was poised to retake. The story tells of the preparedness of the military to retake the seized towns. Not only was Boko Haram expecting a counterattack, it was logical and sensible that the army would not roll over and resign to fate; and so a counterattack had to be undertaken, which everyone expected, friends and enemies alike. In addition, the Daily Trust report assigned no dates or timelines for the retaking of the seized towns, so they could not have compromised the element of surprise. All the paper said was that the military was prepared to engage Boko Haram, as indeed everyone expected them to do.

More crucially, there was no part of the report where the paper talked about tactics, details of ordinance, troop movements or positions other than saying troops were being assembled, or the number of brigades or divisions to be involved. Overall, the story was helpful to the military, reassuring to the public, and in fact harmless. What Daily Trust reported was not different from what other newspapers elsewhere report in time of war. It was a general news report, undoubtedly rich in background details, but beneficially copious to the military and Nigerian authorities in exposing the dynamics at play among Boko Haram factions. It is satisfying that the paper handled the story very professionally, revealing little or nothing of any use to the enemy. The report did not forewarn Boko Haram, as the military hyperbolically tried to present. After all, as Ahmad Salkida, a journalist conversant with Boko Haram history and activities, said, Boko Haram no longer has interest in holding on to territories except very briefly. When it captures a target, it expects fierce counterattacks. Its insurgency doctrine is now largely attritional, the journalist surmised.

The extralegal reaction to the Daily Trust report exposes a worrisome retrogression in the Nigerian military’s doctrine and training concept, at a time when many militaries have become quite skilful in handling psychological operations and the legal and social frameworks of their campaigns. Perhaps due to years of being inducted into law enforcement duties, Nigerian soldiers have become sadly and alarmingly inured to the strict discipline and regimentation of their military background while at the same time becoming incapable of acquiring the delicate nuances of policing civilian entities. The acquisition of this new but dangerous culture played out in Plateau State recently when soldiers launched investigations into the murder of a retired army major-general, Idris Alkali, last September. Using extrajudicial measures and perpetrating atrocious rights abuses, soldiers were able to unearth the circumstances of the murder, arrest those they claimed plotted the murder, find the body of the slain general, and celebrate and reward the feat. The end seemed to justify the means, regardless of how well or otherwise the case holds up in court. Having been rewarded time and again in their efforts to find solutions to knotty problems through the use of extrajudicial means, it is not surprising that they invaded Daily Trust and even briefly resisted complying with the orders of their commander-in-chief to release the paper’s detained editors and return their working tools.

The Nigerian military had a culture of abridging human and property rights under military rule. That culture has died hard even under elected governments. It is not helped by an indulgent presidency, a conniving political class, and a generally timid judiciary. The rule of law should predominate in a democracy. But the presidency has itself been lax in obeying the law or punishing disobedience. Under the constitution, not even the president nor the security agencies have the right to invade business premises without a warrant, let alone impound business tools and property, except to tackle active threats. The military unapologetically harmed Daily Trust business and the presidency has not felt the urgency to do anything to ensure a repeat never occurs. Sadly, the invasion of Daily Trust is a reflection of how badly stunted Nigerian democracy is. For as long as military commanders and other security agencies believe the presidency will continue to indulge their constitutional infractions, they will go on provoking outrages without minding the consequences. It is all the more shocking that the military invaded the Daily Trust offices when they know even the president would not execute such an invasion. A sinister form of lawlessness and impunity obviously still permeates the country’s security services.

It is in fact beginning to seem that Nigeria is operating two contrapuntal laws, one for the military and the other for the rest of the country. That illegal culture has taken root so deeply that it is becoming almost impossible to remedy, whether under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or under the All Progressives Congress (APC). In 2014, under a PDP government led by a former university teacher, the military orchestrated terrible rights abuses and circumscribed the operations of some media establishments. That government was not apologetic. The abuses stopped only when the measure lost relevance and effectiveness. Under the APC presidency, at least two media establishments have been invaded and their businesses disrupted, and journalists were arrested and locked up on the excuse that they were after all not well known reporters. So, it will take a convinced democrat who would not brook an abuse of the law to put a halt to the illegalities.

But does it need a fussy presidency for the security and law enforcement agencies to operate under the rule of law and their institutional rules of engagement? No. If the military top brass had carefully considered their options well, if they had debated their proposed course of action, including determining whether the Daily Trust report undermined national security, it is inconceivable that they would have ordered a misbegotten invasion in an election year. They may not care about their own image, given their imperious background and their adamant refusal to acknowledge that the times have changed, they ought to worry that the invasion would give a president fighting desperately for re-election a bad name. Arrogance breeds carelessness. If the military brass had considered all the sides to the story, and if they were convinced that the paper had done wrong, they would have found lawful ways to handle the matter rather than engaging in self-help. Surely, they have first-class legal minds in the military to advise them.

Overall, the buck stops with the president. If his police officers disobey him and he keeps his peace, and the military seizes more powers than even the constitution gives the president, and if he refuses to fire them for embarrassing the country because he fears the loyalty and capacity of new appointees, then he must forgive analysts who conclude that he connives at his appointees’ egregious subversion of the constitution. This is truly and insufferably tragic. The problem is not that Daily Trust or any other newspaper cannot err; the problem is that though the country has laws to take care of those infractions, many appointed or elected officials simply ignore or actively subvert the law because there is no deterrence. If any agency of government goes above the law to tackle alleged wrongdoing, whether justified or not, the president who swore to defend and protect the constitution must discharge his responsibility by dismissing the excitable officers. In the case of the Daily Trust, the president has refused to take any further step beyond ordering troops to vacate the newspaper’s premises. He is oblivious of the damage the invasion has caused the image of the country, especially in a world where the Nigerian military and political class have become objects of global ridicule and malicious campaigns.