•Ominous auguries as the Federal Government deploys various arm-twisting tactics against perceived opponents, including the press
Matters of the Nigerian state get curiouser each day as the Federal Government appears ready to break all bounds of law and decency to chase after perceived enemies. In a move reminiscent of the worst military regime, government has let loose the Nigerian military to chase vendors and newspaper distributors on the streets of towns and cities across the country. Well-meaning Nigerians have variously condemned the current rampancy of Nigerian soldiers on civil streets in the last couple of years. We have expressed worry at the littering of soldiers in every town of Nigeria carry out what are, at best, police duties of keeping the peace in neighbourhoods.
Today, we have descended one notch lower. We now see uniformed soldiers snatching newspapers, detaining newspaper circulation vehicles, attacking agents, beating up vendors and harassing readers. For the past four days up until yesterday, this has been going on without let, without sense and without sensibility. The initial explanation that there was intelligence report about circulation vehicles being used as a conduit for arms has turned out a ruse, or better still a hollow lie. Nothing incriminating has been found. But apparently, nothing incriminating is being sought as newspapers are impounded and vehicles detained. Apparently printed words, the good old culprit, the almighty printed words are the dangerous arms and ammunition the soldiers sought and found in waylaid circulation vehicles.
Today, all across the country, hundreds of troops and vehicles are deployed to disperse vendors and agents. For instance, last Saturday, about 150 soldiers were counted at Oke Padre, Ibadan newspaper distribution centre where they seized thousands of copies of The Nation, Vanguard and National Mirror, among others. All this in the face of the Boko Haram terrorists running rampage in the Northeast of Nigeria, killing, maiming and abducting girls and women.
Why would the Nigerian military fall for this sucker punch once again? Why would it once again deign to wage war against printed words, against information and against knowledge? Only bad leaders and bad governments quarrel with information; good leaders and good governments deploy it to great good to further the cause of society and humanity.
It is 21st century ribaldry that trained soldiers kitted in national uniform would chase paper boys on the streets in the futile bid to muzzle the press. It’s a huge laugh apart from the fact that this silly tactics never worked. Even General Sani Abacha in all his ineptitude never debased his soldiers to the point of sending them to the streets to hunt down news vendors so brazenly. Besides, in all his exertions, he never won with the media. On the contrary, the media, it can be said, saw Abacha out despite his brutishness.
We must state clearly that President Goodluck Jonathan, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Force of the Federal Republic debases the military and does damage to the Nigerian armed forces by this new turn of event. Using the military to blatantly subvert democratic institutions is a ‘coup’ by another means against the people of Nigeria. This forceful, blatant and barbaric breach of the constitution and the inalienable right of the Nigerian people will only portend for us all, a cyclic toxic effect. The Federal Government is rather untutored, inculcating barbarity and lawlessness into our military. Let no one be fooled; if the military feels comfortable breaching the operations of the media in the country without being called to order, it could also get emboldened enough to breach any other arm of the society in like manner.
The sustained attempt to muzzle the press by crippling the operations of some newspaper houses across the country in the guise of security and intelligence checks has been revealed for the smokescreen it is. Security has never been an excuse anywhere in the world to break the law, abridge citizens’ rights or torpedo the constitution. Even the most sensitive security operations must be carried out within the ambit of the law. It is trite that no segment of the society is allowed to be law unto itself, not even the military. To take the law into one’s hands, which is what the military is doing by disrupting newspaper businesses, amounts to anomie and none is immune to the catastrophic consequences of a normless state of affairs. All this is happening on the watch of President Jonathan who exults in his possession of the people’s mandate.
It is now apparent that this sustained siege on the media is part of President Jonathan’s unfolding game plan. It seems part of an elaborate design to apply force on perceived opponents and whip them to line. Just in one week, we have witnessed how the police openly defied and almost shot at the Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi. Last Monday, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State’s chartered aircraft was impounded at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano. The governor, his host and entourage were locked in the airport. They had to break the locks to virtually escape from the place, abandoning their aircraft. The grounding of Amaechi’s plane without notice forced the governor and his team to drive by road from kano to Abuja through the night.
What Jonathan’s strong arm tactics suggest is that we have not learned anything from our recent history. We forget that power is transient and that there is always tomorrow. The media you seek to extinguish today could be your saviour tomorrow. The Olusegun Obasanjo example may prove refreshing. He considered the press as pests and treated them like vermin. When the tide turned on him so soon and Abacha threw him in the slammer and threatened to exterminate him, it was the strident cries of the press that saved him. Moral: never kill the press, you may need it someday.
There is no doubt that this current attempt to maul the media is rather out of character; even the military has gone beyond this manner of pettiness. The military hierarchy would ordinarily invite media chiefs for briefings to iron out sensitive issues; that has been the practice in the last one decade. Ironically, the press thrives better under even the most extreme of adversary. Historically, the press has never been cowed by guns or boots or uniforms. Mr. Dan Agbese, one of the beacons of Nigeria’s journalism who turned 70 recently in an interview over the weekend gave a perspective to the idea of a government trying to muzzle the press. He says: “The most wonderful thing that can happen to the press anywhere in the world is to have an enemy. The press performs better under a situation of enmity.”
We admonish that attempts to silence the Nigerian press in the past never worked. It will not work this time. It will only bring upon the Federal Government and the military local and international opprobrium. And the illiteracy of it all! In this age of world-wide electronic media, who borders with the printed word anymore! We urge that this madness of debasing the military must stop forthwith.
