The Nation Newspaper

Tag: journalists

  • Editor advises journalists on investigative reporting

    Editor of a leading online newspaper, Premium Times, Mr Musikilu Mojeed, has charged owners of media houses to invest in effective capacity building of journalists working in their organisations to promote transparency in events reportage.

    Mojeed, an award-winning investigative journalist, spoke at a two-day conference with the theme: “Corruption, transparency and accountability in public and private organisations”. The event was organised by the West Africa chapter of the Academic Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) at the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    The Premium Times Editor, who spoke on “Media and investigative journalism”, noted that it was necessary for media owners to commit more resources to training and retraining of journalists on investigative journalism and data gathering.

    Speaking on the need to engage budding reporters on investigative journalism practice, Mojeed said Premium Times had been making effort to create platform to train reporters on investigative journalism.

    He urged journalists to complement their duty of holding government accountable to the people with actions and factual reportage.

    He also advised the media to consistently educate people on impact of corruption on governance, observing that graft remained the obstacle against the government to provide good infrastructure, quality education and ensure buoyant economy.

    The Editor said the media must pay attention to the activities of anti-corruption agencies and security operatives to keep them on their toes in performing their statutory duties with professionalism.

    He said: “Journalists must check corruption in the media too. We need not embrace corrupt politicians. We should keep reporting issues of corruption until actions are taken to stop it.  Consistent reporting on corruption cases is very important in the fight against corruption.”

  • Don advises campus journalists

    Don advises campus journalists

    A senior lecturer at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo (RUGIPO) in Ondo State, Mr Sunday Afolayan, has advised campus journalists to ensure the development of their writing skills and to be very inquisitive in sourcing for news.

    He said this while delivering a lecture as a guest speaker during the inauguration of a new set of executives of The Press Council (an offshoot of Nigerian Union of Campus Journalists), RUGIPO chapter,.

    The event held at the 800-seater lecture theatre of the Institution last Friday.

    Speaking on the theme: “Access to Information and Fundamental Freedoms: This is your right”, Afolayan stressed the need for journalists to mirror themselves as the conveyor and transmitter of information who see their job as a herculean task and work assiduously to dig out information that are classified.

    He further explained that society cannot live without information. Therefore, campus journalists should resist all forms of oppression, bribery, information mismanagement and ultimately, write for the benefit the polytechnic community and beyond.

    In his speech, the out-going chairman and Editor-in-Chief of the Press Council, Eniola Olurankinse Samuels, thanked the Acting Rector of the institution and other members of the management team for their support during their one-year tenure.  Giving an account of his stewardship, Eniola said he led the council to begin a weekly newspaper.

    “The Council has been able to eradicate the culture of pasting press release around the wall of the institution which was replaced with weekly newspaper. Though, funding has been our major challenge but we were able to scale through with the help of the management team.

    “Our weekly publications which carry various news stories and several articles that astonish the polytechnic community, importantly, our editorials have been the selling point as well as setting agenda for the Students’ Union Government,” said Eniola, a National Diploma (ND) student of Mass Communication.

    The event also featured a dinner/award presentation for outstanding reporters as well as presentation of certificates to the outgoing members of the Council.

    Franklin Akintomide replaces Eniola as chairman.  Others are: Fidelis David (Editor); Ayobami Ore, Deputy Editor; Angela Samson, General Secretary; Vincent Olagodo, Production Manager; Gbemisola Abeni Advert Manager; among others.

    In his acceptance speech, Akintomide promised to keep the flag of the council and the NUCJ flying, and sustain the weekly publication.

  • Military warns over unauthorized media coverage in Northeast

    Military warns over unauthorized media coverage in Northeast

    The Ministry of Defence has warned journalists against media coverage in the Northeast region without due authorization from the Nigerian military. It said such unauthorized coverage is capable of jeopardizing the success of the on-going military operation.

    Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar in a statement in Abuja said the military is not trying to gag the press but adequate permission should be sought from military authorities so that security would be provided for such journalist.

    Abubakar: “It has been observed that certain journalists embark on coverage of security areas in the North East for documentary purpose and the likes without due authorization from the military authorities. This practice is not only capable of jeopardizing the    success of the on-going military operations in the area but    also poses great concern to the safety of the journalists concerned.

    “Much as the military is not trying to gag the press from carrying out their legitimate duties, permission should be sought from the Armed Forces before embarking on such venture. This will enable adequate security to be provided for such journalists by the military. Even though Boko Haram has been substantially decimated any roaming journalist could be a target of unsuspecting fleeing Boko Haram member and this will not be in the best interest of media organizations and the nation at large.

    “It is therefore, advised that any journalist desirable of covering conflict areas should seek permission from the military hierarchy so that adequate security arrangement could be provided by the troops on the ground. It is also the responsibility of the military to safeguard the lives and property of the Nigerian citizenry including law abiding journalists in the theatre of operation and in Nigeria in general.”

  • UNILAG don, Automedics boss for auto journalists training

    A senior lecturer at University of Lagos (UNILAG) Dr Oscar Odiboh and Automedics Managing Director Mr Kunle Sonaike will join other stakeholders in the automobile sector to speak at the annual capacity building workshop and training for the Nigeria Auto Journalists.

    The two-day training programme scheduled for July 29-30 will hold at NERO Hotel, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Sangotedo, Ajah, Lekki, Lagos.

    Sonaike will speak on Mechatronics and Automotive Parts.

    Odiboh, an auto expert will speak on importance of research in automotive journalism; while a Digital Marketing expert, Priestly Adaigbe will deliver lecture on the digitalisation.

    It would be recalled that the Chairman of Nigeria Auto Manufacturers Association (NAMA), who is also the Managing Director of VON Automobiles Limited, Mr. Tokunbo Aromolaran, recently hailed NAJA for organising the annual event.

    Aromolaran said: “Lots are happening now at various auto assemblies and manufacturing plants in the country. I know you (automobile journalists) have toured some of the plants. But if you would spare time to pay follow-up visits to the nation’s assembly and manufacturing plants, you would be able to see our latest products and so report them to Nigerians.

    “This will go a long way at encouraging local consumption of our locally made automobiles and at the long run, accelerate the Nigerian Industrial Development Plan (NIDP).”

  • No tears for sacked journalists

    I’m not as heartless as the headline of this piece suggests. I was very sad when speculations of the sack of editorial and other staff of a national newspaper were officially confirmed on Wednesday with the announcement of new appointments in the company.

    With the economic situation in the country, this is one of the worst times to lose one’s job without commensurate financial entitlements and compensation.

    After investing years of working and helping to build the conglomerates their former media organisations have become, summary sacking is not the way to reward the affected journalists.

    No journalist who is still employed in any other media organisation should mock those who have been sacked. If the prevailing situation in the media industry persists, “sooner or later”, more journalists will be sacked.

    Like a Yoruba proverb states, the death of one’s contemporaries is a warning that it may soon be your turn.

    I’m sad that my “prophesy” of last February when I spoke at the Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ meeting has come to pass.

    “The retrenchment of many journalists will come sooner or later and there is nothing even the union can do about it,” I said, noting  that media organisations have to take painful business decisions if they are to continue to publish.

    As much as I’m pained by the sacking of journalists and wish I can reverse their “disengagement”, I suggest that their response should not be to indulge in any pity party or crying over spilled milk.

    I’m more concerned about how soon the sacked journalists can come to terms with their “hard luck” and start thinking and taking concrete steps to move on with their media career.

    It’s going to be tough finding new jobs as other media houses are barely managing to survive. Chances are that others may take a cue from the ones that have sacked their staff and throw more journalists into the labour market soon.

    Better late than never, this is the time for those sacked to take stock of their work experience and find out where their various media and non-media skills can be needed. You never know how much you can do until you find yourself in make or mar situations like this.

    Good luck if they are able to find another job soon, but if not, they should put on their thinking cap, think outside the box like it is usually said, and they may just be able to turn their situations around for good.

    This is the time to concretise some of those projects they have always had in mind but never had time to work on due to their former hectic job schedule. About a year before she was recently sacked, Kemi Ashefon formerly of The Punch had wanted to resign her job to run her Relationship blog but she hesitated.

    Her sack has forced her to take her professional destiny in her hands and she is grateful she was kicked out.

    When life kicks you, like when you suddenly get sacked, let it kick you forward.

    For those sacked and others still lucky to be employed, collaboration and partnership on project ideas may be necessary. We all have different skills and connections that are better harnessed instead of playing small alone when working together we can be major players in whatever we decide to do.

    I urge media associations to organise brainstorming sessions, training and retraining for members to be able to cope with changes in the industry which require new knowledge and skills more than what many of us have.

    I congratulate those who have been sacked. Why? They have the opportunity of starting earlier on a journey others who are still currently employed will embark on later.

  • Five journalists jailed for blackmail in China

    A court in central China’s Hunan Province on Monday, handed five journalists of a newspaper and its website, prison terms of up to 12 years for blackmail.

    Zhang Huanrui, vice president of Modern Consumer News, and four of his subordinates were found guilty of blackmailing half a dozen government departments and officials for 815,000 Yuan (125,000 dollars), by threatening them with negative news reports, said the Yanfeng District People’s Court in Hengyang city.

    “The defendants used the potential consequences of the negative reports to coerce the agencies.

    “They told officials to pay money, promising in return to delete negative reports or not to conduct follow-up reporting,’’ the court said.
    Zhang was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while one subordinate was given a six-year jail term.

    Two of them were sentenced to two years, four months and 20 days behind bars.

    However, the other was given a three-year suspended sentence.

     

  • Fayose, journalists and herdsmen

    Fayose, journalists and herdsmen

    GOVERNOR Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State does not have to make sense whenever he speaks, but he has contrived by his inimitable capacity for wrongdoing and melodrama to always make the news. His ideas, if they can be so described, do not have to reflect any thinking or effort, due to their spontaneity, but like the Giffen good, they push out finer and more brilliant ideas from newspaper front and inside pages. Is he capable of remorse? It is only someone who can reflect that has that capacity. Mr Fayose does not reflect, cannot entertain regret, and is so engrossed in causing offence on a gargantuan scale that he has no capacity to pause between one folly and another. Till he breathes his last, he will keep to this style, believing that it is rewarding and even enthralling.

    If the media had the capacity to black him out from the news, on account of his noxious views, they would not have invited him to their World Press Freedom Day activities organised by the Oyo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Ibadan last week. At the Dapo Aderogba Hall where the event held, the loquacious governor seized the moment to vent his spleen, complete with pettifogging details of his private philosophy, on anything and anyone that caught his fancy. Since the federal government dithered in taking firm and sensible measures to rein in the killing machine that some herdsmen had become, he gloated, he had instructed indigenes of his state to poison animal watering holes with special fungicidal preparations to harm cattle. The people had a right to defend themselves against predators, he roared.

    He did not indicate how the people would determine the criminal elements among the herdsmen. Indeed, it seemed to him, since the people could not discriminate the killers from the law-abiding cattle rearers, it was better to deter all of them.  His obtuse, and in many ways criminal, panacea would sadly resonate with some people, though they would be reluctant to implement that atrocious, horrendous and impracticable idea. Ekiti would certainly not be able to determine how the flow of poisoned water would be channeled for the specific consumption of herdsmen and to the exclusion of indigenous goats and rams.

    Mr Fayose’s asinine ideas are fuelled by the equally asinine fulminations of herdsmen who hubristically declared last week that no one could prevent them from grazing from the North to the South of Nigeria, or that if they were attacked, they would not muster the whole of Africa against the native attackers. The problem is worsened by the federal government’s own thoughtless perspective as exampled by their declaration that they needed some eighteen months to proffer solutions to the perennial clashes between farmers and herdsmen, many of whom are indigenous Fulani, perhaps aided by a few non-Nigerian Fulani. To cap a season of madness catalysed by sloppy governance, and regardless of the frequency of the herdsmen-farmers clashes and the mounting body count, the security agencies waited to be advised by the presidency to rein in the killers. It is such brazen and insufferable laxity that emboldens the likes of Mr Fayose and gives his strange views currency.

    But the Ekiti governor was not done. He was invited to make his contribution on the topic of press freedom, and did he go to town with stupefying ideas about who the ideal pressman should be and what the role of the press in a democracy must also be! Apart from the usual objectivity and independence expected to accompany media work, Mr Fayose suggests that the journalist must resist the seductions and blandishments of politicians, and chart a reasonable and reliable path for the society in its march to the future. He spoke well, surprisingly soaring to giddy heights of elocution and passion: “You are the last hope of the common man. When journalists support looters, there is confusion of vision. Journalists should shy away from it. Bad politicians should be brought to justice. Don’t write about issues you don’t know. Don’t rely on what a politician told you of his supposed enemy and don’t inherit his enemies. Journalists must help bring corrupt politicians to justice. When politicians are going wrong, let them feel the heat first from you.”

    All this came from a man whose iconoclastic, predatory and natural instinct is to disrespect and demolish everything around him, including media professionals, his betters, and great societal values. It is a miracle how it did not occur to him that everything he said about the media and journalists is a standard refutation of his private morality and a complete repudiation of his public persona. Well, the miracle is explained simply by the fact that Mr Fayose comes closest to the literary creation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: where the public sees dissonance or contradiction, Mr Fayose sees only the two faces of Janus to which he is neither averse nor displeased.

  • NUJ tasks media owners on welfare of journalists

    The Ondo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Tuesday urged state governments and other media owners to improve the welfare package of journalists.

    The Chairman of the state NUJ, Mr James Sowole, made the plea in a statement in Akure, in felicitation with media professionals on the occasion of the 2016 World Press Freedom Day.

    Sowole decried the suffering of journalists, arising from non-payment of backlog of salaries by some private newspapers’ proprietors and state governments.

    He said that journalists could not perform their responsibilities as watchdogs of the ruling class when they were being poorly paid or not being paid at all by their employers.

    The chairman commended recent moves by the national leadership of the NUJ to picket head offices of some newspaper houses in Lagos and Abuja, that were owing workers’ salaries.

    He urged the leadership of the NUJ to hasten negotiations on the new Media Salary structure (MSS).

    Sowole expressed satisfaction with the cordial relationship between journalists and security agents in the state.

    He urged the state government to reposition the Ondo State Radiovision Corporation (OSRC) for better service delivery.

    Sowole advised journalists in the state to desist from unethical conduct, “especially as the 2016 Governorship election is approaching in the state’’

  • EFCC, Tarfa, lawyers and journalists

    EFCC, Tarfa, lawyers and journalists

    Incensed by what he alleged was damning evidence of senior lawyer Ricky Tarfa’s consistent pattern of obstructing justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ibrahim Magu, lashed out a few days ago at lawyers and journalists who he said had been compromised by corrupt Nigerians. He spoke in general terms. His views, which were expressed when he received a coalition of civil society groups marching in Abuja last week in support of the anti-graft war, need to be quoted extensively to get the full import of his perspective.

    Said he: “One of the big challenges we have in the effective prosecution of the war on corruption is that of very senior lawyers who Nigeria has been very kind to: They who went to good schools here, when Nigeria was good, many of them, on government scholarship; they who Nigeria had given so much opportunity. When we have corruption cases, cases of people who have stolen food from the mouths of our children; when we have cases of people who have stolen money meant to build hospitals and buy drugs; when we have cases of people who have stolen all the money meant to buy guns for our soldiers to fight Boko Haram, when we have all these cases of wicked people who have stolen Nigeria’s money, they run to these same senior lawyers, give them part of the stolen money and mobilise them to fight us, to delay us in court and to deny Nigerians of justice. These are the people who do not want justice for the common man.

    “The other day, 34 Senior Advocates of Nigeria fought against only one small EFCC lawyer in court and he defeated all of them! What we are doing today is not by our power, it is the power of the Nigerian people and the power of God behind us! Corrupt people hire journalists to abuse us every day. They say we are not doing the work according to the law. But, that is not true. There is no agency that follows the law more than EFCC. None. Before we arrest you, or seize your property or do anything to you, we check the law, we go to court and get court order. That is why we are winning; that is why we are defeating them every day.”

    What other kind of support Mr. Magu and the federal government need is hard to understand. They already have approximately more than 95 percent public support. And whether sponsored or not, the protesters who marched in Abuja last week in support of the EFCC gave a clear indication where their hearts belonged. Indeed, the protesters even presumed to represent nearly all Nigerians. A group of lawyers late last week met minds with the EFCC in Lagos and pledged qualified support. Trolling the social media, there is hardly anyone who does not think those accused of corruption should be denied bail, given summary trial and hung by their toes. The media itself is awash with columnists, academicians and analysts who brook no caveat or restraining voice from anyone about the rule of law or any other measure that slows down the anti-graft war. So, why is Mr. Magu still flustered? Could it be the 130 or so lawyers he said had ganged up to undermine the EFCC? Or could it be something more sinister, something closely related to the judiciary headache President Muhammadu Buhari said he had been having since he began the anti-graft war?

    The EFCC boss apparently wants total, unflinching support, the kind that glosses over what some people have described as controversial anti-graft measures, both legal and illegal, in order to bring the corrupt to book. Mr. Magu can’t seem to understand why anyone would give the impression that the anti-graft war is not really a war, a war that strikes at the heart of the nation’s survival, one that calls for very drastic and even unorthodox remedies. Though he boasts of adhering strictly to the rule of law, it is ironical that he deplores both those who get paid to defend the corrupt and those who write to compel the government and the anti-graft bodies to follow due process. He even made sarcastic references, with a touch of innuendo, to how and why the media failed to report the detention of Olajide Omokore, the oil mogul held by the EFCC for some three days or more last week.

    Despite his complaints, Mr. Magu can, however, not get the kind of total support he wants. It is part of the criminal justice system that a suspect charged in court must engage the services of a legal counsel. That counsel has to be paid, of course. And if a defendant is unable to afford a counsel, the state often weighs in to bear the burden. The reason, as Mr. Magu must know, is so that through the interplay of prosecution and defence, justice can be served. But sometimes the system fails, the innocent is punished, and the guilty is set free. At other times, the system succeeds in dispensing justice. It is futile to attempt to discourage lawyers from defending suspects charged with crime, without upending the axiom of presumption of innocence. Who can tell whether one day, as former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu discovered, Mr. Magu will not himself many years down the line need the services of a battery of senior lawyers in the face of serious allegations of misconduct slammed against him by a hostile government. If he is worried about corruption in the judiciary or obstruction of justice, as the Ricky Tarfa case appears to indicate, the EFCC, not to talk of many other government agencies, has the resources and powers to expose the crime. The cleansing and reformation required to sanitise governance and ensure that justice is unfettered are desperately needed, and must be a continuing effort.

    Yet, the guilt of a suspect is not established by popular opinion. If a lawyer brilliantly defends his client, he may sometimes secure the suspect’s freedom. To counteract the defence lawyer, the EFCC and Mr. Magu should ensure that prosecution is also brilliantly handled. This is a check and balance system that cannot and must not be abridged. And as for the delays he grumbles about, which President Muhammadu Buhari also complained about in his last trip to Britain, it is counterproductive to pressure the courts to sacrifice thoroughness on the altar of pleasing the prosecuting agency or mollifying the angry public seeking retribution against their tormentors. If Mr. Magu can’t understand this, he should wait until, like former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, he falls out with the government.

    The EFCC boss also suggested that journalists who opposed the government’s prosecutorial methods were hired by corrupt politicians bent on evading justice. The journalists, said he, constantly assailed the anti-graft agencies uncouthly. This view is sadly misplaced. Mr. Magu has nonetheless brought Mr. Tarfa to trial. If the evidence of jurist bribing the EFCC is mustering holds up, the senior lawyer may end up jeopardising his career and freedom. Mr. Magu should in fact feel free to go ahead to expose the hired journalists he glibly talks about. If they are paid to abuse the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies, surely the agency can find one legal or regulatory corollary to deprive them of their liberty. Rather than make wild, general, intimidatory and unsubstantiated allegations, the EFCC boss should name names and charge the offenders in court. After all, no one, except perhaps the camorra of former Nigerian rulers, is above the law.

    Mr. Magu and the Buhari presidency, it must be reiterated, will undermine their own legacies, as Chief Obasanjo has done, if they enthrone a brusque and irregular method of fighting graft, all in the name of fighting corruption. It was embarrassing of President Buhari to declare in Britain his discomfort with the British method of fighting graft, which he described as ‘too thorough, and takes too much time’. But the Nigerian justice system must also be thorough and if necessary take much time. Justice is too sacred and weighty a matter to be subjected, as Mr. Magu appears to be doing, to emotions and scaremongering. Nigerians want justice, but if it should be delivered in the name of Nigerians, it had better be real justice — justice done and seen to be done, with suspects exhausting all avenues of appeal, and defended by the best lawyers they can find money to hire, even if it bankrupts them.

  • EFCC, Tarfa, lawyers and journalists

    EFCC, Tarfa, lawyers and journalists

    Incensed by what he alleged was damning evidence of senior lawyer Ricky Tarfa’s consistent pattern of obstructing justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ibrahim Magu, lashed out a few days ago at lawyers and journalists who he said had been compromised by corrupt Nigerians. He spoke in general terms. His views, which were expressed when he received a coalition of civil society groups marching in Abuja last week in support of the anti-graft war, need to be quoted extensively to get the full import of his perspective.

    Said he: “One of the big challenges we have in the effective prosecution of the war on corruption is that of very senior lawyers who Nigeria has been very kind to: They who went to good schools here, when Nigeria was good, many of them, on government scholarship; they who Nigeria had given so much opportunity. When we have corruption cases, cases of people who have stolen food from the mouths of our children; when we have cases of people who have stolen money meant to build hospitals and buy drugs; when we have cases of people who have stolen all the money meant to buy guns for our soldiers to fight Boko Haram, when we have all these cases of wicked people who have stolen Nigeria’s money, they run to these same senior lawyers, give them part of the stolen money and mobilise them to fight us, to delay us in court and to deny Nigerians of justice. These are the people who do not want justice for the common man.

    “The other day, 34 Senior Advocates of Nigeria fought against only one small EFCC lawyer in court and he defeated all of them! What we are doing today is not by our power, it is the power of the Nigerian people and the power of God behind us! Corrupt people hire journalists to abuse us every day. They say we are not doing the work according to the law. But, that is not true. There is no agency that follows the law more than EFCC. None. Before we arrest you, or seize your property or do anything to you, we check the law, we go to court and get court order. That is why we are winning; that is why we are defeating them every day.”

    What other kind of support Mr. Magu and the federal government need is hard to understand. They already have approximately more than 95 percent public support. And whether sponsored or not, the protesters who marched in Abuja last week in support of the EFCC gave a clear indication where their hearts belonged. Indeed, the protesters even presumed to represent nearly all Nigerians. A group of lawyers late last week met minds with the EFCC in Lagos and pledged qualified support. Trolling the social media, there is hardly anyone who does not think those accused of corruption should be denied bail, given summary trial and hung by their toes. The media itself is awash with columnists, academicians and analysts who brook no caveat or restraining voice from anyone about the rule of law or any other measure that slows down the anti-graft war. So, why is Mr. Magu still flustered? Could it be the 130 or so lawyers he said had ganged up to undermine the EFCC? Or could it be something more sinister, something closely related to the judiciary headache President Muhammadu Buhari said he had been having since he began the anti-graft war?

    The EFCC boss apparently wants total, unflinching support, the kind that glosses over what some people have described as controversial anti-graft measures, both legal and illegal, in order to bring the corrupt to book. Mr. Magu can’t seem to understand why anyone would give the impression that the anti-graft war is not really a war, a war that strikes at the heart of the nation’s survival, one that calls for very drastic and even unorthodox remedies. Though he boasts of adhering strictly to the rule of law, it is ironical that he deplores both those who get paid to defend the corrupt and those who write to compel the government and the anti-graft bodies to follow due process. He even made sarcastic references, with a touch of innuendo, to how and why the media failed to report the detention of Olajide Omokore, the oil mogul held by the EFCC for some three days or more last week.

    Despite his complaints, Mr. Magu can, however, not get the kind of total support he wants. It is part of the criminal justice system that a suspect charged in court must engage the services of a legal counsel. That counsel has to be paid, of course. And if a defendant is unable to afford a counsel, the state often weighs in to bear the burden. The reason, as Mr. Magu must know, is so that through the interplay of prosecution and defence, justice can be served. But sometimes the system fails, the innocent is punished, and the guilty is set free. At other times, the system succeeds in dispensing justice. It is futile to attempt to discourage lawyers from defending suspects charged with crime, without upending the axiom of presumption of innocence. Who can tell whether one day, as former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu discovered, Mr. Magu will not himself many years down the line need the services of a battery of senior lawyers in the face of serious allegations of misconduct slammed against him by a hostile government. If he is worried about corruption in the judiciary or obstruction of justice, as the Ricky Tarfa case appears to indicate, the EFCC, not to talk of many other government agencies, has the resources and powers to expose the crime. The cleansing and reformation required to sanitise governance and ensure that justice is unfettered are desperately needed, and must be a continuing effort.

    Yet, the guilt of a suspect is not established by popular opinion. If a lawyer brilliantly defends his client, he may sometimes secure the suspect’s freedom. To counteract the defence lawyer, the EFCC and Mr. Magu should ensure that prosecution is also brilliantly handled. This is a check and balance system that cannot and must not be abridged. And as for the delays he grumbles about, which President Muhammadu Buhari also complained about in his last trip to Britain, it is counterproductive to pressure the courts to sacrifice thoroughness on the altar of pleasing the prosecuting agency or mollifying the angry public seeking retribution against their tormentors. If Mr. Magu can’t understand this, he should wait until, like former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, he falls out with the government.

    The EFCC boss also suggested that journalists who opposed the government’s prosecutorial methods were hired by corrupt politicians bent on evading justice. The journalists, said he, constantly assailed the anti-graft agencies uncouthly. This view is sadly misplaced. Mr. Magu has nonetheless brought Mr. Tarfa to trial. If the evidence of jurist bribing the EFCC is mustering holds up, the senior lawyer may end up jeopardising his career and freedom. Mr. Magu should in fact feel free to go ahead to expose the hired journalists he glibly talks about. If they are paid to abuse the EFCC and other anti-graft agencies, surely the agency can find one legal or regulatory corollary to deprive them of their liberty. Rather than make wild, general, intimidatory and unsubstantiated allegations, the EFCC boss should name names and charge the offenders in court. After all, no one, except perhaps the camorra of former Nigerian rulers, is above the law.

    Mr. Magu and the Buhari presidency, it must be reiterated, will undermine their own legacies, as Chief Obasanjo has done, if they enthrone a brusque and irregular method of fighting graft, all in the name of fighting corruption. It was embarrassing of President Buhari to declare in Britain his discomfort with the British method of fighting graft, which he described as ‘too thorough, and takes too much time’. But the Nigerian justice system must also be thorough and if necessary take much time. Justice is too sacred and weighty a matter to be subjected, as Mr. Magu appears to be doing, to emotions and scaremongering. Nigerians want justice, but if it should be delivered in the name of Nigerians, it had better be real justice — justice done and seen to be done, with suspects exhausting all avenues of appeal, and defended by the best lawyers they can find money to hire, even if it bankrupts them.