There is a bond between the terrorist and the reporter. Globally, the reporter is viewed as the terrorist’s best friend. The reason is simple, though unwittingly, the reporter, in the course of carrying out his reportorial duties, serves the purpose of the terrorist. The aim of the terrorist is to instill fear in the public. The terrorist goes all out to make the public believe that it can visit whatever catastrophe he so desires on the public without the authorities being able to do anything about it. This aim can only be achieved when everyone gets to know of the devastation the terrorist has brought on a segment of the society and the reporter comes in handy in helping the terrorist to spread his frightening deeds through the reporter’s medium.
Hence, the reporter is rarely attacked by the terrorist. Even when other segments of the society come under heavy attack by the terrorist, the media is spared. So also do the guerrilla warrior and the insurgent fighter. They see the reporter as being forced to work in their favour and they go the extra mile to ensure his protection.
On the contrary, it is the enemy of the terrorist and the insurgent, that is a repressive government, which sees the reporter as a threat and tries to eliminate him. This happened in Syria on February 22, 2012, when Marie Colvin, who was writing for The Sunday Times of London, and a French photographer, Rémi Ochlik, were killed when their makeshift media centre was bombed in an attack sponsored by the state. The attack was sequel to the activities of local journalists and foreign correspondents which had infuriated the authorities and foiled the government’s efforts to control the coverage of the unrest in the country.
The same thing happened in Bangladesh. The same also happened in Charles Taylor’s Liberia when two journalists were killed by the state rather than the rebels. Tayo Awotusin, a Champion Newspaper reporter and Krees Imodibe of The Guardian were arrested, tortured and killed on the order of Taylor because they were from Nigeria, the country that was sponsoring the activities of ECOMOG which was fighting against Taylor’s continued reign of terror in the land.
The reporter was not the target of NADECO and other freedom fighting groups when Nigeria was under the jackboot. While the freedom fighters saw the reporter as a friend because their activities were given good mention in the media, the Sani Abacha government saw the reporter as a threat. It was this that resulted in the shelling of Bagauda Kaltho of The News magazine in a hotel room by agents of the state. It also led to the gruesome killing of Chinedu Offoaro of The Guardian on May 1, 1996, among a host of others.
So, until lately, the Nigerian reporter had not been hunted by those hunted by the state. The first sign that the reporter had become an endangered species to the terrorist was when Zakariya Isa, a newscaster and Hausa translator with the Nigerian Television Authority in Maiduguri was killed in October 2011 by Boko Haram on the ground that he was spying on the group. The group claimed that the deceased had earlier been warned to desist from the act and when warning failed to make him change, he was killed. Then in 2012, when the group attacked the city of Kano, Channels Television’s reporter and cameraman, Enenche Akogwu, was caught in the crossfire.
However, in 2012, Boko Haram violated the sacredness of the media and declared a full scale war on it when the terrorists bombed This Day offices in Abuja and Kaduna. The attack was akin to labeling the media as a conspirator against its purpose rather than a collaborator.
According to the group in an interview granted Premium Times, an online publication, it decided to attack This Day as a warning to other news organisations to always report the truth of the hostilities between the group and the government.
He group’s spokesperson said, “We have repeatedly cautioned reporters and media houses to be professional and objective in their reports. This is a war between us and the government of Nigeria; unfortunately the media have not been objective and fair in their report of the ongoing war, they chose to take side.”
So, the terrorists have declared war against the media.
However, last Thursday, the Federal Government threatened to sanction both the BBC and Daily Trust TV for airing documentaries on activities of bandits in the northern part of Nigeria.
While addressing journalists in Abuja, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said the documentaries promoted terrorism in the country, noting that the appropriate regulatory body was already looking at the infractions and appropriate sanctions would be meted to both platforms.
The minister said, “There is a regulatory body regulating broadcasting which is the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission and they are also aware of these two incidents.
“They are looking at which part of the Broadcasting Code that has been violated by the BBC and Trust TV. Media is the oxygen that terrorists and bandits use to breathe.
“When otherwise reputable platforms like BBC can give their platform to terrorists showing their faces as if they are Nollywood stars, it is unfortunate.
“I want to assure them that they will not get away with it, appropriate sanctions will be meted to both the BBC and the Trust TV.”
So, for reporting the truth, the media is hated by terrorists and hunted by government forces. This is due to the fact that everyone chooses the side from which they view the truth. But the truth has neither side nor shade; it is people that give it perspectives to suit their situations.
The first casualty of any war is the truth but the media is duty bound to report the truth. Accurate, impartial media reports conveyed from conflict zones serve a fundamental public interest. So, the government and terrorists (or bandits) need to realise that it is not in their interest for the media to be muzzled through any means. If the media is forced to abandon the truth, the society suffers because it sinks into darkness. Nothing liberates like the truth. So, the government has no business kicking against the truth like the terrorists, unless its foundation is falsehood.
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The PDP spokesman recalled how the opposition party had on various occasions alerted that the APC government had ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, “many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.”
He further stated: “From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.
“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.
According to Ologunagba, about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists between 2020 and 2022 “as the criminals continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention.”
“This is not politics; this is about humanity and leadership, which leadership sadly and unfortunately is missing in our country at this time,” he said.
The PDP added that it is appalled by “the lame response by the apparently helpless, clueless and deflated Buhari Presidency, wherein it told an agonizing nation that President Buhari “has done all and even more than what was expected of him as Commander in Chief by way of morale, material and equipment support to the military…”
“This is a direct admission of incapacity and failure by the Buhari Presidency and the APC. At such a time, in other climes, the President directly leads the charge and takes drastic measures to rescue and protect his citizens.
“In time of adversity, the President transmutes into Consoler-in-Chief to give hope and succour to the citizens. Painfully, Nigeria does not have a President who cares and can stand as Consoler-in-Chief to the citizens.
“It has now become very imperative for Nigerians to take note and realize that the only solution to this unfortunate situation is to hold the APC government accountable. We must come together as a people, irrespective of our political, ethnic and religious affiliations to resist the fascist-leaning tendencies of the APC administration.
Ologunagba called for an urgent meeting of the National Council of State to advise on the way to go over the nation’s worsening insecurity.
“Our nation must not fall. The resilient Nigerian spirit and ‘can-do- attitude’ must be rekindled by all to prevail on the President to immediately and without further delay, accede to the demand by the PDP and other well-meaning Nigerians to convene a special session of the National Council of State to find a lasting solution since the President has, in his own admission, come to his wit’s end,” the PDP spokesman declared.
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