THE two bills before the National Assembly meant to amend the Nigeria Press Council (NPC) Act and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act, coupled with the earlier bill to establish a commission for the prohibition of hate speech, represent the most obnoxious and comprehensive effort to abridge the freedom of Nigerians since the Decree no 4 of 1984 enacted under the Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon junta.
Decree 4 of 1984 saw to the unjust incarceration of two-line editors of The Guardian, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, who were each jailed for one year for reporting a truth that was considered embarrassing to the government and its functionaries.
These bills constitute a direct threat to the hard-earned freedom that Nigerians have managed to enjoy as a dividend of civil rule since 1999. The atmosphere of freedom appears to be the only remaining product of the struggle for democracy, a struggle that saw many individuals lose their lives. The unspeakable increase in the levels of poverty and want that has defined the country since 2018 when it became the world’s capital of poverty shows that Nigerians have gained little in terms of social welfare. Thus, the erosion of freedom that would come with the enactment of these bills, when combined with the situation of abject poverty, will make Nigeria more than a living hell. The explosion that will emerge in reaction to the unbearable resultant situation is better imagined than experienced. That is why the government must put an end to the dangerous move in the National Assembly immediately by removing all draconian contents in the proposed bills.
Some of the contents of the proposed bills are strange to democratic rule. And the fact that they are being proposed and considered by an elected government tells a lot about the democratic credentials of the lawmakers in cahoots with the executive. The bills not only target the freedom of Nigerians, they also directly seek to shackle the media in order to prevent Nigerians’ access to platforms of freedom of expression. It is clear that the government sees the media as its political opponent and wants to silence it through the instrumentality of law. Interestingly, the legislators also tried to railroad the process of passing the bills by employing subterfuge. Stakeholders such as the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) were deliberately prevented from participating in the public hearing held to consider the bills. This was done to avoid the kind of situation that occurred on March 9, 2020 when Nigerians, during a public hearing, massively rejected Senator Mohammed Sani Musa’s “Protection From Internet Falsehood And Manipulations and Other Related Matters Bill 2019”. That public hearing was well-publicised and attended by media professionals, civil society advocates, private citizens and representatives of governmental institutions and religious groups.
The two media bills contain obnoxious provisions that seek to strengthen the power of the Minister of Information to interfere with the freedom of media houses, the freedom of journalists to practise their profession, and the right of Nigerians to information provided by the media by shining light on the activities of the government. Indeed, the amendments contain provisions that reduce the role of the NPC Board which includes representatives of the media associations. While the NPC Act. CAP N128, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1992, created by a military dictatorship, gives the NPC board full responsibility to administer the council, the proposed Act restricts the NPC board to advisory capacity on a part-time basis, without direct interference in the day-to-day administration of the council, and gives the executive secretary all the powers. Furthermore, the president is to appoint the chairman and members of the board on the recommendation of the Minister of Information. The intention of government is clear and does not serve the interest of freedom.
Interestingly, the government has failed to recognise that its party will not be in power forever. It must recognise that it may become the victim of the use of such draconian powers when it loses power to another political party. It is therefore in its enlightened interest to prevail on the National Assembly to remove the obnoxious provisions in the two bills that are meant to strangulate the media. Since eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, all democrats and civil society organisations must rise to challenge these proposals. They must join associations such as the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and stop the ongoing “attempt to criminalise journalism”. As stated by the NGE, the proposed bills “will neither serve the interest of the media industry, strengthen its constitutional role of holding public officers accountable to the people, nor serves the general interest of the public-who are the original trustees of the media”.
It is apparent that, enabled by the criminal docility of the Ahmad Lawan-led National Assembly despite its serial violations of the country’s constitution, including the invasion of the National Assembly by the Department of State Services on two different occasions, the removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria without recourse to the laid-down constitutional order, consistent refusal to obey court orders, and the violation of the rights of protesters and naysayers, the Buhari administration has assumed a royal, czarist and pharaonic overlordship over Nigerians. It has crippled free movement by failing to rein in terrorists of all hues, including nomadic herdsmen, bandits and kidnappers who have made virtually the entire country one vast, ungoverned space; hobbled the ability of Nigerians to feed through noxious economic policies, to such an extent that the vast majority of Nigerians can hardly afford otherwise common items such as gari; and made the country unattractive to investors through a combination of wrong business policies and pronouncements aimed at running down the citizenry, including the youth, before the international community. But now, in spite of this virtually unending list of aggravations, the administration seeks to add the muzzling of the media, and consequently the abridgment of the civil space, to its totalitarian wish list. By implication, even the ability of Nigerians to think and to hold opinion is going to be circumscribed by an Orwellian Thought Police masquerading as legislation, making them virtual zombies in their historical, social and constitutional habitat. And if Nigerians are not even allowed to think and to express themselves freely, what would that make them? The animals in Animal Farm?
Unable to handle criticism, however justified—indeed, perceiving criticism as treachery that must be resisted with all the accoutrement of the repressive state apparatus—the Buhari administration seeks to return the country to the inglorious days of military dictatorship when the ruler was also the State, and hence his word, however perverse and ill-thought-out, was law. This is, we dare say, a daring assault on the sensibilities of the long-suffering populace that must not, indeed cannot, be allowed to stand. In the face of endless privations, including a noxious security situation whereby even those in mortuaries are not safe, we reiterate the only instrument that Nigerians have now is their voice, a wailing voice conveyed by the media with unmistakable cadence and clarity. The fundamental right of Nigerians to this voice, their right to free expression capturing the appalling conditions in which they remain trapped despite the hollow and profane preachments of officialdom, cannot have been taken away with the election of President Buhari, and hence will not be taken away with the draconian instruments that he and his administration concoct on their way to a fascist haven.
We call on the National Assembly to stop colluding with the executive to gag the media. The freedom of the press is a major pillar of democracy. Thus, abridging media freedom is a direct threat to democracy. Nigerians have the right to hold and disseminate opinion. They have a right to hold the government accountable and they can only do that effectively in an atmosphere of media freedom. The National Assembly should stop colluding with the executive to inflict pain on Nigerians.
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