Freedom From Self-Censorship
“Many journalists, seeing the dull-green colour of military vehicles on their way to work each morning, appeared to decide that the atmosphere wasn’t just good for crusading journalism”
Journalism, like politics, has become activist since the end of the military era. During the period when the military was in government, politicians were required by law not to make political statements. The election campaign that was conducted under the supervision of the military was far less boisterous than it would have been had the military not been watching. Journalists, too, seemed to have forgotten the full meaning of independent journalism as they reluctant to conduct investigations instead of always waiting for official government release. As a senior civilian official of the former military government observed during a conversation at the Monrovia summit of the OAU, the press censored itself far more than the military would have ever dared.
Many journalists, seeing the dull-green colour of military vehicles on their way to work each morning, appeared to decide that the atmosphere wasn’t just good for crusading journalism. What many journalists didn’t seem to have understood during the period was that the Obasanjo-Yar’Adua government was the kind of military outfit that was highly sensitive to press analysis and criticism. They might get angry, for example, by a Daily Times editorial or news story and call up the managing director. But they hardly ever did more than that. And at other times, General Obasanjo, who liked philosophical arguments, might decide to invite the writer of a particular article to the Dodan Barracks for discussion of the article. When Yemi Ogunbiyi, who teaches Dramatic Arts at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), wrote a strong article on the Ali-Must-Go episode, General Obasanjo invited him to the Dodan Barracks to discuss the article and his recommendation that the then Commissioner for Education must be fired. The conversation, according to Dr. Ogunbiyi, was friendly; having taken place after a lunch between the gentlemen. On the same Ali-Must-Go crisis, the General engaged Stanley Macebuh, chairman of the Daily Times Editorial Board, in a debate over an editorial on the matter. Macebuh had travelled with the former Head of State to Romania when Stanley Macebuh said something about the apparent state discipline in the country. General Obasanjo was said to have remarked that if Nigeria had the kind of Romania discipline, Stanley Macebuh would have been the one to go and not Colonel Ali. It was something that was the bottle-up in the General’s chest and once it was dislodged, that was the end of the matter. Subsequently, Yemi Ogunbiyi and Stanley Macebuh wrote to criticize the government and nothing happened to them. However, self-censorship pervaded the media in the country to the extent that hardly anything was reporter that wasn’t officially announced the military government.
The sense of extra-caution was noticeable in the media in the first few days of the civilian era until the National Assembly challenged the press. A statement on the floor of House of Representatives marked the high point of the challenge. The Speaker of the House, Mr. Edwin Ume Ezeoke, was annoyed by the sharp reaction in the press and from the public to the desire of the National Assembly members for good salaries and allowances. Mr. Ezeoke then warned the press and the public not to step out of their bounds let they be punished by the National Assembly. The reactions from the public and the press were swift and scathing.
It was an incident that should be celebrated not freeing the Nigerian press from its slumber of caution and infusing it with new sense of purpose. From that time, the press had become more assertive and independent in analyzing issues and events to the moment to the nation. It had even become noticeable that the government was beginning to take reporters more seriously. The leadership of the National Assembly started showing signs that the relationship between it and the press would by symbiotic, because without one, the other will starve. Apart from the flash generated by the remuneration issue, the press appeared shy and ill-suited to deal with the new system. The press had reporter the National Assembly with gullible faith, without showing the ability to question and point out errors of the legislature. In reporting the resolution of the Assembly to extend the life of the old man, the media gave the public the impression that the action was law. Thus, many people who would have rushed to meet the extent deadline took the press reports of the Assembly’s resolution as an announcement of a new law.
Either that the president has not found the press or the press has not found the president, nothing of authority about the presidency of Shehu Shagari appears in the pages of the Nigerian press. Now that he has a Special Adviser on Information, President Shehu Shagari may start to publicise a certain kind of style. A president may be working 24 hours a day, and may be taking a million actions everyday, without an astute publicity outfit nobody will know anything about the efforts. Stanley Macebuh was able to get together something like the “minimum Government,” not because the president was doing hardly anything, but because the president had no professional machinery to inform the nation of the work in his office. President Shagari may be insisting on a presidency of low profile but the press must not allow him to get away with it because of the right of the electorate to know. All in all, 1980 will be an exciting year for the press if it will become more inquisitive.
©Daily Times, December 26, 1979
(Pp.57-59)
