Moral Force of Truth
“Towards the end of the interview, the head of state, General Buhari, was asked a question on the issue of pres freedom: “Will you tamper with press freedom?” “Yes,” he said in a piercing voince, “I will tamper with that.”
No matter how hard a journalist prepares for an interview, he always leaves wishing that he had asked a particular question. Since the interview of Head of State Muhammadu Buhari by a Concord teamof which I was a member, I had wished every waking moment that I had asked him why he chose a career in the military instead of one in law or medicine or engineering or even journalism. Shold the chance present itself again for me to participate in an interview of the head of state, that’s a question I would certainly put. It would explain quite a lot of things. If yo first meet Buhari, you will be immediately struck by his geniality and his engaging sense of humour. That’s until he gets angry. Then his mood will change. You will feel the sudden iciness, and you will remember that the man yo are speaking with is a soldier. His fingers – that are bound to catch your attention as fine and long and gentle and always making a play as they form a conopy or lie on his crossed thighs – will suddenly take on a new life and form a sword as his right hand cuts the air for emphasis, or becomes a fist punching the air to drive home a point. His eyes that are smiling at one moment behind his gold-rimmed glasses will flip to a determined, and almost frightening hardness, enough to ward you that you are talking sworn solemnly to do battle and even kill to remove all obstacle in the path of his mission. It’s like yesterday. Buhari entered the room as we were ushered into his reception at the State House. He stood tall, and walked towards his guests in long, straight and strong steps, his right hand outstretched. He nodded recognition as each of the three of us – Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Mohammed and me – were introduced to him, saying to Mohammed that he believed they had met before. He brought with him a notepad which he placed on a coffee table in front of him. He put his pen on the notepad. He returned to the pad and pen often to make notes of some of the questions put to him. Buhari brought laughtier to the interview in the manner in which he fielded questions. Toward the end of the interview, he was asked a question on the issue of press freedom: “Will you tamper with press freedom?” “Yes,” he said in a piercing voice, “I will tamper with that.” He then went to catalogue why he would, listing what he considerd as the wrong-doing of the Nigerian press. In his view, the Nigerian press had constituted itself into an obduracy akin to an obstacle in the way of a fighting soldier that must be cleared. But what was more noticeable were not his words as much as the change that came to his gentle mien.
The change was so striking and sudden that we immediately turned off the tape, turning the interview into a dialogue over the role of the press. A look of concern flashed across the face of Maida Wada, his press secretary who sat in on the interview. Wada reminded us that the time of the interview was over. We told him that we were no longer conducting an interview, but were holding discussion with the head of state. We then went into a discussion of the role of the press, appealing to him to rethink his decision on tampering with press freedom in the country. We told him that the press had a role to play, just as the military and the government had roles to play. Buhari said that he would think about it. But we were sure that the decision had been made, that it was a military decision that not much could be done to change. The determination in the voice of Buhari communicated these feelings to us more than anything else.
Buhari’s anger had its genesis in the so-called N2.8 billion scandal. He accused the press of recklessness in tha affair.He said he coundn’t believe at the time of the scandal that anyone in his right senses could conclude that an amount of the size in the scandal could have disappeared. In his view, the Nigerian press was saying that he, Muhammadu Buhari, who served as the minster of petroleum and as the chairman of the NNPC in the period in question, had stolen N2.8 billion of the nation’s money. “Where is the evidence?” he asked angrily. What made him particularly angry at the time of the interview was that a section of the nation’s press had published an accusation made by fugitive Isyaku Ibrahim that he described as unfounded on the size of his house in Kaduna. Why would the Nigerian press press carry such a fallacy about their own head of state when even the British press had found it so incredible that they ignored it. “Why?” he asked.
Less than a week after the interview, Supreme Heaquarters Chief of Staff Tunde Idiagbon confirmed at a press briefing that the government was already writing a decree to abridge the freedom of the press. He assured the press that afternoon that they had nothing to fear from the law as it was desighned to check abuses by the press and discourage publication of falsehood. Nobody dreamt that the decree in the works would be as monstrous as Decree Number Four. And until Justice Adefarasin said from the bench that the decree, as framed, would also punish publication of truth, nobody could have imagined that truth was no longer a defence in the nation’s law books. It was even felt at rhe time tgat military government would say at the first opportunity that it did not intend Decree 4 to forbid publication of truth under any condition. But when Idiagbon said that if Adefarasin said from the bench that the decree would consider publication of truth as a criminal offence, then that was the case, some of us were greatly troubled. Buhari is yet to comment on the matter, and that’s another question I would like to put to him, should the opportunity present itself.
Notwithsatnding what Adefarasin said and the reaction of Idiagbon on the matter, I consider truth to constitute high moral defence under any form. I am sure that the government would not attempt to punish publication of truth if one is to believe the proclaimations of the government on the need for probity among government officials. DN 4 has done enough damage to the national psyche. The press and others have been silenced in the main, and the customary Nigerian exuberance has been stilled in the process.
©Newswatch, March 11, 1985
(Pp.258-260)
