IN Zamfara State, it is an offence, punishable by a sack, to criticise President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

Last week the state government fired the Managing Director of the state-owned newspaper Mallam Bashir Sanda Gusau. The newspaper, Legacy, published an article that criticised the President.

Our laws do not prescribe the sack of journalists as punishment for publications that criticise the President, but Zamfara Governor Mahmud Aliyu Shinkafi approved this approach. He also warned all civil servants in the State against criticising the President.

We are not against employers disciplining their employees as they deem fit. However, there must be a basis, in law, for the punishment. It is more imperative where the employer involved is government, which must respect the law, in order not to be lawless, and encourage others to follow that chaotic path.

Libel laws adequately cover matters of offensive publications. Mallam Gusau should have been charged to court for libel. In a democracy, as we claim to practice, the governor does not have the powers Shinkafi used. He should have gone though the court for Gusau to defend his action. A governor's orders cannot be law!

Under the military, were journalists fired in this way. Are we back to those days?

The complaint was about a part of the article that said, "The past one and half years of Yar'Adua's presidency were marred by indolence, ineptitude, violence, kidnapping, armed robbery, communal clashes, power blackout and succumbing to the whims and caprices of a cabal holding the nation to ransom". Gusau should have been made to prove these before the court.

In a two-page official statement on the matter, the Zamfara State Government that belongs to the rival All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, said, "Yar'Adua is the de facto and de jure head of the country. We shall never associate the government and people of Zamfara State with any attempt to run him down. The disrespectful write-up sought to condemn the administration of President Yar'Adua and by extension our growing democracy". Our democracy runs on the wheels of 36 States, 774 local government councils, not just the Federal Government, which for the governor is actually Yar'Adua.

Governor Shinkafi speaking after a prayer session for the good health of the President rated the administration, "Yar'Adua is the pillar behind the democratic dividends being enjoyed by Nigerians nationwide as he promptly releases allocations to all tiers of government".

If the dividends of democracy are prompt release of allocations to all tiers of governments, how many Nigerians are enjoying the benefits of the allocations? While the publication lists seven areas the President performed lowly, the governor thinks release of funds is the President's prime responsibility to Nigerians.

Shinkafi sounds like a prospective member of the President's party, it is his right too. Dividends of democracy include Gusau's right to a fair hearing.

Nigerians expect their leaders to respect laws, at all times. The disdain our leaders have for laws accounts for most of their excesses.

Gusau's sack is only a minor example. Zamfara government must recall him.