Lagos — The issue of the freedom of the press, if I may recollect correctly, has remained a major item on the national political agenda for a very long time, starting from the colonial era through the immediate post-colonial period to now. Even as at the time I formally joined Nigerian journalism in 1987, the clamor for press freedom and democratic governance had been relentless and continued to echo around and beyond the nooks and crannies of this country.
In the count down to independence in 1960 and immediately thereafter, the nationalist press at the vanguard of the agitation for political freedom led by the West African Pilot owned by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe waged a titanic battle with the British colonial authorities on the need to transfer political power to the indigenous people of Nigeria. The colonialists who were bent on deepening their stranglehold on Nigeria saw in the bourgeoning local press a major irritant that should be contained at all cost.
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