Daily Independent (Lagos)
Austin Oboh With Dan Kanu And Rafiu Ajakaye
19 November 2008
After repeated harassment, detention and arrest of staff of Leadership Newspapers by the police and the State Security service (SSS), the publisher and some editorial staff have yet, again arrested. This was barely 24 hours after editors detained at the weekend were released. The persecution - as people now see it - has gone on to the extent that many Nigerians are now wondering to what end has the state organised this relentless physical and spiritual torture of the newspaper's team?
The beginning of the story did not quite prepare most Nigerians for what is now happening. What its editors have since admitted as error slipped into public discourse like the mischief of an over-indulged child which would soon be forgiven. But no, not this time.
On Saturday November 8, the newspaper, based in Abuja, published a story entitled 'Yar'Adua Sick Again,' in which it claimed that President Umaru Yar'Adua had "fallen critically ill and this has prevented him from attending public functions in the last two days, including Jumma'at prayer at the National Mosque on Friday and the 4th Africa/German Forum at Sheraton Hotel." The paper also stated that the President was being attended to by doctors flown into the country from Saudi Arabia.
Aso Rock appeared stung; it spoke out loudly, dismissing the story as false and malicious, but did not stop there: it threatened court action against the paper.
"There is no truth in the entire report, and the lies on which it hangs are so easy to disprove that the only reasonable conclusion is that the publishers of the newspaper ran the report in furtherance of their reprehensible effort to embarrass the President and destabilise his administration," Presidential spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, said while announcing the determination of the Presidency to go to court against the paper.
Said he: "In keeping with his commitment to upholding the rule of law at all times, Yar'Adua has directed his lawyers to take appropriate legal action against the Leadership newspapers and pursue the case to its logical conclusion."
Several reactions in the papers the following day, almost all blaming Leadership for being reckless and preaching the need for newspapers to be more thorough, indicated that people sympathised with the President this time, perhaps, even suspected that the report was actually intended to embarrass the President as Adeniyi had claimed. They apologised on behalf of the paper.
In obvious remorse over the story, the management of the paper published a public apology, claiming the story fell slightly below the standard it had recommended for itself. Here are excerpts of the apology:
"We admit that portions of the lead story carried yesterday (Saturday) by Leadership Weekend did not meet the standard we have set for ourselves as a newspaper. After taking a second look at the offensive part of that report, we can understand the concerns of the Presidency and, therefore, sincerely apologise to the president and members of his family."
It further explained that the content of the story did not suggest that it was working in alliance with any person, group or party who did not mean well for the President or the country.
"We may not agree with the manner in which the President 'won' his election," the Managing Editor who wrote the apology said, and added, "but that does not mean we are in cahoots with detractors of his administration."
Continuing, he stated: "As a newspaper, we believe that the people's right to know is sacrosanct. As a result of this embarrassment, we have relieved the persons responsible of their duties even before the Presidency's statement. A thorough in-house cleansing of our reportorial mechanism has since commenced. We do not take the issue of our integrity lightly, for our professional competence has never been in doubt."
According to the statement, "We do not wish the President ill and his ailment, for us, is not a matter for celebration. It is not an impeachable offence to be ill, but report we must when we have to, as it is our statutory and constitutional obligation to inform the public."
It was the opinion in some sections of the media that the apology almost went too far, almost became to ingratiating and obsequious.
Despite this opinion, the Presidency was unimpressed, evidently. This has become obvious with the Sunday, November 16, arrest. Reports have also revealed that the SSS consolidated their serial attacks on the paper on Monday 17, when the security arm carted away their computers.
Lawyer and rights advocate, Festus Keyamo, instantly condemned the arrest and accused the SSS of harassing management of the paper.
"Some of us are very disturbed by the current attitude of the Yar'Adua administration to press freedom, which flows from the constitutional duties given to the Press by Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution," he said.
Citing the relevant sessions, Keyamo remarked: "The Press - radio, television and other agencies of the mass media - shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people."
Referring to earlier actions by the government, he pointed out that "the current siege on the Leadership Newspaper by the SSS is the latest in recent list of intolerability displayed by President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration towards the Press."
He mentioned earlier examples. "Not long ago, we witnessed the unjust closure of Channels T.V, when a simple refutal of the story by the Presidency would have sufficed. The recent arrest and detention of Jonathan Elendu and Emmanuel Asiwe, both on-line journalists, is still fresh in our memory. Their offence(s) have not been made known. They were not charged to court."
He added: "We are also aware that a popular programme on A.I.T, anchored by veteran journalist, Gbenga Aruleba, 'Focus Nigeria', has been proscribed by the Federal Government. The irresistible conclusion we can draw is that the Yar'Adua administration has refused to be an Open Regime where the flow of information is always guaranteed, leading to all kinds of speculations by the Press. The monthly media chat that was done by the Obasanjo regime, where burning issues could be addressed, have been shelved. The media advisers of the President are certainly not living up to expectations."
Keyamo called on all Nigerians and the Press to stand up and "resist these unconstitutional restrictions and actions by the Yar'Adua administration against the Press now before it is too late," adding, "the President should also come clean by publishing a true account (with documentary evidence) of every aspect about his person or his administration, to save us these unnecessary embarrassments."
In a follow-up interview with *Daily Independent the next day, Keyamo repeated the same claims saying "it is an uncivilised way of resolving issues."
More of his comments: "There is a certain trend that is emerging now in this regime where they have shown complete intolerability of the Press. Yar'Adua's administration has engaged in the assault against the Press in the last few months. The Channels TV example, the arrest and detention of Jonathan Elendu, the On-Line editor, the stoppage of Focus Nigeria on AIT, by the Federal Government, these are all recent examples of Yar'Adua's assault against Press freedom."
He asserted that with the President's action, "he is also assaulting the provisions of the Constitution that guarantee Press freedom."
Campaign for Democracy (CD) also criticised the arrest and detention, and warned that the action showed a president fast turning into a "civilian dictator".
CD President, Joe Okei-Odumakin, insisted, in a telephone reaction, that the worst Aso Rock ought to do is to take the newspaper to court, in case it finds its publication offensive, rather than "resort to intimidating the staff of the newspaper and journalists generally."
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closing ones eyes so firmly because a bad man is passing by, will if time is not taken, only result in losing sight of very many good men, who would have also passed by, and who could be beneficial to ones cause.
Must OBASANJO be mentioned with EVERYTHING considered negative???
We will NOT move anywhere with this attitude of the Nigerian press.
By the way, I noticed that ONLY foreign media carried the news of Obasanjos appointment as UN envoy, while the home media were still busy vilifying the man, beating a fallen man as they say. Just this I… [Read Full Text]