That day in 1984 when Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor were both driven from a Lagos courthouse in a Black Maria to begin their jail term, I had just started my career as a young reporter at The Guardian. It was a fearful start to what I considered a life-long calling as a journalist.
As I went back home that evening, however, I was stoic in my desire to continue my life as a reporter yet worried for my country and for the profession I had chosen as a calling. The inhuman jail sentence for the two innocent journalists who told the truth and the obnoxious decree for which they were jailed left an indelible mark on my psyche. Why should people suffer for telling the truth? I asked myself repeatedly.
That memory explains this fierce revolt inside of me against the ominous signs of another attempt to silence the media. Some people in government, simply because they are increasingly uncomfortable with hearing the truth, want to criminalise telling the truth. It must be condemned by all.
Though the journey of both legislative bills through the National Assembly has been suspended they will curtail not just the work that journalists do but it will also abridge society’s constitutional right to know and be heard.
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Why should we be worried? you may ask. Media control is always associated with dictatorships and maximum rule. It is often a ploy of pretentious leaders who want to rule without any window for accountability. Media control is a tool for autocratic rulers, a hammer with which to nail one-man rule or absolute power.
Nigeria has performed poorly on several fronts, partly because of the country’s persistent leadership failings. We cannot now be told to keep quiet, tolerate hardship, misrule and those who seek absolute power.
As in 1984 and now, Muhammadu Buhari is head of state. While the noxious Decree Four was his idea, this time around he denies anything to do with this latest assault on the media and the rights of the people to know. He will be believed only when his government calls an utter end to this surreptitious move in the National Assembly to bring back decree four, a piece of legislation that belongs to the dark ages.
