PRECISELY 244 years ago, the United States Congress ratified the First Amendment to its constitution which declared that “…Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” Last week the Nigerian media were agog with the new ‘improved’ effort by the Nigerian Senate not just to abridge the freedom of speech but to actually emasculate the press.
A few commentators have tried to compare the latest effort to constrain press freedom by the Senate with dictator Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s effort in 1984. Dictator Buhari titled his version “Public Officers (Protection Against False Accusation) Decree No. 4.” The Senate version is called “Frivolous Petitions Prohibition Bill and Other Matters Connected Thereto.” Both are designed to achieve the same purpose, to overawe the press. In terms of punishment, the Senate bill is much worse. My friend, |Tunde Thompson and his colleague, Nduka Irabor, each spent a year in prison under Decree No. 4. The Senate bill doubles the prison term and imposes a N4 million fine.
Of all the myriad of problems confronting Nigeria at the present time, it is truly remarkable that this tyrannical bill seems to be the issue that matters most to this Senate. The institutional memory of the Nigerian Press is long and consistent. It now has no choice but to put down the 8th Senate on the same side of the liberty ledger as the Supreme Military Council of 1984. In Nigeria’s democratic history it is a place of infamy. In the same place would be the 1964 Newspaper Amendment Act.
The accelerated movement of the bill tells the anxiety of the senators to shut up their perceived enemies. It says so much about Nigeria’s democracy that our senate’s understanding of press freedom is still frozen at the medieval era. The last time a human being was punished in England for “abusive statements” was 800 years ago. Even in backward countries in Middle East and Africa no one can remember when last a journalist was even cautioned for “abusive statements” to say nothing of being punished or arrested.
The sponsor of the senate bill is said to be the Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate, Bala Ibn N’Allah, who I understand is some kind of tin god in the Senate as his name implies. In his statement introducing the bill the “Allah” of the Senate dwelt on the risks of “writing frivolous petitions against public officials…As a nation with strong desire to move forward this negative trend must be reversed, if only the desired objective of the present government is to be met.”
In other words, the Senate bill is an effort to do the government’s bidding, a legislative action, a shot fired in anger, to achieve “the desired objective of the present government.” Now it is this part of the motive for the bill that has confused some Nigerians who have been expecting the worst. First, it tends to rope in the government as an accessory to the bill which contradicts the President’s statement which seems to have unambiguously disclaimed the bill. I think the best approach is to keep the fingers crossed to see what happens when the bill finally arrives at the President’s desk for signature. Only then shall we know if the bill is being tailored to achieve the desired objective of the present government.
Since 1791 the United States has not passed a single bill to infringe on press freedom and other fundamental freedoms. Every information is placed at the court of public opinion irrespective of its veracity or merits or strength of argument. The government does not censor people’s opinions much less legislate to shut them out.
The Nigerian Senate has lost much credibility in so many areas. It is looked upon as an organization that is everything but democratic. It is organized like a cult. Nigerians do not trust the Senate owing to numerous instances of corruption. A few months ago former President Olusegun Obasanjo likened the Senate to handing the wolves the hen house to guard. Corruption in Nigeria is impossible to fight because it must start from the legislature. After President Buhari publicly declared his assets, everyone expected the Senate to follow his lead. Only Senator Shehu Sani of the 106 Senators did. The Senate has been totally indifferent to the plight of the ordinary people while it uses the legislature as a platform to enrich its members.
The Senate is a half-way house for many former state governors, some of whom have corruption cases hanging on their necks. The Senate President, Dr. Saraki has been indicted by the Code of Conduct Bureau for false declaration of assets. The Senate has constituted itself into a huge lobbying group to intimidate the tribunal as more than eighty of the Senators troop to the tribunal in a herd whenever Dr. Saraki has a court date.
The Senators’ effort to gag the press is in furtherance of their attempt to shut off negative reports about nefarious financial deals and it is remarkable that Sahara Reporters, an online blog which has put a searchlight on the chamber, has been the subject of persistent attack in the Senate. Indeed, the blog, and others like it, are the main targets of the Senate bill in addition to the entire Nigerian media.
The Senators have used the enormous power of the senate to advance mostly their selfish interests. First, they awarded themselves, in collusion with the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, the largest pay packet of any legislature in the world. Now they are also trying to shut off every critic by such desperate autocratic measures as the Senate bill.
Soyinka on Biafra
Prof. Wole Soyinka’s Prison notes, The Man Died, is a classic on the Nigerian Civil War and the incidents that preceded it. When earlier this week, he spoke on Biafra, he said that dismissing the agitation for Biafra with threats was not the right response. His advice to government leaders:
“Go into the environment and ask ‘what are those things we can do to make you content, to make you feel part of this entity?’ Listen to some other Biafrans and ask them why they want to stay. But don’t go around saying ‘the sovereignty of this country is indivisible, it is not negotiable.’ That type of language would only make matters worse.”
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