At the time president Obasanjo came out from his shell of studied silence, he accused Nigerians of insulting, blackmailing and abusing him; certainly, on the president’s topmost list of those he was pointing fingers at, is the media, especially the print media, our president said: “many derogatory statements and unfounded allegations have been made about my position… in the National Assembly and in the media which are false, incorrect and uncalled for." Among the antagonists of the attempted tenure elongation; the press is the only one that fought the battle purely for the entrenchment of   democracy and constitutionality; it is generally accepted that, had it been the press was standing akimbo and watching during the controversial constitution amendment, the third term project could have been unbeaten   – OBJ could have been right now in a   journey to twelve more years of enjoying Aso Rock’s paraphernalia.

Has the press been fair to president Obasanjo? Mr. Akin Osuntoku, The Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria, in an interview he granted to The Punch Newspapers, on June 16,2006 asserted that: “The media over the years had assumed the role that did not belong to it and that is the role of an institutional opposition… The media has assumed that role and we are still continuing with that syndrome. Effectively in Nigeria today, the media is still playing that role of institutional opposition” but observers are of the view, media are to constantly be checking the politicians, legislature and the judiciary, thus politicians sees the press as an opposition; pastor Olusegun Olatunji the Managing Director of tribune newspapers said in an interview with the sun newspapers of June 14, 2006 p31, said: “the government believe the newspapers are it enemies” he further went on and said that: “ the press is the only visible sign of democracy at the moment”. The ‘friends’ of the president are of the judgment that the media are the ones that set the trail to the   ‘unnecessary’ accusation, that president Obasanjo is the master planner of the tenure elongation gamble; New Age Newspapers of Monday June 12, 2006 (front page) reported chief Bode George saying: “president Obasanjo’s cell phone was inundated with anti-term messages, some unprintable”, but in 1963, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was the leader of Nigeria took two amendments to the House of Representatives and got them through with no one insulting him because  there was a national consensus around them: the changed from Monarchy to Republican Status made all Nigerians proud,  and the creation of the fourth Region, but in OBJ’s case, the process was taken as  Ahmadu Ali’s PDP Constitution that could be amended by fraud, bribery and gift of land at Abuja- what do you expect in such scenario , insults instead of ovations!. Nevertheless in a civilized world, leaders must be accorded the due respect but good leaders rely on good piece of information from the press regardless of whether the information go well with what they desire to hear, but we are in a situation where our president relies only on information from his aides and his ‘false friends’, as Sam Nda-Isaiah said in his Everyday Column in leadership newspapers of   May 8, 2006 “He (Obasanjo) also would have to stop associating with some funny characters around him. Today, Obasanjo’s soul mates are Chris Uba, Tony Anenih, Ojo Maduekwe, Festus Odimegwu, Bode George, Ibrahim Mantu, Lamidi Adedibu and Co. One hardly sees any decent person around the old man these days. If the president enjoys the company of these people so much, then he must be like them. And no one would want a president in the mould of these people”.  Equally in its editorial of June 15, 2005 the Guardian newspapers pointed out that: “ the presidency is an office meant for good, for illumination, for liberation…it is appropriate too we suggest, for the record, our job prescription for the president in the current situation, first, president Obasanjo reluctance to own up to his working hard for the cloak-and dagger efforts at tenure elongation, diminishes his standing and casts a spell at the neutrality Nigerians call for both within his party and his nation”, but president Obasanjo  has been  relying on images from ‘broken mirrors’ in the language of President Charles De Gaulle of France, a “broken mirror” cannot be used to reflect an image but images that are not meaningful, our president is ignoring advice from the fourth estate in the realm which is a ‘functional mirror’,  however its shortcomings the media give a true reflection of the society’s viewpoint, indeed the press is the mirror that give an unembroidered reflection of the state of the nation, Dimegba Igwe in his column, Side View of the sun news papers of June 14, 2006 said:  “… some were wandering if at all the president watches private TV stations apart from the NTA, and reads the news papers both local and international to feel the pulse of the people in Nigeria”  

Zayyad        I.  Muhammad writes from Jimeta. zaymohd@yahoo.com