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The Renewed Clampdown On Media Organisations By Ladi Ibrahim The renewed clampdown on media organization by the Obasanjo’s organization is a reminder of the military era when decrees two and four were used to gag the media as well as the use of letter bomb to kill a frontline journalist by the name Dele Giwa. This rather unfortunate development became very noticeable when the government arrested and charged to court the senior aviation correspondent of the Daily Independent newspapers RotimDurojaiye for writing an exclusive story about how some very highly placed in government purchased tokunbo plane as new presidential plane, he was charged with corruption for revealing this act of monumental graft, which till today government has not denied, but merely swept under the carpet. The second was the arrest and subsequent charge Gbenga Areluba of AIT for airing what the government considers offensive, hence, he was said to have committed a treasonable act. Although, we are under a democratic dispensation, the Obasanjo led government has become increasingly intolerant of criticisms and opposing viewpoints. It would be recalled that, it is in this connection that Godwin Agboroko was recently murdered in what has come to be described as a state sanctioned assassination, in view of the very principled stands he consistently took against government excesses and unpopular policies. But the government came up with an unconvincing story that it was a case of armed robbery attack, in which it was said that other policemen were also killed, but up till now government has not deem it fit to make the names of the dead police officers public, nobody has seen their dead bodies, it was the same lie that Nigerians were fed with when government killed Fred Agbeyegbe. Now, the question that should be posed here is that, was the fire that gutted Thisday newspaper also accidental or another government strategy to silence the popular press at all cost in the country, in the build up to the 2007 general election? Since the inception of this government there has been unprecedented high profile murders starting with that of Bola Ige, Harry Marshall, A.K. Dikibo, Dr Daramola, Funsho Williams and many others, out of all these cases, not in a single case has the perpetrators of these heinous crime been apprehended. If all these highly placed people in the society can be killed with reckless abandon, what about lesser mortals that are very vulnerable? As if this is not enough, the government in the display of brute force ordered the arrest of the editor as well as the general manager of leadership newspapers and the sealing off of the media outfit. This is not only a violation of the inalienable right of the organization and the people of the country, it is also a very undemocratic act. It is in this regard that it has been said that, having abandoned democracy for political repression, our leaders are delinked from our people. Operating in a vacuum they proclaim their incarnation of the popular will, hear echoes of their own voices, and reassured, pursue with policies that have nothing to do with the aspirations of our people and which cannot mobilize them. As their alienation from the people increase, they rely more and more on coercion, and become even more alienated. As rulership became permanent, politics became Hobbesian; power was pursued by all means and kept by all means and the struggle for power became the overriding concern. Indeed politics became the only game in town, it was a game played with deadly seriousness for the winners won everything and the loses lost everything. The circumstance of our history have conspired to produce an elite which cannot function because it has no sense of identity or integrity and no confidence, does not know where it is coming from or where it is going. It is clear from the behaviour of our leaders that most of them have no respect for themselves and do not take themselves seriously. And, this a graphic illustration of the Obasanjo led government, as the country inches closer to the 2007 general the government of the day is becoming atrocious and despotic, as it is desperate to hold on to political power at all cost. But the point must be made this incessant affront on the media must stop. Nigeria does not belong to one person or some groups of people, instead, we are all stakeholders in the Nigeria project, hence, the government must learn to imbibe the basic democratic ethos, be accommodate and tolerant, as well as do things based on the rule of law and constitutional order, these are the hallmark of true democracy.
Ladi Ibrahim Jos Plateau State
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