BABANGIDA AS A FRIEND OF THE PRESS

Not giving up, the convener of the meeting, Mr. Chidi Amuta, asked why the media should treat their friend with such apathy. According to Amuta, “This meeting is important because we need to solicit support for IBB when he finally declares his intention to contest the 2007 presidency. He has been a long time friend of the media and would certainly do a lot for journalists.”

So, againstbabangida.com asks: is Babangida a friend of the Nigerian mass media?

As usual, we based our findings on research, and conclude that Babangida was like HIV/AIDS to the media all through his miserable eight years in power. And these are the facts:

Characteristically, Babangida started out hiding behind the cloak of press freedom, having abrogated the obnoxious Decree 4 which punished journalists and whistle blowers heavily for non-patronizing reports.

Nonetheless,"The regime of General Ibrahim Babangida (August 27, 1985 to August 26, 1993) has the dubious distinction of having closed down or proscribed more newspapers and magazines than any other government in Nigeria's history" Forty-one newspapers and magazines were victims of this practice under the administration, some of them closed down or proscribed on two different occasions," says the Media Rights Agenda.

Twenty-five newspapers and magazines were shut down or proscribed by the Babangida Administration in 1993 alone following public agitation for a return to civil democratic rule and the government's desire to curtail expression of discontent with General Babangida's annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election results and his bid to remain in power indefinitely. In many instances, several other companies operating businesses unrelated to newspaper or magazine publication but sharing premises with targeted newspaper companies were also shut down and prevented from using their offices. This has happened in the sealing off of the premises of the Newbreed Organisation, Guardian Newspapers and Concord Press.
 
In the height of massive media repressions in the final weeks of the Babangida Administration, security agents invaded the premises of the Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC) in Abeokuta on July 22, 1993 and sealed off the premises putting an end to the operations of the radio and television stations run by the corporation.

It all started in 1986, with the killing of erudite Newswatch journalist, Dele Giwa, by a parcel bomb, a murder that the whole nation believed was plotted  from the highest echelons of government. The assault on the media continued, also with Newswatch. The execution of the proscription order on Newswatch magazine in 1987 is memorable. On April 5, 1987, about 30 heavily armed policemen led by a superintendent stormed the premises of Newswatch at"63, Oregun Road, in Ikeja, Lagos and sealed off their offices. The next day, the Federal Military Government announced that it had banned Newswatch for publishing the report of the 12 member Political Bureau submitted to the government on March 27, 1987.

Newswatch published the report in an exclusive cover story entitled "Third Republic: A New Political Agenda". The press secretary to the Chief of General Staff, Mallam Yusuf Mamman, who announced the ban, said Newswatch acted illegally and, irresponsibly in publishing the report as it would prejudice a balanced consideration of the recommendations of the Bureau and could cause confusion and disaffection among the diverse groups in the society. On April 10, 1987, the Government published the Newswatch (Proscription and Prohibition from Circulation) Decree No 6 of 1987 by which it banned the magazine for six months with effect from April 6. The ban was however lifted on August 26, 1987, less than two months to the expiration of the six month period.

Since then, the Babangida regime at varying periods had deported, detained or  shut down journalists or the media. Some newspapers that suffered under him include Concord Press Nigeria Limited, Guardian Newspapers Limited, Nationhouse Press Limited, Sketch Press Limited, Punch Nigeria Limited, Bendel Newspapers Corporation, African Concord Limited, Guardian Magazines Limited, and TELL Communications Limited.

Three newspapers in Lagos owned by John West Publications were shut down in March for thirteen days for what was described as "embarrassing publications" against the president and his wife, relating to the Jennifer Madike case described above. Under the heading "IBB, Maryam [Babangida] named in Jennifer's deal," the offending story, which appeared in the Lagos Evening News, reported the contents of a letter purportedly written by the chair of the Drug Law Enforcement Agency in which he justified the need to detain Madike under Decree 2. The paper's editor and news editor were arrested and detained for a few days.

The Lagos State government closed down the Guardian after its coverage of the student killings in Lagos.  Four journalists and two office assistants were arrested. The paper reopened nearly two weeks later. The journalists and assistants were released the next day without charge.

William Keeling, a correspondent for the British daily Financial Times, was expelled from Nigeria and declared persona non grata. The government accused him of writing inaccurate articles "ostensibly to cause mischief and disharmony among Nigerians and between Nigeria and the rest of the world." The government's statement cited an article in which Keeling had accused the government of not reporting about half of the extra five billion dollars that it was estimated to have earned from higher oil prices during the Gulf war.

When African Concord reported how Babangida tried to cover up the deep participation of his govermment in the crimes committed by the defunct BCCI Bank worldwide, he shut down the magazine. At the time, the late MKO Abiola was a close friend of IBB, and the closure should have been a forewarning to Abiola about the impending betrayal by his supposed friend, IBB. The African Concord journalists were required to beg Babangida as a pre-condition for the re-opening of their medium. The editorial team declined. The result is The News media company, as the journalist left in droves to form their own company. Babangida later re-opened African Concord, but today, the media house is dead and the owner is dead as well.

The reasons most frequently adduced by the government for closing down a newspaper house or banning a publication are irresponsibility and threat to national security or the unity of the country on the part of the affected newspaper. Such allegations are invariably never substantiated or presented before an independent adjudicatory body. The government often never cites the stories or series of articles published by the newspaper or magazine which necessitated the measures, leaving the publishers and members of the public to conjecture. For instance, the Federal Military Government initially proscribed all the publications by Concord Press Nigeria Limited and African Concord Limited on April 9, 1992 for six months.8 Although the premises were widely believed to have been sealed off following the African Concord magazines cover story in its April 13, 1992 edition entitled "Has IBB Given Up", the Minister for Information and Culture, Professor Sam Oyovbaire, said on April 15 that the government had "sufficient evidence to show that the action of the organisation undermined national security”.

When the Federal Military Government shut down the premises of six media organisations on July 22, 1993, the Secretary (Minister) for Information and Culture, Mr. Uche Chukwumerije, sought to justify the action by saying that the government was forced to resort to such measure because of the confirmed excesses of media institutions despite repeated warnings. He did not disclose which of their publications the government found offensive or when "the warnings" were issued. Chukwumerije merely alleged that:­

"The government is convinced that the media houses have completely mortgaged all professional ethics for money. The government has evidence that the businessman/politician has been using his paper for personal aggrandizement, had been funding another Lagos based newspaper, supplying it with newsprint and underwriting its salary bills"

Such "evidence" was not made public.

Use these tables to judge Babangida's record. He could not have been a friend of free press, nor a friend of the freedom of expression:

Newspapers Proscribed by the Federal Military Government or the Military Government of a State

 

Magazines Shut down by the Federal Military Government or the Military Government of a State
 

Newspapers shut down by the Federal Military Government or the Military Government of a State
 

Magazines Proscribed by the Federal Military Government