Following
the crackdown on popular Nigerian newspaper, Premium Times, Ahmed
Oluwasanjo has issued a word in defense of journalists.
Omoyele Sowore and Dapo Olorunyomi
After giving what is God’s to Him every
morning, the next thing I usually do is to pick up my smart phone to
read what PREMIUM TIMES and Sahara Reporters have on their websites. I
am addicted to their stories. Without doubt, however, thousands, if not
millions, of Nigerian netizens visit these news platforms with great
enthusiasm daily, just like I do.
This is not a eulogy in honour of PT or SR. They do not need one
from anybody, because their works have earned them credibility as
reputable online news platforms in a clime where newsrooms are
proliferated with pseudo-journalists, who are slaving for politicians.
Of course, I mean no disregard to other news platforms and I am not
saying that PT and SR are the only credible platforms in Nigeria. But,
over the years, they have stood out in journalism beyond the
conventional reporting that many newspapers do.
They do not only educate, inform and enlighten the public, they
also do thorough investigations, exposing the unwholesome schemes of
politicians and public officers. In other words, they are serving as the
smartest watchdogs in our polity.
PT and SR have raised the level of political awareness among young
Nigerians through their dexterous use of social media to reach this
stratum of the Nigerian population with their stories.
It might be hyperbolic to say that, with PT and SR in our polity,
the days of killing stories in newsrooms are over in the Nigerian
journalism space. However, their presence is prodding other media
platforms to step up their game in investigative journalism or become
irrelevant. More importantly, their role in democracy, and specifically
in the fight against corruption, cannot be overemphasised.
Without being told, PT and SR are nightmares to corrupt public
officers and politicians. But to sane Nigerians, they are credible
online news platforms, doing a good job that ought to be commended and
not intimated either by state actors or megalomaniacs. This brings me to
the trend of harassment and attacks these platforms are facing
presently.
Last week, the Nigerian Army threatened legal action against
PREMIUM TIMES for publications about the army and its chief, Tukur
Buratai; while one Lekan Fatodu physically assaulted Sahara Reporters’s
publisher, Omoyele Sowore, over allegations of defamation by SR.
Again, only yesterday, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, a self-effacing
journalist and publisher of PT was arrested, alongside PT’s judiciary
correspondent, Evelyn Okakwu, at around 5:00 p.m, according to reports.
To observers who have followed several explosive exposés done by PT
and SR, these incidences did not come as a surprise. That the duo of PT
and SR exist as fearless watchdogs is the greatest worry of corrupt and
unscrupulous public officers and politicians in our polity. So, such
intimidation is expected.
Good enough, earlier on PT had responded to the Nigerian Army’s
legal threat to it in a profound manner, telling the Nigerian Army that
it cannot be cowed by repressive antics.
I am really surprised that state actors are obsessed with muzzling
the press and gagging journalists who are exposing their malfeasance,
while herdsmen and terrorists are writing news headlines in blood.
Besides, if the aggrieved snake farmer behind the shameless
harassment of PT’s staff could patiently save his salaries and proceeds
from the sales of snakes’ fat, eggs and venom to buy mansions in Dubai,
why is it hard for him to wait for the court to decide if PT has erred
or not?
He should be told that he cannot cow PT. Perhaps, the day he finds
himself on the queue begging for his retirement entitlement or the day
he is thrown out of the service like some of his colleagues were
recently thrown out, he would realise how his life could depend on PT’s
professional investigations and exposés on injustice.
Likewise, the shameless police officers who collaborated with
Fatodu to harass Sowore, according to reports, would hopefully one day
need SR to beam its searchlight on the Nigerian Police Force when they
get unlawfully kicked out of the system and denied their retirement
benefits, like we have seen in the past.
Nigerians who are aware of how irresponsible some public officers
and politicians could be, and how these platforms are holding them to
higher standards, in line with best practices, would see any form of
attack on these platforms as a direct attack on the press and ordinary
citizens.
Of course, the wailers, who are still grieving over the 2015
electoral loss, mostly hate these platforms, seeing them as key players
in the electoral defeat of their party; while the hailers, who deify the
present government to unthinking and ridiculous extents, hate and see
these platforms as being too critical of the government. That’s fine.
However, the fact that these confused supporters of PDP/Goodluck
Jonathan and APC/Muhammadu Buhari are always accusing these platforms
tellingly reveals that they exist in the public interest. To put it in
words that would resonate well with many of us, PT and SR are neither
partisan nor belong to any political party or persons – whether Jonathan
or Buhari.
Professional journalists are not among the enemies of Nigeria. Sane
Nigerians will agree that PT and SR are revolutionising and redefining
journalism as the real public interest engagement and the moral
conscience of our society.
******
Ahmed Oluwasanjo writes from Abuja.
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