30th May, 2006
IMPUNITY:
Challenges Before The Media
By Chidi Nwachukwu.
The era of impunity is here again .With the third term
controversy, nothing could be further from that. Tenure extension in the name
of third term is what the present Obasanjo led government is bent on bringing
to fruition. But we have seen this before, although on different constructions,
both during the Ibrahim Babangida’s endless transition and that of Abacha. Both
Agenda failed mostly due to what could be described here as the brazen
confrontations of the media. It reminds me of Napoleon’s maxim that ’four
hostile Newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonet. To an
ordinary citizen, the media is only an establishment meant to live off the
activities of big men in power and sometimes to entertain the public, but this
is not exactly so. The media forms the critical part of government and in most
cases hated by the latter due to the formers breathless check on its
activities.
Especially in Africa where there is a consistent abuse of
legal process by men in power, the media becomes the only instrument of checks
and balances of government as well as the voice of the people of which the
Government often have little control, especially in a democracy. With what is
going on now in the National Assembly, Nigerians cannot always trust the
Legislators especially where money is involved. The legislators may just look
the other way on critical issues to the detriment of the masses whose rights
and freedom they were elected or selected to protect. It is important to state
at this point that the Nigerian press has been vibrant, brilliant, resilient,
bold and often daring. We must not loose the sight of fact that during the
colonial government, the press was that unbearable gadfly of the dictatorial colonialists.
At a forum in Abuja last week, where the issue of
privatization was critically examined, I had made it clear that the failure of
public enterprises in Nigeria which is largely due to apathy on the public was
the attitude inherited from the colonialists, where public policy was never
public process. Ever since then, the public have come to distrust the
government and would do anything to crumble its apparatuses. And with the third
term issue going on presently, there is also a growing concern among the people
as to how much this government is betraying itself. This situation is worrisome
because it is further laying a foundation of distrust between Government and
the people of which no one knows how long it will last in the life of this
Nation. Olusegun Adeniyi in some of his
articles has been made to quote Obasanjo’s statement as a great defender of
democracy in contradiction with his present unbounded ambition to crush
everything in sight just to stay in power.
The bottom line is
that if the press could crumble colonial government, dethroned Babangida’s
regime, and exited Abacha out of power, they can also scuttle this present
third term project.
Like it happened during the military era where lots of
journalists were arbitrarily arrested and others killed. The present regime in
order to realize its ambition is already after opposition in a very subtly and
yet obvious manner. For the media, the government is beginning to withdraw its
patronage by way of advertisement of state allocations from the perceived anti
third term media outfits. It is obvious that soon some journalists are going to
be facing trumped up charges for some of their reports, as well as mysterious
disappearances. However, it would still amount to abdication of its social responsibility
for the press to maintain sealed lips in the face of such executive
lawlessness, rabid dictatorship and official clampdown against the media and
the people through inexorable and selfish policies. It would be recalled that
the Obasanjo administration three years ago withdrew state house accreditation
to some publications involving TELL, The NEWS and NEWSWATCH. It is still not
clear whether that was a conspiracy with the fifth columnist at the corridors
of power or just one of those hands twisting policies of Government.
With the position of the media and I dare say the press men
in the life of any country, any ill motivated move against it just because it is doing its job would amount
to rights violation of the people. And this is particularly so with the third
world where its leaders easily toy with the wheel of justice at their whims and
caprices. In such a situation only the media can raise an alarm at least to the
hearing of the candid world.
Impunity is no longer a word to be taken for granted in
today’s world (Remember Charles Taylor’s impunity of which he is now facing
justice in Sierra Leone). The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word
impunity as exemption from punishment, or in such a way as to be exempted from
punishment. With the adoption of the Rome statute of the International Criminal
Count (ICC) on 17 July 1998, a major step towards ending the culture of
impunity that has too often prevailed in the third world especially was
established. Again I emphasize the third world, because here, there is no
respect to the rule of law by the government who happens to be the greatest
culprit of impunity. It was for flagrant disregard of Court decisions,
Constitutional breaches and numerous illegalities by the Govt. both Federal and
State levels that led to lawyers’ recent boycott of our courts. A situation
that led to the Court’s activities being paralyzed for two days. In the west, it is the government versus
justice in event of impunity, but in the third world, it is government versus
the press, because the people are often helpless.
Nigerians are gradually losing confidence in her leaders,
the police and even the courts, and to get justice and fair play through any of
these may be rather preposterous. So the media becomes the cheapest means of
persuasive justice especially for the poor and the deprived. With legal
bottlenecks and executive influences, the courts may find it difficult for
instance to wade into the irregularities of the present constitutional
amendment. But the media have stood firm by reporting every move as it occurs,
projecting the good, the bad and the ugly and leaving the decision on the altar
of public court, which indeed is the most trusted. The public through the media
knows the legislators who are on the side of history and those who are not, and
shall be punished or rewarded accordingly.
Unfortunately I feel uncomfortable at the position of some
of the media executives or owners, who often derail from the ethics of the
profession through unbalanced reports and views with respect to some repulsive
government policies. Like the ideology surrounding law, and medical professions
where altruism should take pre-eminence, the media stands to give voice to the
voiceless. I was shocked recently over a testimony of a woman in a government
established electronic media, during a three day training workshop for
journalist on reporting impunity. The woman grudgingly told the audience of how
the management has refused to engage in any reporting or coverage that will not
bring money to the establishment. She specifically told of a missing child of
poor parents whose announcements were refused on ground of their inability to
pay. There were also cases of certain stories killed by editors simply because
it is against their taste and political interests.
There is no doubt that every investment like that of the
media is meant to generate profits, but this should not be at the expense of
truth and justice. I strongly believe
that with the present state of affairs, the country is in a deep moral crisis
and the media has a social responsibility to expose impunity at all levels no
matter whose ox is gored.
NWACHUKWU lives in Lagos.
Tel: 08064281323
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