THE NEWS and TEMPO
The new Obasanjo-led civilian government sworn in on 29 May 1999 has started off by urging the media "to be responsible", but has not said much about the pledge to uphold press freedom. No Nigerian journalist, however, can forget that the new Head of State had, on retiring as military dictator in 1979, placed a large sign at the gate to his estate which read "No Dogs and Journalists allowed".
The successive military regimes have had one thing in common: that of making life difficult for journalists who would not pay court to them. Over the last two decades, all the independent media have suffered from the actions of military power but none suffered as much as the so-called «guerrilla press». Several weeklies, among them The News and Tempo have paid a heavy price since setting up in 1992.
- An old dispute between the military and the media
- Founding philosophy and consistency under fire
- General Abacha's regime and increased repression
- The Abubakar regime and the "cooling" of hostilities
- The new civilian regime
- Links
An old dispute between the military and the media
Of all the sectors of the Nigerian society that campaigned for an end to military rule, the media, after the human rights organisations, trade union and political activists, paid the highest price. This is because the media, above all, reflected the voice of dissent in a country without the usual outlets of a democratic society such as a parliament. Because the media became a key area for debate and reflected the views of pro-democracy voices, the military naively concluded that by smashing the independent media, it could eliminate dissent, criticism or opposition. The problem was that the media could not be shattered like a mere glass mirror. Jackboots and bullets only made splashes in the clear but deep waters of resistance and when the ripples settled, the media continued to mirror the truth.Although virtually all independent media (and some state-owned ones) suffered from the arbitrariness of military rule, none suffered as much as the "guerrilla press", made up of a number of weekly news magazines. These magazines published stories which others would simply not consider. The leaders of the guerrilla press were and still are The News and Tempo weekly magazines.
On seizing power in 1985 in a palace coup, General Babangida endeared himself to most Nigerians and the media by striking a media-friendly posture. One of his first tasks was to repeal the notorious 1984 Decree number 4 which had been used by the previous regime to imprison two Guardian journalists, Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor, for publishing leaked government documents in the public interest, and for refusing to disclose their sources. Babangida also granted the journalists an official pardon. This gesture and others, including seemingly unimportant things such as striking up first name friendships with journalists and sending them birthday gifts, suggested that he was a likeable and benevolent dictator if such a thing ever existed.
By 1990 - he had twice extended his own transition timetable to hand over power to a civilian government - he had become public enemy number one and this was reflected in relentless criticism of his regime in the media. The October 1987 death by a letter bomb of Dele Giwa, editor-in-chief of Nigeria's first news weekly Newswatch signalled the beginning of hostilities between the media and Babangida. Giwa had been accused by the regime of blackmail and gun running shortly before his death.
In April 1992, the African Concord weekly magazine, edited by Bayo Onanuga delivered a devastating blow to the Babangida junta, which had yet again promised to hand over power in 1993. An edition of the magazine was dedicated to a "special report" on the Babangida regime. The report was a catalogue of the political and economic policies of the regime and their tragic consequences for the country. Alerted by its agents, the regime seized the first print run of 80,000 copies. 200 policemen led by soldiers and military officers attacked the premises of the Concord Group of Newspapers. Over 300 members of staff were thrown out at gun point and the premises sealed off.
To avoid permanent closure of his publications and government hostility to his other business interests, Chief Abiola, owner of the Group, asked his editor Bayo Onanuga to issue a public apology to Babangida. Onanuga refused and preferred to resign. Four other African Concord journalists; Dapo Olorunyomi; Babafemi Ojudu; Kunle Ajibade and Seye Kehinde, resigned with him.
These five constituted the founding members of The News weekly magazine. The News was the first publication of the stable, which now includes Tempo, PM News, an evening paper, and the now defunct Tempo Football and AM News national newspaper.
Founding philosophy and consistency under fire
The News was founded in February 1993 on the basis of the philosophy (summarised in the phrase): "Publish the truth and be damned". Such an attitude is considered risky even at the best of times. Under a military dictatorship, it was considered to be suicidal to openly commit a magazine to not only the best traditions of investigative journalism but also to the pursuit of democratic ideals. Many wondered how the magazine would stay afloat if its founding philosophy consistently pitched it against the junta. Even more wondered what sort of entrepreneurs would invest in the Independent Communications Network Limited, publishers of The News.
In the first month of publication, three of the founding editors of The News and a reporter were imprisoned for a week by a Lagos high court judge for writing a story that was critical of him. Instead of serving as the lesson the judge intended the sentence to be, the journalists seized the opportunity of their imprisonment to scoop a prison interview with Africa's biggest musical artist, the radical musician the late Fela Ankulakpo Kuti, who was being held in the same prison. Between the public's love for Fela and appreciation of their courage, the publication endeared itself to a great many Nigerians.
In June 1993 after only four months of publishing, The News was banned by a government pronouncement. When the ban was ignored and the magazine continued publishing, a formal decree banning it was issued and its offices sealed off by the military. It seemed the military had had enough of its impertinence. However, without losing stride, the publishers of The News were soon back on the streets under the title of Tempo (this time), published by Bookmate Publications. The military, eager not to be embarrassed by the strategic thinking of mere journalists, responded by tracking down and seizing the first print run of 50,000 copies of Tempo. Determined not to be overrun, Tempo went underground and issued a reprint. The public rewarded Tempo's courage by buying even more copies. For the first time in the history of the Nigerian media, a mainstream publication was breaking even on the basis of sales alone, without any advertising or underground publication.
The annulment of the 12 June 1993 elections by General Ibrahim Babangida gave impetus to the Nigerian's opposition. Tempo specialised in carrying interviews with opposition leaders, activists and human rights groups and provided coverage of their activities that most other publications dared not publish. The government's agents targeted distributors and vendors handling the publication by beating and arresting them, yet the editors and journalists of Tempo persisted. By the time the decree banning The News expired, the regime did not even bother renewing it. Instead of stamping out The News, repression of the paper in fact increased the military government's problems.
The experience of The News made other journalists realise that it was possible to publish without having a known or permanent offices. As a result, a plethora of publications sprang up to challenge the military. One was even called June 12 in defiance of the military's annulment of the elections won by Chief MKO Abiola, Babangida's erstwhile friend, who was later to die in prison for persisting in claiming his electoral victory.
In the six months of turbulence and unending protests that followed the annulment of the elections, The News and Tempo grew from strength to strength. Alongside a few other courageous publications, they gave a voice to the opposition and refuted the lies of the government media. Soon after its resurrection, a print run of 100,000 copies of The News was intercepted and seized. At the same time Tempo was seized twice in one month and yet the demand for the newspapers was so high that reprints on cheap paper were still able to sell at the price of the glossy originals and help cover losses. During this period, several publications were banned, including all titles from the MKO Abiola owned Concord Press, Punch Newspapers and, astonishingly, two government-owned media that had carried so called balanced news. Some programmes on two government-owned radio stations that reflected the views of the banned publications were also suspended. Ironically, the ban on other publications fuelled demand for Tempo (in particular), which was frequently going for several reprints of one edition to meet with the demand.
The military government soon tired of chasing after the elusive publications and resorted to printing fake editions of them in a bid to undermine demand for them. Some editions even called for support for the regime. This caused some initial confusion with some buyers. However, the public was soon able to identify the fake from the original and the government's plans collapsed.
In August 1993, General Babangida was forced from power by mass protests and handed over power to an unelected civilian government headed by Earnest Sonekan. By November 1993, when it became clear that another round of protests led by the powerful oil workers' unions was going to bring down the imposed regime, Babangida's Chief of Army Staff, General Sanni Abacha, who was also Sonekan's Minister of Defence, seized power and proclaimed himself Head of State.
Like Babangida before him, one of Abacha's first acts was to unban and lift the suspensions on publications and radio stations. This time round, no one was fooled into believing Abacha was the long lost friend the media community was searching for.
General Abacha's regime and increased repression
If General Babangida was considered to be an enemy of the media, Abacha turned out to be their worst nightmare. For a start, several publications, including the unbanned ones, were banned in mid 1994 and over a thousand journalists became unemployed. In response, Bayo Onanuga and his colleagues defied the regime's action and launched AM News. Under Abacha, the media were treated like an enemy of the army and the armoury against them was expanded. No longer were arbitrary arrests, detentions and seizure of publications considered to be enough. Abacha's henchmen introduced tactics that even during war are frowned upon by the Geneva Convention. Families of wanted journalists were routinely taken hostage; arson attacks were carried out; commando style stake outs and abductions; arrests of journalists at airports and border posts, all became regular occurrences. When all these did not work, made up charges, treason trials and assassinations were introduced.
By 1995, after dozens of raids and tens of thousands of copies had been seized, the regime decided to eliminate or permanently neutralise those it felt were vital to the survival of the unrepentant publications. The editor of The News, Kunle Ajibade, found himself facing a military court martial for supposedly aiding and abetting an alleged military coup against the regime. Three other journalists from Tell, TSM and Classique magazines met with the same fate. It was the first time ever that the so-called "accessory after the fact of treason" crime was heard of. The arrests followed stories in the magazines, which exposed the arrest and trial of several army officers over an alleged coup to be nothing but a frame up. The trial and sentencing of Ajibade and others to life imprisonment lasted only a few minutes per person and was a complete farce. In prison, Ajibade and the others saw hell. To avoid a similar fate, editor-in-chief Bayo Onanuga and other editors went permanently underground.
As if to press home its point, unknown persons suspected to be agents of the regime, firebombed one of Tempo's offices in December 1995.
Journalists from the publications began to keep away from government establishments after their defence correspondent and some regional correspondents were arrested on government premises. Simultaneously, their accreditation for the Ministry of Defence and the stock exchange, among other places, was withdrawn in addition to the State House, where they had long become persona non-grata. In addition, several commercial printers were warned to desist from publishing The News and Tempo as well as Tell magazine or face the consequences.
Surely, the publications could not take much more. Yet, they continued to publish.
Unable to understand how the publications and its journalists could continue to absorb heavy persecution and commercial loses, the regime declared that hostile foreign governments were funding them.
In 1997, the regime secretly drafted an anti-terrorism decree, aimed at publications which portrayed opposition figures in a positive light. So many publications defied it that it never saw the light of day.
In November 1997 the manhunt intensified and another founding editor Babafemi Ojudu was arrested at the Seme border with the Republic of Benin while returning from attending a conference in Kenya. He spent 8 months in prison. Unable to keep ahead of the regime's agents, Bayo Onanuga fled abroad. With two editors in prison, two in exile and other senior personnel in hiding, the journalists of the publications kept publishing under extremely difficult conditions.
Out of frustration, the regime raided the offices of the three publications on April 21 1998 and dragged out all of the staff members at gun point.
The Abash regime's attitude to the media could be summed up in three words. While Babangida personally and his top aides read the papers meticulously and crafted his junta's responses, Abacha was said to describe reading the papers as a "waste of time" as nothing good about him would ever be printed. The logical follow up to this viewpoint was that any medium that did not support him was an enemy to be crashed.
The Abubakar regime and the "cooling" of hostilities
None paid a greater price for this attitude than The News, Tempo, PM News and AM News. In addition to other persecution, all the three newspapers were banned from government offices and all government ministries and parastatals, and private companies dependent on the government were instructed not to advertise in them. The first casualty of this policy was AM News which was forced into bankruptcy after about one and a half years of publication.
Speaking with the writer of this article in November 1997, Bayo Onanuga, editor-in-chief of AM News stated that "a national daily comes with a lot of costs: a fleet of vehicles to distribute it, continuous newsprint to be purchased whether the daily sells or not. The cost is enormous." The Minister of Information announced that "we killed AM News... and The News will soon follow it to its grave". In pursuance of this goal, all The News' computer production equipment was seized in a well co-ordinated swoop of combined police and army teams in April 1998.
The government and even some well-meaning critics of The News and Tempo, have sometimes accused them of publishing sensational stories and not checking their facts with the government before going to press. Their response has been to point out that it is difficult if not impossible to confirm facts with a government which treats the media like an enemy.
The death of General Sanni Abacha in June 1998 led to jubilation in the entire country.
For most people, it marked a cooling of hostilities -a sort of uneasy peace.
But for The News and Tempo and PM News it was only another stage in the nightmare. While professing to democratise the country for a hand-over in May 1999, General Abdulsalam Abubakar was still keeping the lid on the media. On August 18 1998, The Head of the Task force on Terrorist activities Asst. Police Commissioner Zakari Biu, announced that James Bagauda Kaltho The News Kaduna correspondent who had been declared missing since February/March 1996, had died while planting a bomb which went off in Kaduna in January 1996. He added, that the publishers of Bagauda's magazine were involved in the bombing.
A series of press conferences, editorials and public support succeeded in debunking Biu's claims and aborted what seemed like a move to arrest and try the publishers of the magazines for terrorism and silence them permanently.
In 1997, the year in which General Abacha openly began implementing his self succession bid, 94 journalists and media workers were individually attacked at various times. 32 of them were from The News, Tempo and PM News. At the height of the crack down on the media in 1997 and 1998, 14 out of the 26 journalists and media workers in prison were from The News, Tempo and PM News publications. They also had the highest number of journalists underground or in exile. Overall, the group has also had more editions of publications seized than any other publishers in the history of Nigerian journalism. Of the four journalists that were killed under circumstances that pointed to the hand of the regime, one of them Baguada Kaltho, was a correspondent of The News. Of the 23 decrees aimed at curtailing press freedom and freedom of expression, provisions of at least half of them were at some point used against The News and Tempo and sister publications.
The new civilian regime
The new Obasanjo-led civilian government sworn in on May 29th 1999 has started by urging the media "to be responsible." However, the new Head of State has not said much about the pledge to uphold press freedom. No Nigerian journalist however, can forget that General Obasanjo on retiring as military dictator in 1979 placed a large sign at the gate to his estate which read "No Dogs and Journalists allowed". That he emerged as President through a manipulated and controlled process does not enhance his democratic credentials. The only hope of his being more tolerant of freedom of expression is the fact that he was also a victim of a frame up under General Abacha and was jailed alongside several journalists who exposed his arrest as premeditated. In its editorial of 10th of June 1999, Tempo, stated that "the fact that he went to jail under the draconian rule of General Sanni Abacha suggests that he has seen both the deep valley and the mountain top".
In recognition of the steadfastness of the media under previous dictatorships, the newly elected Governor of Lagos State Bola Tinubu renamed the Abacha Press centre Baguada Kaltho Press Centre in June 1999 shortly after assuming office.
In response to a question by this writer in July 1999 as regards to whether the editorial policy of his publications will change following the emergence of a civilian government, the editor-in-chief of The News, Tempo and PM News Group, Bayo Onanuga, responded as follows: "Our principles remain the same - as do our perception of what journalism should do, and what it should be in any given society." He further stated, that "it is also our duty to support the democratic project that has only just started ...we have to report our environment as truthfully as possible so we don't delude our people that things are going alright. If things are not going alright, we tell them, but we also keep saying that civilians can make mistakes, they can stumble ... but they will continue to learn ... we will also say that this is no justification for military intervention in our society... we shall do everything possible with other Nigerian media to nurture democracy so that it can be a very enduring one, and so that no military junta will come again ... "
Rotimi SANKOREis a Nigerian journalist currently living in Europe. He is the founding Campaign Secretary of the Nigerian Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), and former Organising Secretary of the Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. He has collaborated on projects with international organisations such as the International Federation of Journalists and the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières.
He is currently a consultant for the Africa Programme of ARTICLE 19, the International International Centre Against Censorship.
http://www.internews.org/mra/ or http://www.internews.org/nigeria/
http://www.dfn.org/Voices/Africa/nigeria/magazine.html