Friday, December 22, 2023

Olisa Agbakoba as Pythia, the Oracle of Delphia

 


 

“If you are going to speak truth to power, make sure it’s the truth.”- Margaret Atwood

 

The Greek Reporter is a website I love to read when I have some downtime. In one of its entries, they wrote about the job of the priestess of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi, Pythia. Her job stands out as it involved the gathering, re-packaging, and distribution of information, with the ultimate intent of providing sound advice on the trivial and not-so-trivial questions of life in ancient Greece. The oracle was consulted by the movers and shakers of ancient Greece on a diverse range of problems. For the priestess Pythia, this meant the opportunity to comment on a variety of issues of public and individual concern: cult matters, warfare, the relationships between existing city-states, and the foundation of new ones. The position of the Pythia seemed to have entailed the extraordinary opportunity to speak unwelcome truth to those in power. Sadly, Pythia often disappoints his listeners as more often than not, the predictions are historiographic traditions. Anyone could have possibly glean the information necessary to answer any particular enquiry from the chatter of those queuing to consult the oracle. Cue the recent speech by Olisa Agbakoba at the Senate president birthday celebration.

 

Our Senate president had the most magnificent of birthdays in recent memory. He spared no funds in ensuring that his birthday is celebrated and one of the highlights is the well-orchestrated birthday speech by gadfly, Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association and founder of human rights activism organization, Civil Liberty Organization (CLO). By a sad coincidence of history, the likes of Olisa Agbakoba are currently the pseudo-intellectuals the Nigerian press acclaims as government critic. Even though most of the so called critics of the Nigerian state on the pages of newspapers are critic by day and contractor by night. Perhaps, the few exceptions like Sowore still remains in the mould of Gani Fawehinmi, Claude Ake, Pa Mokwuogu Okoye and Bala Usman.

 

It was Noam Chomsky that is quoted to have debunked the myth of intellectuals speaking truth to power as “pious tag”. Chomsky states that those in power knows the truth already and they are just busy concealing it. More importantly, he said those who need the truth is not those in power but those oppressed by it. Olisa Agbakoba speech at this iconic birthday celebration should be viewed from this prism. There are parts of the speech that are laudable and others that are populist loud sounding nothing. As usual, Nigerians frequently swoons when we hear ideas that makes our collective ears tingles. The excitement increases when those ideas are said with gusto by those in authority and by people with titles, lawyers, chiefs, priest etc. For now, let’s set aside his argument on blue economy which he trots out as consultant at the beginning of every administration to project himself as maritime economy savior. I said this because those of us familiar with his shtick knows this is pablum. He wants coast guard. He wants fishing and deep sea exploration. He promised we will catch so many fishes on our oil polluted coast that we will be rich and pay off our debts to World Bank etc. There is only one catch, the new minister of Blue Economy, his friend and former governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, needs to invite him to a meeting and signed his consultancy firm to a contract and pronto all this ideas will become reality.

 

But, the main gist of Olisa Agbakoba speech is not the pablum but another Trojan horse. The claim that he owns property in England and Nigeria and gets equity on his property in London and got zero on the one in Nigeria. He also said he could get loans easily on his property in England and Zero from the property in Nigeria. He went on to cite Hernande deSoto’s “Mystery of Capital” in support of this main plank of his argument. The book was written in year 2000. I had a signed copy by deSoto’s book as I bought a copy when he came to the campus where I currently teach as adjunct. We have had 23 years to try out de Soto ideas and the results are at best mixed.

As Chris Woodruff wrote in his article published on JSTOR and University of Oxford website here https://chriswoodruff.qeh.ox.ac.uk/wp-c ... to-JEL.pdf

“ De Soto’s own experience in Peru suggests that land titling by itself is not likely to have much effect. Titling must be followed by a series of politically challenging steps. Improving the efficiency of judicial systems, re-writing bankruptcy codes, restructuring financial market regulations and similar reforms will involve much more difficult choices for policy makers.”

 

These important truths are swept under the rug by both deSoto and Agbakoba. Olisa Agbakoba as members of the National Judicial Council knows the inherent corruption and challenges faced by the poor in accessing justice in Nigeria. As Senior Advocate of Nigeria he’s a beneficiary of that corrupt system that appoints and tepidly discipline errant judicial officers. The truth of the matter is land titling is made to sound like a free lunch. But without a broad set of complementary reforms, property titling and registration systems are likely to have a more limited effect than de Soto’s and Agbakoba (very refreshing) enthusiasm would lead one to believe.

For now, it is refreshing to see Agbakoba, command the attention of policy makers at high levels in Nigeria as De Soto once did in developing countries in the early 2000. His ideas contrast in non-trivial ways with the central focus of the development literature. Either the policy makers need to be alerted to the limitations of Agbakoba’s and de Soto’s proposals, or researchers need to give more attention to the connection between titling, credit markets, and entrepreneurship.

 

For now, I commend Nigerians who care to read to focus their attention on DeSoto first book, titled “The Other Path”, which described the labyrinth of regulations and permits required to do business or build a house in Lima, Peru. As he stated in that book, the informal is as regulated if not more regulated than the formal. If you doubt me ask road transport workers in Lagos or any motor parks in Nigeria. The informal regulations of our transport industry has made many motor parks tout millionaires and billionaires. Some of them are well connected to the seat of power in Aso rock. The likes of MC Oluomo are enforcers for those in power. As I write this piece, the government has just announced t50 per cent discount on road transport fares on 22 major routes across the country, starting from December 21, 2023. We have no recognized Highway Transport commission or any interstate transport governing agency. How did the government identified the transport companies that will benefit from this scheme? Does the government knows the average cost of travels on these routes before this announcement? One things is clear, if you are traveling from Lagos to Onitsha this year, don’t be surprised if your fare increased by the same amount the federal government promised to subsidize for transportation. You might even be paying more.

 

The reason The Other Path had a significant impact on the academic literature on the informal sector in the decade after its publication is not because of its academic rigor but because of its ideas. The idea that that informals are entrepreneurs, not marginals and banks and financial institutions should recognize it as such. The Mystery of Capital has much in common with The Other Path. It is colorfully written and entertaining. It focuses on an important issue. Its lack of empirical rigor is compensated for by a wealth of ideas. But while The Other Path focused on actions the state takes that hinder entrepreneurship and growth, The Mystery of Capital looks from the other side. Our focus should be on actions states fail to take: creating and enforcing private property rights. That is our Achilles heel’s in Nigeria. Until then, the rich and the powerful can continue to trot out stale ideas that tingle our ears.

 



 

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Blogging Primo Levi Book: “Survival in Auschwitz”

 “The story of the death camps should be understood by everyone as a sinister alarm-signal”

I love judging High School debates. This Saturday morning, I found myself at my kid’s High school library (where they quartered us judges) waiting to be summon to go judge my next round, when I look up and saw this small book titled above. I picked it up and thought to myself, given what is going on in the world today, we all need the reminders this book offers.

The author’s preface went to the heart of the matter: 

As an account of atrocities, therefore, this book of mine adds nothing to what is already known…it should be able, rather, to furnish documentation for a quiet study of certain human aspects of the human mind. Many people- many nations- can find themselves holding, more or less wittingly, that ‘every stranger is an enemy.’ For the most part this conviction lies deep down like some latent infection; it betrays itself only in random, disconnected acts, and does not lie at the base of a system of reason.”

The author then dove straight into the story of his capture. He had fled into the mountains to set up Resistance movement but was caught by Fascist Militia and upon brutal interrogations that followed, he admits his status as “Italian citizen of Jewish race”. He was then sent to Fossoli, near Modena, a vast detention camp, where people not approved by the Fascist Republic are kept. 

In January 1944, the camp had 150 Italian Jews but within a week the number rose to 600. Jugoslavian military internees were also camped there but within weeks, the German SS men announced deportation of all Jews without exception to Auschwitz, including the children, the old and the sick. 

“In Hut 6A old Gattegno lived with his wife and numerous children and grandchildren and his sons-and daughters-in-law. All the men were carpenters; they had come from Tripoli after many long journeys, and had always carried with them the tools of their trade.”

I found this part of the story interesting as my great grandpa was also a carpenter. Twelve goods wagon was then used to transport 650 men for a journey towards nothingness. The train travelled slowly, with long, unnerving halts towards Auschwitz. Among the 45 people in the author’s wagon, only 4 saw their homes again “it was by far the most unfortunate wagon.”

Within two days of arrival, more than 500 were killed! It’s only those fit to work hard labor that were spared. The children, the old and the feeble sick were gassed to death at the gas chamber.  “Thus in an instant, our women, our parents, our children disappeared. We saw them for a short while as an obscure mass at the other end of the platform; then we saw nothing more.”


To be continued 

 

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Why Tade Ipadeola musings gives me sleepless nights

Few friends forces me to think deeply about Nigeria as my classmate, erudite lawyer and poet, Ayantade Ipadeola. The problem with Tade as we fondly calls him is that he’s a deep thinker and a diligent observer of the Nigerian experiment. Of recent, Tade musings has become more and more alarmist. He strongly believes Nigerian leaders are driving the country into a precipice with eyes wide shut. He sees things many of us frequently choose to ignore. He’s candid that our literal manure may soon hit the fans. And yet, he believes we can right the course if we elect leaders with a certain modicum of respectability. He does not think our so called established top two political party candidates with gargantuan structures can save our land from the impending fracas. When I tried to assuage his fears, his tepid response is with that distinctively Akinmorin’s quip, “Toh”. As an incurable optimist, I tends to look at the sunny side of life but these days everywhere I turn, Tade’s dia syllabic response rings in my ears.


Of recent though, my problems seems compounded by news of the world and I see myself frequently mimicking Tade’s refrain in every conversation here in the US. Before you blame me, look anywhere in the world today, Ukraine, Brazil, Nigeria, Iran etc the masses and the poor all over the world are yearning not just for freedom but to throw off the yoke of oppression from the top richest one percent, who owns more than 50% of world’s wealth. It is hard to believe.  And yet, do we in Nigeria, really think we are that different from others in the world?  The statistics in Nigeria is even more staggering. Look at all the corruption world-wide, including many modern democracies.  The other day, I informed a friend during a WhatsApp conversation that I am not entirely sure that humans are ultimately capable of long term governing - maybe humans are born to be corrupt and immoral.

 

In her book How Civil Wars Start, Barbara F. Walter mentions that it isn't income equality or lack of healthcare that cause a democratic people to enter civil war, it's when factions such as ethnic hatred, and regular citizens perceive that the government is powerless to govern.  In fact, even rich countries that have a weak government (Weak rule of law, weak free press, no meaningful right of redress) are at significant risk of descending into civil war.  The hating factions decide to solve by violence and the non-hating populace decides that the government is powerless to protect them - so each chooses a side and civil war begins.

 

She says civil wars today aren't like the war between the states that happened in the US in 1860.  Rather, they start small, and are guerilla actions - like the Capital being stormed on January 6th. Like unknown gunmen in Southeastern Nigeria or Kaduna kidnappers, or those butchers in Zamfara who sacked whole village and took an entire village populace ransomed for money because of disagreement over gold mining.

 

So when people see government cheating and favoritism, it convinces people that they need to use violence because their own government is the problem.  It is the number one risk of a civil war starting in a democracy.  Ms. Walter uses South Africa as an example of a country that was on the brink of civil war because of apartheid, and how de Klerk's action defused things by freeing political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, and eliminating laws designed to prevent black land ownership and commercial participation prevented civil war.  Tade believes we need Peter Obi to do the same thing for Nigeria. Ethnic, racist factions have to believe there is more to lose by violence than not.  And ordinary citizens have to believe the government will prevent violence and the implementation of an ethnic faction run state.  

 

If state and local governments, regardless of which party has control, cannot decide that the  constitution and rule of law are more important than their own career, then I think that the Nigeria will experience another violent civil war in our lifetime.  We've already seen the beginning of this with unknown gun men in the East, throw in, IPOB, Yoruba nation activist and of course the relentless upsurge of violence and kidnapping in the Northcentral and northwest. Not to talk of Boko Haram complete wipe out of Northern Christian population in North east. In the US where I live, we see this in the activities of white supremacists, Oathkeepers, and antifa.  


When a government like Trump's turns the rule of law into a joke, when it turns the media into an enemy of the state, ordinary people will come to see violence as the only solution to perceived wrongs, dictatorship and autocracy.  When the Buhari administration looks the other way whilst herdsmen devastate southern Nigerian states, you will get similar results. In a lot of her examples, the violent ethnic hating factions (Syria, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Nigeria, the US southern states - and many others) began small such that regular citizens were lulled into complacency and convinced there was no other viable course of action.

 

I am heartened that the January 6 invaders in the US are being held accountable, and that Donald Trump is at least being investigated, but I think the US is, at this moment, at a crossroads where we will either continue the democratic work in progress, or we will literally become Syria.  At least, the system holds up and stems the tide, unlike Nigeria where the attorney general of the federation openly defends corrupt politicians and protect herdsmen. As in the US war between the states, enough Nigerian citizens must insist on a government of laws, such that law abiding citizens won't feel the need to join kidnappers, IPOB, Yoruba nation activist, Boko haram, iswap etc.

In the US, antifa, and the racists, misogynists and ethnic hating factions are finding it more costly to use violence than to get along, because the Biden administration dedicates resources to the prosecution of purveyors of violence.

 

I strongly encourage reading the book I mentioned above.  Short read - maybe 225 pages.  She provides the data and citations to support her assertions.  

 

A

 

PS. The Census predicts that the US will become a minority white nation by 2045.  As a group of Nigerian in diaspora, we need to get our government back on track to do the things we need it to do before then.  Otherwise, how do we think white supremacists are going to react?

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Understanding Mob Psychology and How to Inoculate yourself against Religious Bigotry

 “There goes the mob, and I must follow, for I am their leader.”- Anon. Possibly apocryphal words of Comte de Mirabeau, the French revolutionary leader.


A very simplistic explanation for the tragedy we are witnessing in Nigeria is the one that posits that all Nigerian needs is leadership and that if we had good leadership some of the problems we faces today would not be happening. I beg to differ. Followers may lack authority, but they do not necessarily lack power. Leaders are important in every society but Nigeria is not dysfunctional because of lack of leadership alone. In some respects, all leaders are followers; to retain their influence, those in positions of authority have no choice but to “track, to follow their followers if only to be sure that they stay in line.” In sum, we are who we are because of how we follow one another. Just look at the sickening video of the lynching of Deborah Yakubu. Do you see any leaders among the mob? They each walked up to did the sordid acts. Granted they might have been misled by bad teaching but they each had to reflect before engaging in this sordid extra-judicial killing. You don’t see any Saul later to be Paul standing by, directing the persecution? Nope! They are there as followers following other followers to kill a fellow human being based on a rumor of a taunt of the Holy Prophet. Don’t get me wrong, our leaders in Nigeria, secular and sectarian are all culpable for the gory show going on in Nigeria. 

But, clearly, our needs and wants as individuals are met by playing the part of follower, at least most of the time. We go along because we consciously or unconsciously determine it is in our interest to do so. Those who judged and executed Deborah Yakubu extra-judicially, do so as followers of their faith. The three reasons why followers follow leaders are the same reasons why followers follow other followers sheepishly. 
Safety, security, community and collective work makes followers comply sometimes involuntarily or voluntarily to leadership directives. 

So too, followers follow not only because it’s in their interest to conform to their leaders, but also because it’s in their interest to conform to their fellow followers. There are many followers of the 2 big Abrahamic faith in Nigeria who have little respect for their church leaders or imams but still go along because they fear what others may say if they quit going or challenge the orthodoxy. 

Followers provide each other with crucial reference points… “Alhaji, hope nothing is going on, we didn’t see you at mosques”. “Madam, hope all is well we didn’t see you at the church night vigil”. No one cares if Alhaji or Madam is able to provide food for the family or pay school fees, we are all focused on rituals and rites de passage of our faith. Alhaji may have assaulted Alhaja all night in a domestic violence rage, no one call law enforcement or intervene. Some even justify such assaults on women. It’s only when Alhaji missed the call for prayer we get worried. Same deal with Madam whose son or daughter could not continue with higher education because she cannot afford school fees but will readily pay tithe and donate her entire salary to a church led by a jet setting pastor.

This is why I say the most fundamental crucial point in the Nigerian dynamics is how we imitate and lead each other in negativity. Followers go along with other followers because they lend stability and security, provide order and meaning, and constitute the group to which they want to belong. In short, we are responsible for where we are and as long as we keep putting our failings on leaders we will never look inwards and examine ourselves.
What’s more, as psychologist such as Sigmund Freud had long ago concluded, human beings behave differently-worse- as members of groups than we do as individuals.
In groups our “unconscious instinctual impulses” trump what turns out to be the fragile veneer of civilization. 

“By the mere fact that he forms part of an organized group,” Freud wrote, “a man descends several rungs in the ladder of civilization. Isolated, he may be a cultivated individual; in a crowd he is a barbarian- that is, a creature acting by instinct, capable of committing acts in “utter contradiction with his character and habits.”

No matter how you look at it, the tragedy in Sokoto is damning. It is as if the gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu is not enough satiety for the fiendish blood hounds youth masquerading as religious crusaders. We learned Sokoto youths are burning Igbo owned building materials shops and Catholic Churches. What’s the connection? 
Many Muslims are quick to quote, the immortal words of Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, an Islamic scholars renowned for his quick wit and intellect.: “The biggest enemy of Islam is the ignorant muslim, whose ignorance leads him to intolerance, whose actions destroy the true image of Islam, and when the people look at him they think Islam is what he is.”
True words and we say that about followers of Christ who know little about the person of Christ. What I found missing however is that many of the youth involved in this murderous rage may never have evidence of what Deborah Yakubu actually did or did not do. 
She’s condemned because the mob they followed told them, she has committed blasphemy. 
The idea of subservience to leadership authority and mob group think is common not only to Islam but all Abrahamic faith and creed. Christians may not have participated in the killings and fiendish rage going on in Sokoto but the unknown gunman decimating lives in Southeast have many Christians among them. This week someone unearthed a message by a prominent Pentecostals pastor urging Christians to vote in the interest of the church and ethnicity. He ended by saying this country is not a Fulani nation. It is this type of Us vs Them that led to bloodshed in Rwanda and death of Deborah Yakubu. What’s the interest of the church? Peace? And why does that exclude Fulani? Does it mean Fulani Christians are not part of kingdom blessings? 
I agree we must avoid false equivalence, the fiendish murderous rage going on in Sokoto should be condemned and we must prepare our youth to avoid willful ignorant obedience to authority, particularly by clerics from any creed or faith. Below are ways suggested by psychologists Phillip Zimbardo and Michael Lieppe on how we can inoculate ourselves against automatic obedience:
  1. Remain engaged with alternative systems of authority, such as those deriving from one’s religious, spiritual, political, or philosophical commitments. Jesus never ask his followers to reject teachings of Judaism, rather he said he came to fulfill the law. Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) equally admonished his followers to be tolerant of peoples of other faiths including those who taunted him at Mecca. In other words, the leaders of these 2 great faiths are examples of moderation and not fanaticism.
  2. Trust your intuition when you find yourself thinking, “something is wrong here”; donating your entire salary to a mega church whose pastor rides jet will not make you a millionaire it might turn you to a kidnapper or unknown gunmen out of frustration. Ditto, those who listen to an impassioned message by a cleric on Friday jumat service who urge you to hate peoples of other faith to the point of murdering them even whilst his own kids is in London or New York eating caviar 
  3. When in doubt, seek out a knowledgeable-but independent-person to give you an “obedience check”;
  4. Mentally rehearse disobedience strategies and techniques for various situations;
  5. Be particularly vigilant when you notice people using euphemism to describe harmful behaviors or the people they harm; Burundi and Rwanda genocide has been traced to statements comparing other ethnic groups to cockroaches that must be exterminated. Hitler compares Jews to vermin and lice and ended up exterminating 6 million fellow human beings.
  6. Don’t expect not to suffer adverse consequences when refusing to obey an authority figure-rather consider the worst case scenario and act on that possibility; you may lose promotion or jobs when you stand on principle. 
  7. Choose carefully the organization and situations in which you place yourself, because it’s all too easy to overestimate your powers to resist.
In conclusion, my primary point is this: we are followers. Followers are us. This does not, of course, mean we always think and acts like the mobs who killed Deborah Yakubu, but then ask any of the murderers who did this heinous acts, they might not have conceived themselves perpetrating such evil last week. Not all of us follow all of the time-sometimes we lead. But all of us follow some of the time. Know who you are following and why. 
Stay safe and be reflective folks.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

The Trials of Igbohos & Kanu: Right of Self Determination and its Limitations under International Law of “uti possidetis juris”

 “One thing is certain: the present edifice called Nigeria as we know it today has come nearly to the end of its life . . . The cracks on its walls are too great for the edifice to continue to stand.”- Hon. (Dr.) Akinola Aguda (The Future of Nigeria: Cracks in the Wall. The Comet Lagos October 1, 2000).

Nigerians home and abroad are waiting for the resolution of 2 pending cases with bated breath. The case of Sunday Igboho at a Beninese court and Nnamdi Kanu at Federal High Court, Abuja. The primary case against these two ethnic agitators is their struggle for secession and freedom from oppression from Nigeria. The cases have been subjected to several adjournments primarily at the instance of the Federal Government of Nigeria whose attorney often seems lost for words, and looking askance at every hearing. This article will seek to answer an important question that will come up during these hearing: Can we say there exists in contemporary international law and practice an inalienable right of self-determination applicable to all peoples subject to oppression, exploitation and subjugation by others?

Article 1 of the International Human Rights Covenants of 1966 makes the right of self-determination available to “all peoples” without any restriction as to their status. The Covenants further places an obligation on all states “including those having responsibilities for the administration of colonial territories to promote the realization of the right to self-determination. Similarly, Article 20(2) of the African Charter refers to both “colonized and oppressed people” as having the right.

The African Commission ruling on application of the foregoing provision of the African Charter in Katangese People’s Congress v. Zaire held that while the request for self-determination lacks merits, the rights of the people of Katanga to their language and culture were inviolable.

Elsewhere in other continents outside Africa, however, the principle of self-determination by components of a nation state has been upheld. For example, the Treaty of the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, 1990 signed by four of the five Permanent members of the Security Council expressly stated that the “German people, freely exercising their right of self-determination, have expressed their will to bring about the Unity of Germany as a state.” Ditto, the Report on the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan where the International Commission of Jurists stated that “if one of the constituent peoples of a state is denied equal rights and is discriminated against, it is submitted that their right of self-determination will revive.”

This principle is borne out of the need to eradicate oppression of peoples and to protect human rights in all circumstances. How can this principle of customary international law be applicable in Europe and Asia but not in Africa-the cradle of all human race? One can therefore conclude that there exist in contemporary international law and practice an inalienable right of self-determination applicable to all peoples subject to oppression, exploitation and subjugation by others.

The purpose of the right of self-determination is to protect communities or groups from oppression and to empower them. The exercise of this right however requires a delicate balancing of interests. Just as there can be no absolute human rights that is not subject to reasonable limitations, the rights of self-determination is subject to the needs of the state to protect the general interests of the society.

The general interests of the international society in maintaining international peace and security place a limitation on the right of self-determination. This interest finds expression in the Latin maxim, “uti possidetis juris” (UPJ-as you possess).  This principle of protection of the territorial integrity of states has its roots in colonialism and the colonial desire to maintain peace necessary for trade and exploitation. The principle subsist in contemporary times as it serves to preserve the boundaries of colonies emerging as States.

The principles got enshrined in Article 6 of the General Assembly’s Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Territories and Peoples 1960 which states that “any attempt at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a county is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” This principle forced Africa countries within the borders stipulated for it at the Berlin Conference of 1885. A conference where no single African was present. A conference called by German Chancellor Bismarck to settle how European countries would claim colonial land in Africa and  a conference called to avoid a war among European nations over African territory.

The fact that this principle continued application have been restricted to Africa is not lost on scholars of neo-colonialism. It was first applied in Congo in 1960 (UN) and then to Biafra/Nigeria in 1967 (OAU), purportedly to maintain the colonial boundaries such that when a colony became independent, it succeeded to the boundaries that had been previously established by the former colonial power. The neo-colonial hue of the principle is illustrated by the adoption of the principle by OAU hegemon in 1964.

It is instructive to note that the Chamber of the International Court of Justice in the Land, Island and Maritime Dispute case (El Salvador v. Honduras) (Merits 1992) cautioned that “uti possidetis juris”  is essentially a retrospective principle investing as international boundaries administrative units intended originally for quite other purposes.” In the Frontier Dispute Case (Burkina Faso v. Mali : 1992), the court justified the application of the principle solely to African countries thus:

“In fact, however, the maintenance of the territorial status quo in Africa is often seen as the wisest course to preserve what has been achieved by people who have struggled for their independence and to avoid a disruption which could deprive the continent of the gains achieved by much sacrifice. The essential requirement of stability in order to survive, to develop and gradually to consolidate their independence in all fields, has induced African states judiciously to consent to the respecting of colonial frontiers and to take account of it in the interpretation of the principle of self-determination of peoples.”

This argument is totally disingenuous as it seeks to use the struggle for independence by the peoples of Africa from colonial yokes to maintain a neo-colonial status quo. The question is why is self-determination good for Germans, Croats and Bangladeshi but not for Africans? To date, the only case in which the world acquiesce to self-determination on the continent is South Sudan and it took a fratricidal Africa’s longest civil war between the government in Khartoum and SPLA/M before the United Nation mandated referendum took place in 2011. The agreement for referendum was signed in Naivasha in 2005 but the war continues to the chagrin of many Africans.

The Organization of African Unity myopic embrace of the idea of the sanctity of colonial territories of member states was used against Biafra in Africa, even though Biafra had satisfied the essential elements of statehood in international law namely, population, government, permanence and a reasonable measure of effectiveness at least for the time it lasted. What it lacked is the recognition of such number states that would have strengthened its claim to statehood at international law. Biafra was only recognized by Tanzania, Gabon, Cote’d Ivoire, Zambia and Haiti.

Over 50 years after the Nigerian Civil War, the idea of an independent and sovereign Biafra would not go away. All through the period of military rule, the idea was swept under the carpet and jackboots of military dictatorship. The fourth republic revived it under MASSOB and now IPOB. As the saying goes, “nothing can stop and idea whose idea has come”. To which I add, it may be delayed but we need to confront it front and center. The idea by some current political fat cats in Abuja that we cannot discuss the terms of our union as a nation is ludicrous.

International law does not equate self-determination to secession. Secession is not the only, even a necessary or an appropriate means of realizing the right of self-determination in many situations and there is a strong presumption against secession in non-colonial situations. It is also true that secession is often sought by ambitious leaders who could not get their way through the will of the people exercised freely via the ballot box. The fact remains that neither Covenants nor any other provisions of international law prohibit minorities from seeking secession where the government no longer represents their interests. As Malone argued, it is only if self-determination cannot be realized within the established state, that secession may be necessary as a last resort.

The recognition by the international community of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia shows that any government which is oppressive to its constituents within its territory may no longer hide under the cloak of territorial integrity as a limitation on the right of self-determination. The recognition of Bangladesh from Pakistan, Singapore from Malaysia and Belize, despite the justifiable claim of Guatemala indicate that uti possidetis juris principle is dead in International law. It is no longer jus cogens!

In order for democracy to thrive, be consolidated and firmly entrenched anywhere, the constituent elements of any given country must evolve through dialogue equitable arrangements and rules of their association. Our current constitutions has a lacunae on the critical issues of self-determination of the peoples of Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria must through meaningful dialogue with its constituent elements guarantee effective and equitable participation of all groups in the political process for it to be a responsive and functional federation of nationalities. Rights of ethnic majorities and minorities must be acknowledged and respected. An atmosphere of healthy competition and responsible sharing of resources that acknowledged derivative rights of indigenous peoples must be honored. This is the path to reducing the tendency towards extremist agitation for self-determination.

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

The war before the War: How the Voluble Nigerian Press "Sabre Rattling" Contributed to and Needlessly Elongated the Nigerian Civil War

 

Blogging Wale Adebanwi paper titled "The War before the War: The Press and the Nigerian Crisis

 The crucial role of the press in construction, amplification and resolution of societal crisis has been noted by scholars writing from different perspectives and honouring differing theoretical traditions. As the Nigerian military chiefs meeting in Aburi, Ghana in 1967 pointed out, the Nigerian press is at the vortex of politics and it is one of the few institutions that often set the tone and tenor of political debates and what is regarded as political reality.

Yet, the press organizations in Nigeria are representatives of dominant ethno-regional and/or ethno-religious interests contending for ascendancy in the nation's politics. The wars that these newspapers fight are almost always, fought on behalf of dominant ethno-regional or ethno-religious blocs, which was why the Morning Post the defunct federal military government owned newspaper pandering to the interests of the northern-military officers-led government, and the New Nigerian representing the North constituted the greatest impediments to national cohesion for Lt. Col. Odemgwu Ojukwu, the then military governor of the East; for the then head of state, Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon, the Eastern Nigerian Outlook, owned by the aggrieved Eastern Region was the most guilty of this offence. For Lt. Col. Hassan Katsina, the military governor of the North, teh Outlook was the unbearable proverbial pain in the neck.

The press in Nigeria has always fought war, many of them ennobling, some purely enabling. From its inception in 1859 when Iwe Irohin was founded by Rev. Henry Townsend “to wage war against ignorance, illiteracy and paganism.” The press has often functioned as the “war machine” of disparate interests. Given this backdrop, it has also often been polarized along different lines, the most paramount of which is the establishment/anti-establishment polarity. From the period of Akitoye Ajasa’s Nigerian Pioneer  which a rival paper described as “a lick spittle” , because of its support for the colonial government, these polar-relations have defined the character of the press in Nigerian. However the polar-relations have been defined by and in turn have defined the power relations in the country.

Wale Adebanwi in this paper analyses media discourses in the period preceding the actual outbreak of hostilities –civil war-with a view of highlighting the signifiers of crucial issues that were at stake in the crisis. These signifiers codify the core issues, grievances and viewpoints that were absorbed, elaborated and amplified by the press. Before the first shot was fired, the press had fired several shots in different directions, which provided the impetus, in part, and reflected the other bases, for the civil war.

How did the press reflect the contending issues? What role did the press play? Did the media discourses set the tone and tenor of the crisis and the war that was to follow? What implications do the discourses of this era have for post-war political relations? Unless we look at the events preceding the war, particularly in terms of how they were represented in the media, we cannot fully understand the representations of the war in the post war period, marked as they are by the binary discourses of victory and loss-and the unceasing low-intensity hostilities that continue till the present day.

Wale Adebanwi uses four newspapers’ editorials, data and opinion pages published daily during the period of the Nigerian civil war and concluded that the press is complicit in the passion that characterized the pursuit of the manifold issues that faced the young nation of Nigeria post-independence as they inflated the claims and invested the “canon” of each of the opposing parties “too much sanctity, freedom, unity and morality. The discourses of each of the contending parties advanced by Morning Post (federal government), West African Pilot (East), New Nigerian (North) and Nigerian Tribune (West) editorials reflected more openly and without apologies, the interests they served and protected. He used qualitative methods to analyze no less than 1000 daily editions of the four newspapers with an average of 250 per newspaper. His data includes, 1,200 editorials, 30 front page stories and 5 opinion articles relevant to the crisis.

Wale segmented the discourses into 5 signifiers: Silent Signifiers, Signifiers of Unity, Signifier of fragmentation, Signifiers of Doom and Signifiers of Symbolic Insults.

Silent Signifiers

Silent signifiers are threads that link up other past issues to the matter at hand even without clearly drawing the link, but they are easily linked by the reader who is familiar with the past events.

For example, the idea of unitarism had been pushed vigorously by the West African Pilot (WAP) as articulated by its owner Nnamdi Azikiwe, before independence, and then abandoned it, as Zik joined Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello  in the latter argument’s argument for a federal arrangement. However when Major-General Johnson T. Aguiyi-Ironsi, and Igbo came to power and revived the idea of unitary government, WAP picked up the battle again. Igbo elites post independence supported a centralized government to protect their predominance in commerce in any part of the country and give them the opportunities they crave wherever they are. Here is how WAP captures the introduction of a “unitary budget” for 1966-1967 fiscal year:

“Nigeria’s 1966-1967 Unitary Budget will go down in history as the only realistic fiscal approach to the national problems of this country since independence.”

WAP was silent on the fact that this fits in quite well with the Igbo agenda in national politics “since in fact before independence”. The paper asked the Ironsi government to go further by abolishing the word “federal” attached to Nigeria. If it does, the paper intones:

“the name of the military government of Nigeria will be written in gold as the only Go-Getter Government that brought unity to this country.”

Given the fact that the only other government that Nigeria had had was the northern-elite led Tafawa Balewa government led government, WAP needed not to state that that was not a “go-getter government” that failed to bring “unity”.

Given the tension building up in the country at the time, particularly in the north, which was then the most dissatisfied section of the country, WAP pointedly ignored this, as if everything was normal, as it reported when Ironsi began a country-wide tour-during which he was killed and his regime overthrown- “that we are marching to progress.

This silence was matched by the peculiar silence of the New Nigerian, which also seemed to ignore the tension-or rather, to speculate, did not want to let out the coup-cat from the crisis-bag! In all of July when the tension actually boiled over, NN concentrated on other issues.

Signifiers of Unity

All the newspapers were very elaborate about “Unity”, even though the discourses of “unity” were constructed in the service of the positions that they served. We see this in the way WAP and MP handled this issue of agitation for a Calabar-Ogoja Rivers State. WAP had a lead story announce to minorities in the Igbo East that they have hope of realizing their dreams. This was while Ironsi was still in power. But by the time Gowon came to power and the Igbo began their quest for a separate state, MP began a different discourse of unity:

“All we mean is that personal (read, Lt. Col. Ojukwu) clannish or sectional (read Igbo) interests should be considered subordinate to the overall interest of the nation.”

This preoccupation with fighting for unity did not prevent the MP for instance from somersaulting on its position. On the best political arrangement that will ensure unity in Nigeria, MP under Ironsi insisted that

“The country has suffered too much from tribalism. The people must unite. And the best and only way to achieve this is through a unitary form of government.”

In three months, soon after Gowon came to power, MP was first, reluctant to state categorically, and later, stated emphatically that federal arrangement was the best for Nigeria:

“(First) …Perhaps our unity lies through (sic) a federal system of government.
(Then)…But still, we are convinced that federalism could suit a society such as ours better than a unitary government.”
(Again)…As far as we are concerned, Nigeria needs a federation in which the center is strong enough to strong enough to sustain the nation…One thing is clear to the people of this country and that is their goal-which is the unity of the country.”

As stated earlier, “unity” meant different things to the different newspapers. Unity for the New Nigerian, in the wake of the mass exodus of the Igbo from the North, was a consolation that:

“out of this tragedy has (sic) emerged one great lesson and a guiding principle to generations to come. This that to live as a nation, the maturity of the mind, steadfastness and the appreciation of spiritual values are desirable attitudes, and that these qualities must for in the philosophy on which the new nation must subsist.”

It (NN) surmises further that this unity cannot be imposed by force but slowly and gradually built on goodwill.

For Nigerian Tribune, the release of Awolowo from prison marks the “beginning of new crusade of a new social and political force towards building of a Nigerian nation welded together by genuine unity and strength”.

For WAP, “everyone from every part of the country stands to gain by the spirit of oneness among the people.”

Unity did not, however necessarily translate to national unity, unity discourses were also unity of the ethnic groups/blocs in contention. Tribune for instance quibbled:

“It is high time the Yoruba took a firm stand on a number of issues confronting the region in particular and (the) uneasy federation in general.”

The NN stated that “our leaders at this weeks meeting must bear in mind that they have the support of some twenty-nine million people. They must not fail us.”

While the East was preparing for war in the late 1966, Morning Post stated “Anyone who condones or abets any such move as secession today must be regarded as an accomplice of those who want to sabotage the Nigerian union.”

This “unity” constituted the battle cry of the newspapers even as they pursued different goals in the crisis leading up to the civil war.

Signifiers of Fragmentation

Wale Adebanwi also found signifiers of a county united in its fragmentation. As much as newspapers helped the idea of unity, they also constantly reflected the deep divisions in the country, which lead to the signifiers of doom.

WAP seemed to have captured the polarized nature of the politics of that era when in its attack on an unnamed daily in ‘Northern Nigeria’ (apparently New Nigeria) it charged:

“(I)s trying hard to introduce polemics into the politics of Nigerian again. We have in mind an article published in the 19 April issue of that paper which called for the abrogation of unitarism as a tenet of Nigeria’s reconstruction program … At this stage in our national metamorphosis, we regard it as calculated sabotage or incitement for anybody to do any act overt or covert to engender tribal bitterness or sectional ill feelings. …”

For much of the time, the newspapers also took on one another over some of the crucial issues at stake. For instance, when a British envoy visited the north, New Nigerian expressed the hope that:

“Sir Francis (the British envoy) will learn something of the feelings and opinions of the North regarding international and other issues in which Britain is involved and covey these to the British and if the North has strong feelings on various matters which feature in the headlines, this is the opportunity to pass them on.”

In response, WAP argued vehemently against the internalization of the crisis at this point. It pointed out that Sir Francis is not responsible for reporting feelings in the North to the Head of the Military Government nor is the North the responsibility of the British government. WAP argued further that the editorial exposed where NN stood on the crisis and who its ‘masters’ were. Subsequently, the South based paper called

“Upon the good people of Nigeria who have welcomed the Army take over (sic) to see this issue in its true light and watch out… The only interpretation therefore is that the British envoy is being invited to hear their (Northerners’) grievances, process them and report to Britain. Surely, Britain is not the governing authority unless there is more to it than meets the eye.”

For the NN, the day of mourning for Easterners killed in the pogrom in the north was something “every reasonable and right-thinking Nigerian would loathe’. It asked what while the East mourned those it lost in the aftermath of the July 1966 coup, was it not also important to mourned those who died during the mad outrages of January 1966 (in the Igbo led coup).

WAP in turn advocated that the federal government imposed a collective fine taxable people of the north to ensure that the sum of 27,000 pound sterling was paid to the Easterners displaced by the pogrom in the north.

During negotiation at Aburi in Ghana, the NN preoccupation was not the unity of Nigeria, rather it pressed the leaders of the North not to “seek concession and reach compromise purely for the sake of unity that cannot stand the test of time.”

WAP was diametrically opposed to this stand as it urge the delegates to recognize that the first essential is for an agreement to be reached unanimously on the form of association that can hold the various components of the federation together with a minimum of friction.

The Morning Post will have none of all these pandering to accommodate the grievances of the East. Long before the federal military government thought of taking first a police action, then a small scale military action, and later a full scale military action against the Eastern regional government, MP stated that it felt

“compelled to repeat the call we made a few weeks ago that the government should be ruthless in maintaining the peace in the country.. The Supreme Commander (Gowon therefore should) go all out to crush the saboteurs.”

Signifiers of Doom

The newspapers during this period were also given to predicting doom as consequence either for an action or inaction, for or against the interests that each of the newspapers served.

MP argued that disintegration would “spell disaster for Nigeria… and ends in everlasting sorrow.”

New Nigerian echoes the coming-doom thesis, arguing that the nation trembles on the brink of anarchy and despair. In September 1966, NN states that “A full scale civil war of the most awful kind is a prospect that must be feared and avoided at all costs.”

The Nigerian Tribune (NT) states “ the nation is sitting on a tinderbox.” As tensions rose with discussions over the withdrawal of troops to their region of origin (particularly northern troops in the West), NT argued that “What we (WEST) needs is a crash program to recruit and train not less than 4,300 Yoruba within a few weeks. This will bring the quota of the Yoruba in line with those of other ethnic groups.” NT is emphatic in its call: “Let the Northern troop go.”

When Ojukwu stated the East would not secede “unless it is pushed” , NN states “What is the East up to? Does she mean what she says or is she playing for time? We can’t understand why the East is so apparently intent to inflict more hurt upon itself.

Few months later, NT asked the federal government to face down the East quickly: “if we have the force and the will to bring the East into line by armed intervention, let it be done now with dispatch.” Nigerian Tribune considers both the Hausa north and the Igbo East as potential foolish outsiders who  were contriving to invoke doom on Yorubaland. It further states that Yorubas must not allow people on the lunatic fringe to involve them in the present mass killings and molestation.

WAP emphasized during these difficult times that “until the East is pacified, the question of considering the future association of Nigeria is out of the question.”

Signifiers of Symbolic Insult

Central to the foregoing discourse were strong negative or abusive words and images of the OTHER.

Shortly after the ascendancy of Gowon, WAP wondered at the “strange nationalism” of the NN, which had under Ironsi trumpeted “domination” by the Igbo and was now no longer concerned with domination.

“At one time, domination stunt used to fill the pages of some of these newspapers… These days, domination stunt disappeared ..given way to the kind of oneness desired by the paper.”

The WAP even speculated under Ironsi, given NN’s attitude towards the regime, that “government might be provoked to take precipitate action against it.”

When MP and Daily Sketch (owned by the central ruling party’s ally government in the West) attacked each other in late 1966, WAP described them as “birds of the same nest” which had played identical roles at all material times in the crises that have torn Nigeria apart.” The Pilot states that this vicious circle of government newspapers contains germs of the their own destruction and maybe soon canceling out themselves.

All the rival newspapers were guilty of exaggerating little incidents and creating imaginary stories to suit them. In reference to the famed elocution of Oxford-educated Ojukwu, MP warned that “when all the English of Oxford has been spoken and the British encyclopedia exhausted, the people of Nigeria will still down to finding how best they can live together.”

NN excoriated Pilot for its type of journalism “such an information medium should hag its head in shame for helping to tear the country into pieces.” In a veiled reference to the North which had a preponderance of beggars, the Pilot stated that whether the East got assistance or not after the pogrom, it would survive, since Easterners are not a race of beggars.”

Conclusion

It was clear in the period under review that these journalists saw their media as representatives of the warring regions. Perhaps one major indicator of the acrimonious battle was a two part front page editorial by the Tribune after the collapse of the First Republic titled, “Scrap the Sketch 1 & 2”

The NN put the war before the war in a sharp focus when it noted with unusual candor that even the NN is conscious of its fall from grace, but it has always sought to find the truth. It has not always succeeded … but having said that, let us acknowledge that the Nigeria’s press-even the government-controlled ones- can do much more to restore peace in the country than they are doing.”

As William Connolly observes, drive to wholeness becomes destructive for these newspapers when they all obsessively interpret the cultural identity they participate in to be the best available copy of a true model and place that model above the threshold of legitimate interrogation in politics.” What is required is for us and the organizations we represent is to challenge the reductions, simplifications and selective mobilizations of resentment through which self-proclaimed partisans of the ethnic, group or regional bloc appropriate the most potent symbols of morality, faith virtue and belonging.”

Will history repeat itself? Let us take a page of lesson from history.

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Press Freedom and the Nigerian Media Landscape

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them." ?????

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle." ?????

If I were to ask you who utter these two statements, you would probably think two different persons. One a friend of press freedom and the other an opponent of free press. Well, you are wrong. These 2 statements were uttered at different times by the same person. The first quote is often trot out by journalist and repeated ad nauseam when some government officials push back against the media. Thomas Jefferson wrote the first statement in a letter to his friend, Edward Carrington in 1787. He made 2 assumptions that is currently subjected to epistemological inquiry: First, will there be newspapers to read for the next generation? Secondly, who is reading newspaper and are they capable of reading them? Let's just say the jury is still out on these 2 posers. 

Now to the second quote, in 1807, the same Thomas Jefferson, wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper by the name, John Norvell to complain about misinformation in newspapers. He further wrote, "I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false."

What brings me to this quotes is none other than the sad and perilous state of the free press in Nigeria. A cursory glance of the major newspapers headline today awash with reports of Big Brothers (BBNaija), English Premiership League, Gulder Ultimate Search etc. You will get to the inner/lower pages of their webpages/newspapers before you find information on the budgetary process, the Pandora expose' and the ongoing war against bandits/Boko Haram. Even when it focuses on hard hitting news, it is no longer uncommon to find 2 newspapers located in the same City contradicts each other on the same facts/reports.

These concerns led me to dig through the history of Nigeria newspapers and free press and what I found astounds me. Nigerian journalism indeed owes more to its colonial origins than it sometimes cares to admit, apologies to Ayo Olukotun. The British heritage as he stated is a paradoxical one, as the vibrancy of the Anglophone West African Press at the beginning easily beats out the tepid and state oriented Francophone African Press. While it is true that Britain allowed in West African the liberties of the British subject including freedom of expression and freedom to travel and study abroad, this is only half the story. For instance, it is well known that the British did place in the way of "the embryonic Nigerian colonial press", several obstacles ranging from censorship laws, to partial  bans and outright proscription, especially when press militancy coincided as it often did, with high tides of political agitation. Is that any different from GEJ or Buhari"s approach to press freedom? I doubt not.

As Olukotun wrote, "We can appreciate this paradoxical legacy by regarding it as an inefficient dictatorship, which had enough latitude for an oppositional press to grow, but yet acted to restrict the expression of liberty when it got assertive enough to challenge imperial hegemony".

The early newspapers such as "Iwe Irohin" (1859) bore the imprint of Christian missionary influence, which in its bid to evangelize Nigerians, educated them and stimulated publishing. But those who argue that the Nigerian press was born in persecution are right, for as early as 1862, Governor H. S. Freeman, had written to the Colonial Office in London asking to be permitted to impose a newspaper tax, which would prevent newspapers from becoming commercial successes. The governor's request was rejected by London, but it served warning that an indigenous  press would not be allowed to mushroom without a fight.

Another early attempt to hinder the burgeoning local press occurred when Governor John Glover, having failed to stifle the London-printed African Times, through outright confiscation, in view of public outcry, arranged for its slow and late delivery by the post office whenever it carried a politically sensitive matter. This brings back to memory the deliberate efforts of General Ibrahim Babangida to deny news paper publishers access to import license they needed for importation of newsprint.

In spite of these early setbacks, the press in Nigeria did grow in leaps, bounds, number and technical proficiency, so much so that over 50 newspapers sprung up between 1880 and the early 1940s featuring such titles as Lagos Times (1880), Eagle and Lagos Critic (1883); Lagos Weekly Record (1891), Chronicle (1908), Nigerian Daily Times (1926) and West African Pilot (1937). 

Two developments worth noting in the early colonial press were the breadth and vitality of the Lagos Weekly Record founded by John Payne Jackson regarded as the authentic precursor of the yet-to-come nationalist press, as well as the spate of colonial laws put in place to  check what was increasingly perceived as "the regime of hostile propaganda against the colonial administration".

Some of the remarkable anti-press legislations of this early period include the 1903 Newspaper Ordinance which imposed a heavy tax on newspaper publishing for instance a mandatory deposit of 250 pounds, the Criminal Code Ordinance of 1961 as well as the Sedition Offences Ordinances of 1909 and 1942 which empowered the judiciary among other things, to send to jail journalists found guilty of provoking disaffection or hatred as defined by the authorities.

The catch, for example about the Seditious Offences Ordinance of 1909 was in its Section 3 which states that:

“Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt or excites or tries to excite disaffection, disloyalty or feelings of enmity towards His Majesty or the government established by law in southern Nigerian, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to 2 years, or with a fine or with imprisonment and fine.”

Such clumsy and oppressive laws did not prevent a vigorous press from arising and asserting itself with increasing verve especially from the end of the Second World War. The Azikwe group of newspapers as the saying went “elec-zikified” Nigerian journalism. These newspapers included, among others Eastern Nigerian spokesman, Daily Comet; Eastern Sentinel; Southern Nigerian Defender and Nigerian Monitor.

These newspapers were spread across the nation, thus giving shape to a sense of nationalism in spatial terms. They also popularized banner headlines, used photographs and carried a mass appeal by using simple English. Zik practiced political journalism at its most vitriolic, and a distinguishing feature of the latter colonial press is the rise of the party press in which the leading, regionally based parties owned and controlled newspapers for politically expedient reasons.

It should be noted that not all newspapers in the colonial period were anti-colonial. Some, like Kitoyi Ajasa’s Nigeria Pioneer as well as, to a lesser extent The Daily Times were pro-colonial, while some publications spent more time attacking other nationalists than agitating against colonialism. Overall, however, the agitational strain prevailed and names like Ernest Ikoli, Herbert Macaulay, MCK. Ajuluchukwu, Anthony Enahoro, Babatunde Jose, among others made their reputation and careers from the anti colonial journalism of those times.

The Media and the Build up tot he War 1960-1965


Between 1960 and the collapse of the First Republic, the major newspapers included The Daily Times, The Express and The Post. These three strove to be above the partisan fray that engulfed the other papers, most of which were established as political party mouthpieces.

The North was served mainly by the Nigerian Citizen with a circulation of close to 10,000 and Gaskiya a Hausa language publication. There was also the Kano-based Daily Mail which appeared in both English and Hausa with an estimated circulation of 10,000 and notable for flying pro-Sardauna kites.

The East was well served by the Outlook described by Holman as the spearhead of "NCNC propaganda". There was also the Port Harcourt based Eastern Nigerian Guardian and the Onitsha based Nigerian Spokesman. Chief Festus Okotieboh also floated The Midwest Champion to advance the struggle for the creation of the Midwest Region. In the West, there was The Sketch; The Nigerian Tribune established by the Action Group as well as the pro-NNDP's Imole Owuro. Then, we had The West African Pilot which during the crisis of 1963-1965 adopted a pronounced Pro-UPGA position.


The Legal Environment

The colonial regime was updated and those laws which restricted press freedom during the colonial phase remained on the statute books. Nonetheless, Section 24 of the 1960 constitution states that:

Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.


The impact of this provision is however weakened in subsection 2:

 nothing in this section shall invalidate any law that is reasonable, justifiable in a democratic society in the interest of defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health."


Although the boundaries of press freedom were put to test by a series of legal suits against newspapers, their impact was weakened because [quote]the tendency was for such cases to follow the contours of party schisms with pro-NCNC papers being taken to court by persons identified with other parties while persons identified with the NCNC or NPC took pro-AG papers to court."- Agbaje[/quote]


Indeed as is widely acknowledged, a feature of that period was the extreme degree of partisanship which the press displayed especially during the AG crisis of 1962-3; the Census Controversy of 1963-4 and the 1964, 1965 election crisis.

As Olatunji Dare laments, 

Even when the intentions of the press were relatively neutral, several obstacles stood in the way of the press performing neutrally... The politicians abused neutrality by making reckless and unproven allegations against their opponents which the neutral press nevertheless felt obliged to print. The neutral press was vulnerable to vengeful reprisal especially in areas where partisanship was the order of the day

In fact, these vengeful refusals became so bad that in 1965, during the election controversy, the Onitsha urban County Council and the Enugu City Council banned the circulation of The Times, The Post and The Sketch. Imaginably, the Ibadan City Council revenged by banning The Pilot, The Tribune and The Daily Times. These setbacks notwithstanding, the press operated with a crusading spirit by struggling against censorship laws such as the Official Secrets Act (1962) and The Newspaper (Amendment) Act of 1964, both of which sought to constrain the press.


Larry Diamond is correct therefore in insisting that the press of the first Republic was the 

most potent institution supporting democratic freedom. There is a tradition of hard-hitting, fearless and independent journalism which was carried over from the colonial days when the press was the spearhead of nationalism. Though most papers are intensely partisan, they have several times agreed with each other and opposed the authorities who sought to restrict freedom of the press or individuals.

As Olukotun and Sonaike testify in 1996 in their book on Babatunde Jose, a robust media tradition in which columnists had a field day satirising or frankly deploring the excesses of the political class was preponderant.