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.

Can this explains the low education rate of Northern Nigeria?

I am usually inspired by comparative history and philosophical thoughts. A recent interview on Slate.com got me thinking about our dear country Nigeria and its many hydra headed problems. When I finished reading the piece, many questions came to mind: Can this idea help explain the low education rates in the Northern Nigeria and the disastrous way bandits and herdsmen saga has played out in the region and Nigeria as a whole? Is there anything we could learn from our history on how to encourage education, particularly girl child education without further triggering the reaction of retreat to violence and terrorism that ISWAP and Boko Haram has unleashed on the state? 

This piece explores these critical question at this particular time in the history of our nation as we celebrate the nation independence. Moreso, now that the North has become the focus of intense critique, violence and banditry backyard.

The phrase inferiority complex was coined by the psychoanalyst Alfred Adler in the early 20th  century. He said that we all feel a sense of inferiority sometimes, but for that to develop into a “complex,” there have to be a couple of elements: a consciousness that you are deemed inferior, which comes at some kind of moment when you realize, “People think I am less than.” Then there are some environmental conditions that make that person who has that moment of realization more likely to develop a “complex”: lack of education, poverty, authoritarian religion. In the wider core North, as a region, all three of those environmental conditions are prevalent. That moment of public consciousness, in this case, often looks like public criticism—times when there’s been intense scrutiny of the region.

If we examine pre and post colonial history of the region, we see these conditions writ large. Adler in his theory explains that individuals that develop an inferiority complex usually respond with one of three different compensations. First, they might deem someone else inferior. Second, they change the rules by which they are deemed inferior. Third, they retreat or escape from the society or institution or community that’s deemed them inferior.

Let me respectfully argued that the whole experience of Northern hegemony penchant for power and the attendant cycle of criticism, then backlash and entrenchment, or changing the rules. This pattern might help us understand the resistance to change, defensiveness, and reflex to turn toward sectarianism, be it Sunni or Shia denomination has dominated Northern culture in the last 120 years. 

In a recent interview in celebration of his birthday, Elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, Second Republic politician and ACF member made a stunning revelation on Nigeria's first attempt to get independence. Yakassai said the northern region opposed the motion for Nigeria to be a sovereign state in 1953 because north could not compete with the South. Here’s him in his own words,

“This was because as at 1953, the entire Northern Region, which had 75 per cent of Nigeria’s landmass and about 55 per cent of the country’s population, had only one graduate, Dr. R.A.B Dikko. At the same time, the South had thousands of graduates from different fields of expertise including law, engineering, medicine, administration, social sciences, etc. with about 90 per cent of the public services manpower in the North were made up of expatriates or Nigerians from the southern part of the country. Action Group leaders rejected the compromise proposed by the northern legislator in order to enable the north prepare itself for independence. This is because if Nigeria was granted independence by 1956, the North would be under the control of the civil servants from the South, a situation that will put the North under perpetual domination of the South, particularly people from the Western Region, which had the preponderance of the public servants at the time.”

Take a moment to follow that logic, Northern region would rather be under the yoke of colonialism with its attendant racist policies than fight for independence with the rest of the country. I leave you to draw your own conclusions. If this is not an inferiority complex, I don’t know what else it is. If we follow the elder statesman logic, we could still be waiting for independence today as the North is still far behind in the education of its citizens. 

It is this line of thought that breeds a situation where an insurrection led by largely poor northern youths protesting the killing of their spiritual leader, Mohammed Yusuf, by security forces gave birth to the Boko Haram insurgency which has lasted for several years till date.

The militants have grown from ragtag fighters to a group of well-armed terrorists with international connections. They have increased their list of demands to include an end to Western education, the establishment of an Islamic republic. Designated as one of the world’s deadliest terrorist groups, the Boko Haram terrorist group has killed thousands and forced several others to flee their homes.

Lower incomes, lower education levels are at higher rates in the North. Poverty is all over Nigeria, north, south, east and west but it is particularly more pronounced in the North. Those things are true everywhere , but in the North, there is also the historical lack of access to health care, because a lot of the North is rural and poor. There’s a lack of access to doctors, a lack of health insurance, a lack of a concept of preventive health care. All of those numbers lag in the North. The diseases that had long been eliminated all over the World are still menacing people in the North. And yet the region draws more income from the national coffers than any other region. Look at the population of childhood diseases in the North compare to the south. It’s all down to school enrollment and vaccination record in primary school. What is more, elderly people are dying of communicable diseases at higher rates in the North than the South. It might also be because southerners have access to regular doctors than north and yet some states in the North will rather hire foreign medical professions than Nigerian who are non-indigenes.

It is not that some Northern leaders don’t see this as a problem, but they are content to exploit this “us vs them” situation to get the vote of the talakawas. Take for instance, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, who probably because he’s term limited, said recently that the greatest evil from open grazing is the inability of herders’ children to get education.

“I have been saying it; is unfortunate that the issue of open grazing have brought a lot of controversy. Trekking from the northern part of this country to the middle belt or central part of this country or to the south, to me, is not acceptable. The children will not be able to have education, which to me it is criminal. The greatest crime in migrating from North to South for grazing is lack of education for the children. As far as I am concerned, that is the greatest crime; you denying somebody education. No Islamic education, no western education, nothing whatsoever; that is why we are in these problems now.”

The only thing the North seems to share with the South is a strong belief in prayer—God will protect, you’re going to die from something, the rewards of heaven are not to be feared. Insha Allah- as God willeth. But it wasn’t so in the South before the rise of pentecostal evangelicalism in the South. But of course there’s just plain tribalism and othering of other races and ethnicities, because for a while when primordial ethnic proclivity started during Obasanjo years, with OPC, APC, MASSOB, it was considered to be the work of politicians. And now IPOB and Yoruba nation activist and militants are threatening to blow up the nation if their separatists desire is not actualized. 

The truth of the matter is these are mostly a reaction to Northern hegemonic tendencies. 

While there has been significantly higher death rate from the hands of bandits in the north (in Kaduna, for instance, the paramount ruler of Atyap Chiefdom, Dominic Yahaya, claimed recently that over 50 villagers lost their lives during sustained attacks on villages within his domain over a four-week period), and fatalities in the northeast, (hotbed of Boko Haram/ISWAP), the violence and gruesome murder is fast spreading to the east and the west. A heart-rending video of the last moments of Dr. Chike Akunyili, the husband of the late Dora Akunyili, former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, also made it into public space. He was shot and killed on the streets of his home state, Anambra on September 28, 2021. His murder was one of several over the last couple of months. Bandits equally invaded Ilesa in Igbomina in southwest, maiming and killing farmers and their household.

One can easily conclude that life is short and brutish in Nigeria of today, be it, north, south, west or East but the daring bandits raids in the North with all the presence of the military operations by the federal government is mind boggling. The initial notion was, that this will soon past away, but more and more states in the north are completely run over by bandits. A federal legislator from the northwest cried out recently that his constituency has been completely obliterated by banditry. So the comparison with the South is non sequitor.

We can readily apply the same recommendations made by Angie Maxwell, a professor of political science and director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas on US southern history/psychology and opposition to vaccination to the Northern menace Nigeria is going through. 

Professor Maxwell, in an interview with Rebecca Onion of Slate (which I adapted for this piece) recommends 2 things provided we are well aware of the role public criticism and ridicule plays, and the defensive compensations that come with it. 

The first thing is: internal messengers, who could lean into the con and give an explanation as to why it makes sense to get Western education now. Saying something that gives people a way out, to save face: The old colonial education wasn’t really that bad, even though they told us it was, and back then I wouldn’t have done it either. But this new era, it’s good for young people. Something to make it OK for young people to show up and say, OK, now I think it’s the right thing to do. We will need Northern upper middle class to stand up and be counted on this score.

The other thing is mandates. I don’t usually like government mandates. I think they should be rare. But I feel like an educational mandate in this case is a way for people to save themselves. A lot of these people are marks of a con, and a mandate, as much as they may hate you for it, could very well save their life, and save the lives of others. We should discard the pretense that northern youths that could not obtain western education will probably get Islamic education. It’s is a false equivalence. The biggest investment in Western education outside the Western Hemisphere is currently being made by Islamic countries like UAE and Saudi Arabia. There’s a reason why Saudi Aramco solar energy research investment is not done in Qatar or Riyadh. China with all its competitive edge still spends more to send its students to western universities. 

In Northern Nigeria, there are some things the government has had to force to make it happen. Mandate compulsory western education if you truly desire to catch up. Islamic education should be complimentary and not a replacement. There’s bound to backlash to such bold policy, a resentment, but it is a necessary evil to break free from this inferiority complex. As a self professed libertarian, I know mandates should be rare but this one is inevitable, especially on something like this, where it affects massive number of poor children.

There will be a political backlash; there will be a price to pay. But it’s worth it.

This write up is inspired by an interview on slate.com