PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu’s government recently pledged its commitment to a free press in Nigeria as part of its response to a Daily Trust newspaper’s publication on the signing of the Samoa Agreement.
The report impelled an immediate response by the government, where it promised a free press in the country.
Though the newspaper later admitted publishing a ‘sloppy’ report, the debates on press freedom under Tinubu’s government have lingered.
Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, addressed journalists in Abuja, alongside his Budget and National Planning counterpart, Atiku Bagudu over the report.
An excerpt from Idris’ address reads, “This administration has remained very tolerant of media criticism (and will continue to do so. And, of course, the administration will also continue to) guarantee citizens’ rights to freedom of expression (and the need for them to know the workings of government)…
“I have said it several times here and elsewhere that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will continue to ensure that there is freedom of expression and that the press will have a free environment to practice what we believe is necessary for the continuous enthronement of democracy in our land.
“But let me say once again for reasons of emphasis that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not in any way, form or shape, do anything that would scuttle the freedom of expression in Nigeria.”
Reign of clampdown
While the minister’s words are reassuring, and coming on behalf of a president who owns some of the leading media outfits in Nigeria, journalists in the country have been hounded, harassed, incarcerated, and prosecuted under the Tinubu administration by state agents with reckless abandon.
Such experiences are reminiscent of the days of military putsches and dictatorship when state agents descended on media houses and subjected journalists and their employers to the most degrading mistreatment.
Using state security apparatuses such as the police and the military, no less than eight journalists were harassed or incarcerated on trumped-up accusations within the president’s one year in office.
The ICIR reports that Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees unfettered press freedom. “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people,” the section reads.
Regrettably, the police have consistently weaponised the National Cybercrime Act (2015) to clamp down on the media. This is regardless of the ruling by the ECOWAS Court of Justice which ordered the country to amend Section 24 of the Act to make it conform to the country’s obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Section 24 of the Cybercrimes Act (before its amendment), especially subsection 1b, provides that “any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent, commits an offence under this Act,”
Four years after the ECOWAS Court order, Tinubu, who took over from former President Muhammadu Buhari under whose administration the directive was issued, signed the amended Act in February 2024, including revisions to the part criminalising free speech.
Section 24 (1b), which the security agents often use to attack the media has since only stipulated punishment for any person who sends a message that “he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order, posing a threat to life, or causing such message to be sent.”
The Nigerian Police Force, under its Inspector-General, Kayode Egbetokun, appears to have ignored the reviewed Act and continued to deploy the old law against the media and other Nigerians.
The Force does this through its National Cybercrime Centre, which it recently announced it would expand across the country.
On May 3, The ICIR reported that despite constitutional mandate, Nigerian laws failed to protect journalists.
Renowned constitutional lawyer, Femi Falana, described using cyberstalking to arrest journalists as illegal.
He cited the ECOWAS ruling on the old Act and its amendment, stressing the imperativeness of all state agents to abide by the law.
Similarly, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPI) said since its enactment in 2015, the law had been used to prosecute at least 25 journalists.
The report, which was released in February, did not capture six other journalists who were arrested and detained, according to Daily Trust.
Nigeria ranked 120 on the World Press Freedom Index in 2021 and has been described as one of the most dangerous and difficult countries for journalists in West Africa.
In 2023, The ICIR traced 39 journalists who were harassed during the year in the line of duty through media reports, though the list was not exhaustive.
Journalists continue to face threats to their lives in Nigeria despite large-scale corruption, insecurity and injustice pervading the nation. Crimes are alarmingly high and many citizens have lived in unprecedented hardship since the post-civil-war era. These are some of the enormous tasks the Nigerian media are constitutionally bound to report on.
The ICIR reported how journalists’ efforts to cover the recent #EndBadGovernance protests in the country were greeted with the shooting of tear gas canisters by the police and similar attacks by the State Security Service (SSS).
Some of the journalists harassed under Tinubu’s government
Dele Fasan, Galaxy Television
The Bureau Chief of Galaxy Television in Delta State, Dele Fasan, was arrested by the Nigerian Army, 3 Battalion, on February 23 for recording a video of a labour protest.
He was compelled to delete images he captured on his phone from the protest while being assaulted with rifles. He was also handcuffed by the soldiers despite identifying himself as a journalist and showing his identity card.
Kasarachi Aniagolu, Whistle Newspaper
Similarly, a journalist at The Whistler Newspaper, Kasarachi Aniagolu, was arrested by the police while covering a raid on bureau de change operators in the Wuse Zone 4 area in Abuja in February.
She was detained at the Anti-Violence Crime Unit of the Nigerian Police Force in Guzape, Abuja, according to her employer.
Segun Olatunji, FirstNews editor
Olatunji was reportedly whisked away by armed men in two unmarked vans who arrived at his home in Lagos on March 15.
The men, two of who dressed in military camouflage, introduced themselves as officers of the Nigerian Army and forced Olatunji to go with them. They declined to tell his wife, who witnessed the abduction, where he was being taken.
The abductors did not leave any information behind as to where they were taking him or what his offence was. He was kept incommunicado until he was released.
The management of FirstNews suspected that the journalist’s disappearance was connected to a series of reports his organisation had published.
He was released by the military 14 days later, following media and public outcries against his incarceration.
FIJ’s reporter, Daniel Ojukwu
The ICIR reported how Ojukwu was arrested and detained in Lagos over allegations of cybercrime.
Ojukwu was abducted by the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Inspector-General of Police on Wednesday, May 1, but his abduction became known on Friday, coinciding with World Press Freedom Day.
The FIJ stated that upon discovering his unknown destination and finding his phone switched off, it initially filed a missing person report at police stations in the area where Ojukwu was believed to have been headed on Thursday, May 2.
Days after searches were made on his whereabouts, Ojukwu regained freedom 10 days after his abduction.
The ICIR’s executive director and reporter
In May 2024, the Police National Cybercrime Centre invited The ICIR journalist Nurudeen Akewushola and the organisation’s management over an investigation that exposed two former Inspectors-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and Solomon Arase, the immediate past chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), for receiving N200 million each and a house allocation as incentives for awarding an estate development contract to Copran International Limited for land originally meant to be used as police barracks.
A former staff member of Copran International Limited Kalu O. Kalu and a lawyer Francis Mgboh accused both former IGPs of unlawfully approving the contract for the development of the land, which belongs to the police, without adequate scrutiny, after receiving the bribe.
The allegations currently form a part of ongoing litigation at the Federal High Court in Abuja, and documents obtained by The ICIR, including court affidavits, showed that many other top police officials were also bribed to facilitate the approval of the contract.
The approval is contrary to Nigeria’s guidelines on the sale of residential facilities owned by the federal government.
On May 28, The ICIR executive director, Dayo Aiyetan, and the reporter honoured the police invitation at the National Cybercrime Centre’s headquarters in Abuja.
Rather than being interrogated and released promptly, they were held for nine hours.
Madu Onuorah, Globalupfront
Also in May, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Globalupfront, Madu Onuorah, was arrested in his house in Abuja by the police.
Onuorah was arrested in the presence of his wife and children, and they kept him incomunicado with family and lawyer after they seized his phone.
Emmanuel Agbo, Premium Times
In June, the Police summoned a journalist with the Premium Times, Emmanuel Agbo, over a land dispute story he was working on.
According to a report published by his organisation on Tuesday, June 4, Agbo received an invitation letter dated May 31, 2024, from the office of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Intelligence Response Team (NPF-IRT), Abuja via WhatsApp, an unconventional medium for passing such communication, on Monday, June 3.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].