The All Progressives Congress, APC, at the weekend said that by clamping down on the media, President Goodluck Jonathan has started a battle he cannot win.
For the third day yesterday, the military continued to prevent newspapers from circulating across the country as the military claims it is searching for bombs or “materials with grave security implication”, but the search have not yielded anything.
Newspaper houses especially The Nation, Leadership and Daily Trust, which are hardest hit, have lost millions of naira.
In a statement by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the APC said the President has failed to learn from history that the Nigerian media could neither be intimidated nor suppressed by anyone, adding that those who tried to do so in the past lived to regret their actions.
It wondered why a government that is being asked to diligently prosecute the war on terror is instead vehemently waging a war on the media and using the security agencies to interfere with democracy.
“Had the government pursued the insurgents who are killing and maiming Nigerians with the same vigour with which it had descended on the media, the war against terror would have been long over,” APC said, wondering what kind of weapons the small newspaper distribution vans could ferry that cannot be conveyed by other, bigger vehicles that move around the country undisturbed.
The party described as disingenuous and ridiculous, the explanation that an intelligence alert was responsible for the “shameful and unacceptable clampdown on the media”, dismissing what it called the platitude that the Jonathan Administration holds the media in high esteem.
“Even if one believes the administration’s babble that President Jonathan holds the media in high esteem, how can that be justified by the indignities being meted out to the media under his watch? How does the so-called intelligence report justify the arrest of media workers, detention of distribution vans and the impounding of newspapers?
“How does it justify the restriction of newspaper circulation? How does it justify an administration’s efforts to tamper with fundamental rights guaranteed by the nation’s Constitution?
“With the clampdown on the media, the Jonathan administration has opened a new but dangerous flank in its war against Nigerians. First. It was an attempt to stifle the freedom of assembly and the freedom of speech when a yeoman Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu, tried but failed to ban peaceful protests in Abuja.
“The outcry against the obviously-orchestrated ban on peaceful protests had barely died down when the government moved to stifle press freedom. But it is a lost battle,’’ APC said.
The party said a government that has failed to provide security for its citizens, 12,000 of whom have died in the hands of Boko Haram since 2009, and a government that has pauperised its citizens rather than empower them is suddenly acting like someone pumped with steroids and wasting its artificial energy on tackling the media, simply because it does not like its fierce independence and highly professional disposition.
“President Jonathan gave a hint of what’s to come when he blamed the media for over-reporting Boko Haram, forgetting that the media is only a mirror of the society. Our advice to the President is to immediately call a halt to the war on the media which his administration has launched because it is one battle he cannot and will not win,’’ it said.
NewsDirect Newspaper, whose office was invaded by soldiers has petitioned the President.
Its Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Samuel Ibiyemi, signed the petition which states: “This is to raise the alarm about the invasion of Nigerian NewsDirect by 15 Army Officers of 192 Battalion led by 2ns Lieutenant Long John on the grounds of information available to them that newspaper houses are using their vehicles to convey explosives and arms for Boko Haram.
“Offices located at 34, Aromobi Str., Blessing Estate, Gasline, Sango-Ota in Ogun State were searched and they promised to come back and monitor the circulation of our weekly newspaper.
“We are not sure the form of what the fresh operation will entail on return. Customers and staff were shocked with the activities of the armed officers.
“Mr. President, we are using this medium to demand for explanation since we are unarmed and do not have anything to do with the deadly Boko Haram sect. We used our newspaper to criticize the activities of the sect in the past. We are patriotic and will not engage in anything that will affect the security of the nation.
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