Olusegun Odebunmi, a third-term member of the House of Representatives who is representing Ogo-Oluwa/Surulere federal constituency of Oyo state on the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC) sponsored Media Regulation Bills and Nigeria Broadcasting Commisvion.
Attention was not given to these bills until one of them was to be tabled for the second reading having passed first reading, committee stage deliberations and a public hearing was being contemplated. At this point, all the interested members started showing interest.
Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) had series of meetings and came up with far reaching plans of actions that will halt the passage of the bills. Their various platforms were made use of appropriately. In the history of the Nigerian media, members had never been united on any issue like this one.
Opposition to the bills formally started on Monday, July 12, 2021 when the front pages of many publications had front page adverts, The advert was sponsored by members of fourth realm of the estate. It was titled: Information Blackout. Other message contained therein was: This is what the National Assembly wanrs to achieve, with ths NPC and NBC (Media) Act amendment Bills. It went further to state that “it is not just against the media……., it is about society’s right to know, your right to be heard.
The following day being Tuesday, July 13, 2021, the newspapers wrote front page comments/editorials on the same subject matter. It became glaring that the practitioners won’t allow easy passage of the bills. Specifically, Daily Trust titled its own Front Page Comment as No to anti-media bills. Leadership wrote: Our Stand. Keep The Press Criminal Bill. The Punch Front Page Comment was ‘Assault on the press cannot stand’.
Telegraph published ‘Why Nigeria does not need media regulatory bills’ on its cover page. Guardian asked, ‘Editorial: Who is afraid of free press?’ Vanguard had ‘Vanguard comment: Halt Odebunmi’s toxic media bills’ on the cover page.
Nigerian Tribune: Front Page Comment was ‘NASS, you can’t criminalise journalism’. Daily Independent published ‘Our view: The proposed draconian media laws’. Blueprint Front Page Comment.was ‘Halt the bill to amend the Press Act, NBC’. The Sun: Front Page Comment was ‘No to anti-media bills’.
Daily Trust newspaper of Friday, June 18, 2021 had earlier fired the first salvo when it led the day’s edition with a caption- ‘Press Council Bill: Presidency, Reps set to ‘ground’ newspapers. Regrettable, it was a lone ranger on the day as virtually all the newspapers hadn’t such a news items on either their cover or inner pages.
Pressure kept mounting in all the media platforms; this came in form of opinions, articles, features, etc on the subject matter until the sponsor of the bill asked the house to suspend further debate on the floor of the house. This was hurriedly done because of the tension it had generated. Besides, it wasn’t done properly because based on the house rules as only the speaker can ask for the suspension of any bills during plenary.
It is a statement of fact that Nigerian newspapers are structurally, ideologically, politically and ethnically divided. Most newspapers have editorial bent, leaning, political directions/ideas, or a very strong affiliation with a particular political party or others. All these reflect on the ways news items are being reported. For example, only Daily Trust of Wednesday, June 9, 2021 emphatically reported that ‘OPC kills community leader, 3 herders in Oyo’. Equally, Leadership newspaper of Monday, July 5, 2021 had a front page comment captioned- ‘Our Stand: The Repatriation of Nnamdi Kanu: Matters Arising. It supported the arrest of the IPOB leader. Unfortunately, most of the Lagos based newspapers are of the opinion that lack of respect for the rule of law has given rise to all forms of agitation.
This sentiment didn’t start today. It will be recalled that The Punch newspaper published an editorial on December 11, 2019. The title was ‘Buhari’s lawlessness: Our stand’. The newspaper frowned at lack of regard for the citizens’ rights. However, on December 19, 2019, Dailly Trust countered the Punch’s editorial; it was titled: ‘That Punch Editorial’.
The Daily Trust said that ‘Punch went overboard in describing an elected government as a regime and to refuse to recognise the president by his statutory title’. It challenged this as an attempt to delegtimise an elected president and the government he heads. The action of Daily Trust was adjudged by many public afairs analysts and commentators to be a strange one because Daily Trust ought to have stated its own position without ‘attacking’ another newspaper.
Following the suspension of the obnoxious bills, the media seems to have gone their separate ways again. If the energy used to address the media bills is tailored towards all that will make the citizens feel the impact of governance, the country will be a better for all of us.
With the bad state of our economy, media managers need to set agenda for the government at all levels thereby leading to the economic buoyancy where all and sundries will be the beneficiaries.
Finally, media managers should imbibe the culture of public awareness creation and concern for salient issues through coverage of news items frequently, prominently and professionally.
…….. Ayankunbi is the MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
0802 305 1315
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com.
