The Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has said that there is no press freedom in Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko on Thursday.
According to the statement, the Civil Rights Advocacy group emphasised that despite Nigeria’s claims to be under successive democratic administrations since 1999 that General Abdulsalam Alhaji Abubakar handed over the reign of government to a civilian elected government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the country has become even more repressive of media freedoms even when a newspaper publisher and owner of one of the largest broadcasting companies in Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the president.
HURIWA noted that although President Tinubu owns some of the finest media establishments in the country in the Nation newspaper and Television Continental (TVC), however, the government that he presides over is tolerant of anti-press, anti-poor and anti-people policies including the fact that virtually all of his cabinet appointees do not respect accountability in government and are unwilling to respond to ‘Freedom of Information Requests’.
“There is widespread apathy towards press freedom, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUESTS by ministers and heads of agencies of federal government agencies including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited which is still stiffly controlled by President Bola Tinubu who has fired and appointed a new board of directors for the NNPCL. President Tinubu’s administration runs a cabinet appointees that hate transparency and accountability which are essential to assess the quality of respect for press freedoms in any nation around the World,” the Rights group said.
It explained that the appointees of the current president proudly threatens litigation against groups making freedom of information requests and are ready to engage Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) in their bid to escape their responsibilities to the people in the area of accountability and transparency in government.
“This is a government whose ministers behave as if they are above the law and when they are exposed in the media, the president who is the appointing authority gives deaf ears to such revelations. The courts are also not independent just as the National Assembly are in firm grips of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s control because he single handedly imposed the leadership. So how can Nigeria under this government enjoy press freedoms?
“In a media statement to mark the year 2024 World press freedom day which comes up on May 3rd 2024 being a Friday, HURIWA stated that the president Tinubu’s administration watched as a journalist Segun Olatunji of First News was kidnapped from his Lagos home by armed soldiers sent by a very senior General and an appointee of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu working at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja but this abducted journalist was kept for over a week even as he was then released to Guild of Nigerian Editors and the NUJ after intensive campaigns for his freedom mounted by groups including the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA).
“HURIWA regretted that even it became notorious that soldiers actually kidnapped and released this senior journalist, president Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is the Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces of the federation failed to administratively punish the senior General or even arrest and prosecute the soldiers sent to Lagos from Abuja to kidnap journalist Segun Olatunji of First News online newspaper just for writing a report on the military intelligence office.”
HURIWA also revealed that it came under intensive threats to the lives of its members including the life of its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko soon after the Defence Headquarters in Abuja issued a widely published press statement threatening litigation against the group for alleged misinformation because it has consistently made open demands for accountability on the killings of Plateau people including the over 200 villagers in Plateau State killed just a day to last year’s Christmas.
“Our National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko has come under increased threats to his life only because we used the media to criticise the armed forces of the federation for abysmally compromising with armed non state actors which is why kidnappers have widened their frontiers of attacks even up to the metropolis of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja. So to us in HURIWA, the World Press Freedom day of the year 2024 makes no meaning because the media is not free,” HURIWA stated.
It added: “The Chief of Staff to the President and the National Security Adviser to the president are both up in arms against press freedom because they are actively working to curtail the media freedoms that the youths enjoy through social media.
“These top flight aides of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is a newspaper publisher and a proprietor of one of the biggest television stations in Nigeria, are actively working to get a legislative framework to whittle down and destroy social media freedoms in Nigeria. The duo are after press freedom because the government hates accountability and transparency.”
The Rights group recalled that the United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 to be World Press Freedom Day or World Press Day, which is observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It also mentioned that the World Press Freedom Day is used to mark the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991.
HURIWA further expressed its displeasure stating that ‘it is disgraceful that Nigeria under a so-called democracy is repressive of media freedoms at a time that Nigeria produced the current Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Ms. Amina Mohammed.’
