NIGERIA MEDIA MONITOR

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#03-36 MONDAY 14 SEPTEMBER, 1998

*	BAGAUDA KALTHO: YOUTHS PROTEST; WIFE REJECTS POLICE EVIDENCE
* 	ANYANWU RECEIVES AWARD
*	NIGERIA TELECOMS INDUSTRY NEEDS $6BN
*	INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS WRITE GOVT.
*	HOW TELL MAGAZINE SURVIVED THE ABACHA YEARS.

NEWSREEL
PROTEST OVER KALTHO'S DEATH 
Over 50 angry youths from Gombe state, northern Nigeria, on 3 September,
staged a demonstration at the Police Force Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) offices, Alagbon, Lagos, demanding the suspension of the
chairman of the presidential task force on terrorism, Assistant Police
Commissioner Zakari Biu, over his recent claim that The News
correspondent, James Bagauda Kaltho, died in 1996 while trying to plant a
bomb at Durbar Hotel in Kaduna. 
The youths, operating under the aegis of "Banganje Youths Association
(BYA)" in a communique distributed to members of the public, described Biu
as a "contradictionist" who hid under the dictatorial regime of late
General Sani Abacha to perpetrate evil including torturing innocent
citizens like Kaltho to death. They asked military ruler General
Abdulsalami Abubakar to respond to the call by the Independent
Communications Network Limited (ICNL), Kaltho's employers, to institute a
panel of inquiry to unravel the circumstances that led to the purported
death of the journalist. 
The youths, carrying placards and chanting war songs, also demanded the
sum of N100 million (about $1.2m) from Biu as compensation for allegedly
killing Bagauda. 
Bagauda Kaltho hailed from Biliri in Gombe State, north-eastern Nigeria.
Similarly Kaltho's wife,  Mrs. Martha Kaltho speaking on the BBC Hausa
programme on 7 September, declared that the man shown on the video tape by
the police was not her husband. She noted that "the leg and part of the
nose of the man in the picture which the police showed did not bear any
resemblance to her husband.
Martha said that considering the circumstances of his disappearance, she
was convinced that has police has not told the truth. She reiterated that
"I still believe that my husband is still alive, because if we are to
follow the police line of thinking, then no one should remain in doubt
that Bagauda is still alive because he could not possibly be the one shown
as there is still no proof of linkage between his disappearance and the
Durbar Hotel bomb blast.
Mrs. Kaltho disclosed that her husband repeatedly told her that the
security agents were desperately looking for him few days before his
disappearance and insisted that the police owe the nation more convincing
explanation on his whereabouts.
"I remember vividly that he told me repeatedly on the 3rd of January,
1996, the very day he left us at home after the Christmas holidays that
security agents were looking for him all over Kaduna.  He explained, at
that time, that they were desperate to arrest him in connection with some
of his reports, stressing that he was convinced they were under orders to
bring him dead or alive.  So when he was reported missing by his em
ployers, I presumed he was eventually arrested by them. I think he is with
them despite the police claim" Martha explained.
Martha said in April this year (1998) she was summoned to the Police
Headquarters in Lagos and  was told that between April and July, her
husband would be released. The police, she stated, had assured her that
they had received the files of 18 detainees who would be released after
due processes, and that Bagauda was among the 18 persons. Mrs. Kaltho said
she was therefore surprised to learn that the same police said Bagauda had
died in a bomb blast two years ago.
She further said  that "When I heard news of the release of some of the
detainees, I travelled to Kaduna when the police kept me all day  while
they claimed to be concluding paper work and other formalities for the
release of my husband. However at the end of the day, in the night, they
told me to return home without offering any explanation. Frustrated, I
went to the park the following day, where I got to know from the
newspapers that the person the police are planning to release to me had
died two years ago. "This is ridiculous I want the government to
investigate (this matter). Since they are saying it was a bomb that killed
him, let them dig deep into the issue and know how he got the bomb,
because if he was the one who planted the bomb, I am sure there must be
others behind him. Since he does not manufacture bomb, then there must be
somebody who gave him the bomb. I want the government to come to my aid to
look into the root cause of my husband's death".  Martha stressed!
.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of ICNL, Mr. Adebayo Onanuga, in a
statement published in major newspapers in Nigeria debunked the police
allegation that Kaltho was the one behind the bomb that rocked Durbar
Hotel in 1996, saying since 1997 when the late head of State, Gen. Sani
Abacha, instructed the police to release the list of all detainees, all
the security agencies denied that they held Bagauda. They similarly denied
ever arresting Bagauda.
ANYANWU RECEIVES UNESCO PRESS FREEDOM AWARD
The Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the defunct The Sunday Magazine
(TMS), Mrs Christiana Anyanwu, on 2 September received the 1998 United
Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) Guillermo Cano
World Press Freedom prize at a ceremony held in Paris, France.
She was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995 for publishing an article
on an alleged coup in March that year.
The sentence was later commuted to 15 years. Mrs. Anyanwu, 48, was freed
on June 15, this year, by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.
"This prize is a message to the military in Nigeria, a message which seems
to have been well understood by the current leader", she said in her
speech.
"Time is running short for military rule," the journalist noted, adding
that though "the Gen. Abubakar has professed love of human rights and
peace, but this is not enough."
According to her, there are five journalists still in Nigeria's jails,
nine held in detention and over 21 in exile, including Africa's fist Nobel
prize winner for Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka, who presented Anyanwu
with the prizes in Paris.
Mrs. Anyanwu alleged another journalist Bagauda Kaltho had been murdered
in detention and that another was unaccounted for.
"The military should now redeem its own image, distance itself from such
acts of savagery, find out who did it and take appropriate action" she
added. She called for  the release of all journalists in detention and
prison.
NIGERIA REQUIRES OVER $6B FOR TELECOMM DEVELOPMENT
Over six billion dollars will be needed to fully develop Nigeria's
telecommunications industry, the chief executive of Nigerian
Communications Commission, Chief Ogbonnaya Iromantu, said in Abuja on 7
September.
Iromantu said that the country's telecommunications requirements would
include the provision of three million telephone lines and 200,000
cellular lines to boost existing facilities.
He said that over 600 million dollars was required every year for the
expansion of the telecommunication network, going by the recommendations
of the Vision 2010 committee that approximately eight million lines should
be installed in the country in the next 12 years.
Iromantu said that the government was determined to de-regulate the
industry through private sector involvement.
He said that of the countries in Africa that had de-regulated their
telecommunications services, Nigeria was the only that did not benefit
from existing World Bank facilities, following its preference for private
investment in the industry.
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS WRITE GOVT.
As their input to the directive of the Head of State on Internet services
in Nigeria, Internet Service Providers, ISPs, in the country have written
Communications Minister, Air Vice Marshal Canice Umenwaliri, appraising
the many factors that may continue to impede Internet development in the
country and ways to arrest the situation.
Writing under the aegies of Nigeria Internet Group, (NIG), which is the
body that the Head of State has directed the Ministry of Communications
and the Ministry of Science and Technology to collaborate with, in
fashioning a new programme for Internet before November this year, the
operators raised seven issues which they considered a major obstacle to
the growth of this global information resource in Nigeria.
In a memo dated September 3, 1998, and signed by the scribe of the NIG
steering committee, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, the operators, said the submission
was sequel to the request of the Ministry through the Permanent Secretary
at a meeting in Abuja on August 19, 1998, at which the issue of the Govt.
directive and NIG position were discussed.
Minister of Communications, AVM Umenwaliri, confirmed during his visit to
Lagos that the directive of the Head of State about the Internet is being
addressed.
But the latest submission of the NIG has renewed clamour for a far
reaching and decisive actions which the minister should undertake to
uphold government's positions in the entire telecommunications industry,
which will ultimately rub off on Internet development.
Among the high points of the recommendations of the NIG to government is
that "NITEL Internet business should be a separate and autonomous entity
subject to all the provisioning in the country."
In making their recommendations, the NIG revisited the trend of Internet
development in Africa with Nigeria in perspective. "With a population of
about 42 million, South Africa has over 600,000 Internet users (ratio
1:70) while Ghana with a population of about 8 million has about 20,000
Internet users (ratio 1:400). Comparison of this with Nigeria with over
100 million people but less than 10,000 Internet users (ratio 1:10,000),
clearly shows that Nigeria is still very far below in Internet growth and
development".
It listed the obstacles that have led to this stunted growth to include
the exorbitant cost of international link from NITEL for a 64 kbps at
about US$120,000 (10.2million) per annum for both the up-link and
down-link as opposed to about US$85,000 obtainable in some other African
countries. This cost, they said, constitutes about 70 per cent of the
total operating cost of the ISPs in Nigeria.
The NIG also reviewed the current status of the Nigerian Communications
Commission, (NCC) Decree 75 of 1992 which on one hand, encourages private
participation, but on the other hand does not empower the regulatory body
to regulate NITEL, thereby, making it (NITEL) a sacred cow which they
contended, makes a mockery of government's promise on deregulation.
They cited NITEL's recent unilateral imposition of a discriminatory charge
of N10,000 ($117.6) per line per month on ISPs subscriber lines "receive
only" and NITEL's recent announcement of its starting an ISPs venture
without recourse to an NCC licence, and under no known rules and
operational guidelines from any existing law in this country as a negation
of the spirit of competitiveness, fairness, equity and justice as it will
no longer be the same level playing field with other operators.
The operators also pointed out that some of the obstacles emanate from the
delay in the appointment of a second national carrier with similar rights
and obligations as NITEL, delay in the proposed privatization of NITEL,
and lack of a national policy on the Internet as seen in many other
countries. They said such a policy enhances telephone access through
payphones, public call offices or community telecentres lack of which they
said are some of the impediments to the growth of Internet in the country.
The operators in their memo also blamed the cost and availability of phone
lines in the country which is still very expensive in Nigeria when
compared with other countries.And the inadequate international bandwidth
for interactive Internet transactions as a result of the poor quality of
the national network which other African nations have addressed by
allowing the usage of Very Small Aperture Terminals, VSAT, which offer
reasonable bandwidth.
Based on this appraisal, the licensed Internet Service Operators submitted
their recommendations towards the directive of the Head of State to
include that: 
*the cost of international link from NITEL be drastically reduced to a
reasonable cost comparable to what obtains in other countries.
* the strict restriction put on the use of VSAT be removed to permit
individual ISPs to install and use this to increase their bandwidth to
boost Internet delivery.
* the Govt. should pursue more vigorously a total deregulation,
appointment of second national carrier and privatisation of NITEL to boost
telecommunications infrastructure and improve teledensity as this will
automatically reduce the cost of acquiring telephone service with more
lines being made available from more than one carrier.
* that Govt. should formulate a national policy on Internet, enhance
telephone access through the establishment of payphones, public call
offices and community telecentres to promote Internet spread, development
and exploitation towards national economic and societal growth.
*NITEL Internet business should be a separate and autonomous entity
subject to all the conditions for Internet service provisioning in
Nigeria.
*that the Govt. should curb the excesses of NITEL which has rendered the
NCC and its licensees ineffective in this era of telecoms deregulation and
liberalization demand for a N10,000 ($117.6) per line per month from ISPs
is unprecedented in any part of the world.
*that the Govt. should do every thing possible to ensure that both foreign
and local investment spirit is encouraged at this crucial period when
Nigeria is opening up to the international community.
With this recommendation according to some observers, the directive of the
Head of State will have a starting point that will guide the establishment
of a profound programme for the Internet to develop and function fully in
Nigeria at a cost that is comparable in other parts of the world in terms
of operation and usage.
Source: Vanguard, 9 September 1998

FEAFURE
HOW TELL MAGAZINE SURVIVED ABACHA
By Ayodele Akinkuotu
It is spring time for journalism practice in TELL magazine. This era for
fresh ploughing began with the return of George Mbah, Senior Assistance
Editor, from General Sani Abacha's gulag on July 24, 1998. He was jailed
for life in 1995 by General Patrick Aziza Tribunal for being 'an accessory
after the fact of treason'. The sentence was later reduced to 15 years
imprisonment. Mbah spent over three years in prison before Abdulsalami
Abubakar, Abacha's successor, granted amnesty to him and three other
journalists in the same boat. A few days after his return, the magazine
had cause for another broad smile as Nosa Igiebor, editor-in-Chief,
returned home from self-exile in London. He fled the country September 1,
1997, when there was a wide scale manhunt for him by state security
operatives. Onome Osifo-Whiskey, Managing Editor, had earlier returned
from a six-month detention on April 26. 1998.
As a sign of the present good times, all editors of the magazine now come
to the office. Their dusty offices, some of them opened last in May 1995,
have been cleaned. Regular editorial conferences are now being held.
Reporters now confer with their senior colleagues. The directions in which
to pilot stories now get benefit and advantage of experience. It is now
possible to enforce deadline.
Today, managers relax when told they have visitors, especially people they
are meeting for the first time. The anxieties of the past three years - as
to whether the magazine would be on the news stands on Monday and who next
would fall into the security trap of Abacha - are for now receding.
At the onset of that ugly past, editors sneaked in and out of the offices.
When they came calling mostly on foot and they saw strange faces lurking
around the premises or filling visitors forms, they themselves behaved
like visitors. It was when they got the sign that the coast was clear that
they stayed to hold five-minute conferences on corridors. Fresh
assignments were sent in through couriers and completed assignments
dropped in designated places termed 'Bush office' or simply "The bush".
This office is always changing. Afterall, this is guerrilla journalism at
work.
For the editors, family and social life was zero. Many of them kept away
from their abodes for several months. They left their wives and children
at the mercy of the junta's goons if or when they eventually succeeded in
tracing their home addresses. The editors had no choice. For them,
practising journalism is a matter of commitment. Take Igiebor, for
example, when a combined team of state security service operatives and men
of Operation Sweep, the Lagos State's Special Anti-Robbery Squad, stormed
his Ikeja home at midnight on September 10, 1997, they scaled his fence
and terrorised his wife and children. Disappointed that he was not at home
from where they had arrested him on December 23, 1995, one of the
policemen put a gun to the head of Obosa, Igiebor's four-year-old
daughter, asking her "where is your daddy?"
Osifo-Whiskey's four children equally had a dose of this official
gangsterism on November 9, 1997. On their way to church in the company of
their father that Sunday morning, men, holding guns and who introduced
themselves as coming from Presidency, abducted their father. It was six
months later before they set eyes on him again.
In March 1998, Danlami Nmodu, Kaduna Bureau Chief of the magazine, who is
still a bachelor, was rudely awakened one morning by the loud bangs on the
door of his Kaduna apartment. Nmodu, who lives alone, at first, thought
the intruders were robbers. He opened his door after over three hours of
incessant banging and when the intruders were about breaking it down.
Smashing doors is but one of the stock-in-trade of security operatives. On
December 14, 1995, they broke down several doors in the three floors TELL
Communications occupies at its 10, Acme Road, Ogba office. Any door TELL's
security officers on duty had no key to was simply smashed open. Angry at
not being able to find any of the editors after the mindless rage, they
arrested Dejo Adebisi, Advert Manager, Emmanuel Bodemeh, Production
Manager, Yemi Olowolabi, a Staff Writer who was only a few months old in
the organisation then, and Isaac Iyi, a security officer. They were
released later that day after several hours of q!
uestioning. The usual questions asked them were: "Where do your editors
live? Where do you print?" Osa Director, Kano Bureau Chief of the
magazine, was not that lucky when he was arrested in August 1995. The
story that put him in trouble was "Abacha, Buhari at War over Oil Money".
The story was published in Dateline, TELL's rested stable mate. He was
detained in solitary confinement in police station some 150 kilometres
from Kano. When after 37 days he was charged to court, Osa Director
appeared before the magistrate handcuffed with his legs chained.
It was not only the arrests and detentions that made journalism practice a
nightmare for both management and staff of TELL Magazine under Abacha
junta. There was the palpable anxiety that any edition of the magazine
might be seized. Beginning from January 2, 1994, security operatives
served the organisation notice that TELL was marked for annihilation. That
Sunday morning, the security agents arrived Academy Press, Ilupeju, Lagos
who were then the printers of TELL. They were in no doubt as to their
mission. It was to prevent the circulation of TELL edition for that week.
The cover story was titled: "The Return of Tyranny: Abacha Bares His
Fangs". They took all the 55,000 copies already printed. The Abacha regime
was only six weeks old in power at the time of the seizure. Because of the
eyebrows raised in several quarters, three officials of the administration
expressed shock over the seizure. They were Onagoruwa, then Attorney
General and Minister of Justice, Jerry Gana, Infor!
mation Minister, and David Attah, Chief press Secretary to the head of the
military junta. Thereafter, there was some lull of several months in the
snatching by security operatives of total print-runs.
However, major distributors and vendors kept complaining every week that
several copies of the magazine were seized from them. Because over the
years, some of the complainants had been credible agents with whom the
company had done good business, it was impossible not to believe them. The
situation became more grave in 1994 when the publications of three media
houses, The Guardian, National Concord and The Punch were proscribed.
Even though, there was no official pronouncement at any time that TELL had
been proscribed, security agents continued to harass vendors of the
magazine, accusing them of vending an illegal publication. What we later
learnt was that, indeed, a decree proscribing TELL was already prepared,
only awaiting the signature of General Abacha at the "appropriate time".
That time never came until death put an end to his brutal regime.
For a small organisation like TELL, the obstacles Abacha mounted in its
way in order to kill the publication were monumental. Apart from a
cumulative total of well over 650,000 copies seized by security agents
which resulted on several occasions in whole editions being reprinted, the
incovenience of having no office environment was psychologically
shattering. The monetary cost of the company's losses to seizures is still
being computed. What cannot be ever computed in monetary terms, however,
is the duplication of offices, that is the bush. At critical times in
Abacha's almost five-year tenure, the magazine was forced to operate from
over seven bush offices. Some were procured in extreme emergencies while
others were vacated almost without notice. At a time when the legitimacy
of the Abacha junta rested on raw fear, there can be no doubt that TELL's
underground operations were made possible only by an appreciative and
committed Nigerian public who made enormous sacrifices to s!
ee the magazine through its darkest hour. One day in 1995, a team of
security operatives arrived the company's Acme Road office. They headed
straight for the first floor where the production section used to be. They
ordered the security officer on duty to open the doors. On entering the
bare room, they stood still for a moment ormation.
For many of the staff of TELL, it was a frightening moment, Most of them
had not seen some editors for over two years. They did not know how they
could locate them or reach their families and relations. Eventually, after
more than 24 hours, it was confirmed that none of the editors had been
shot. They all heaved a sigh of relief. But the editors and management
smelt a rat. What purpose was that information meant to serve? For it was
undoubtedly floated by security agents. The decision was reached that the
omen was not good. The conclusion was that, perhaps, one of the top
editors had been marked down for elimination. If that objective was
achieved, it would serve as a goal. All management staff and editors would
be declared WANTED. They would be the first suspects. When they are under
lock and key, while "investigations are going on, "TELL would be unable to
appear on the newsstands. And the organisation would have been effectively
crippled.
Those who think this theory is far-fetched should remember what happened
after Pa Alfred Rewane, 79, was assassinated in 1995. Among those first
clamped into detention were members of his household. The same strategy
was used after the brutal assassination of Kudirat Abiola in 1996. Senator
Abraham Adesanya, Pa Solanke Onasanya and Ganiyu Dawodu, close associates
of the June 12 martyr, spent several weeks in detention while
investigations were going on. Thus, the company's management issued a
press statement which was latter carried as an Advertiser's Announcement
in a number of publications. The statement called attention to the
development and concluded that if anything untoward happened to any TELL
staff, manager or director, the public should not look too far for the
culprit. It can only be the security agents of the junta. Such a
horrendous act should not be treated like the October 1986 murder of Dele
Giwa, founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch.
But, why would the Abacha junta want to cripple TELL? That answer lies in
the social contract the magazine signed with Nigerians when in hit
newsstands on April 8, 1991. The essence of that contract can be found in
the following simple statement which encapsulates TELL's philosophy": "To
tell the news as it is, to interprete and analyse the new based on fact;
and to hold government accountable to the governed (the Nigerian People)
as required of the press, the fourth estate of the realm, by the
Constitution. Above all, we are for democracy, the rule of law and the
sovereignty of the Nigerian people."
Based on this contract with Nigerians, the magazine identified early
enough General Abacha's hunger for political power. Barely six weeks after
he took over, the magazine published a story: "The Return of Tyranny:
Abacha Bares His Fangs" in the edition dated January 10, 1994. That story
showed in all its nakedness what the general intended to do with power. It
was a critical examination of the 10 decrees promulgated by Abacha in
December 1993, a month after coming to power. Two of the decrees had
ouster clauses. Furthermore, one of them, Decree 107, conferred on Abacha
absolute powers to make laws without reference to anybody. It was not
surprising, therefore, that Onagoruwa, then Attorney General, revealed
that all the 10 decrees were enacted without his knowledge. In spite of
this slight on his office, an interview with the minister was published in
the same edition, and he defended the ouster clauses.
But TELL's stories on Abacha's thirst for power pre-dates his sacking of
the illegal Interim National Government, ING, of Earnest Shonekan. Two
stories, "Shake-Up in the Military", published in the edition dated
September 20, 1993, and "June 12: Rumbles in the Military", published in
November 1, 1993 edition, clearly showed the strategies Abacha was
employing to take over from Shonekan. The stories showed the booby-trap in
the Interim National Government decree. One provision in the decree
stipulated that in the event of the death or resignation of the head of
ING, the most senior secretary shall assume the office. So, what are the
criteria to be used in determining the "most senior secretary"? One of the
stories answered that question. "Many have widely concluded that Abacha
(as Defence Secretary) is easily the man whose head fits the cap.
Shonekan, they conjectured could be "frightened" out of the place." That
exactly was what happened. In demanding Shonekan's alleged resign!
ation on November 17, 1993 Abacha told him that he could no longer
guarantee support for him from the military.
And against the backdrop that Abacha took over the reins of government to
prevent the nation from erupting into anarchy, the magazine saw through
this grand deceit. Thus, the magazine did several stories on Abacha's
grand design to stay for long time in power. Although, his regime promised
to organise a sovereign national conference, he later changed his mind. He
settled for a constitutional conference. In several stories, it was
analysed that the conference would be one huge joke. He did not disappoint
us. And in the March 28, 1994 edition of magazine, it was revealed that
Maryam Abacha, wife of the late dictator, was already shopping for
consultant to perfect her own version of the Better Life Programme. The
latter, the baby of Maryam Babangida, was totally scrapped and
subsequently replaced with the Family Support Programme, FSP, which was
launched in November 1994.
All doubts as to whether Abacha schemed for power or not were laid to rest
with the launching of FSP. In the publicity bliz proceeding the event, one
of the co-ordinators of FSP, one Bala Musa, laid bare Abacha's long held
dram for power. In TELL's story "The Coming of Maryam II", published in
the November 21, 1994 edition, Musa was quoted thus: "The programme (FSP)
is infact the realisation of a 10-year-old dream which Maryam Abacha had
been nursing when her husband was only a General Officer Commanding, 2
Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army in Ibadan in 1984," And when in
October 1995, the Abacha junta finally launched its so called transition
programme, TELL again saw through the deceit.  In several stories, we
highlighted the issues at stake: June 12, the continued detention of
Moshood Abiola, the late President Elect, and the fact that Abacha was
perfecting strategies to hold on to power perpetually.  Those strategies
included the cowing of the civil society through !
despotism. Criticism was forbidden. Members of the opposition were
constantly harassed and hauled into detention, all in the name of
maintaining security. Abacha simply took Nigeria to the dark ages. He
equated brutality with glory. However, this is understandable. As John
Plamenatz argues in his introduction to Thomas Hobbes'-Leviathan, one of
the three causes of quarrels among men is glory Plamenatz says further:
".....a man is moved to aggression by the desire to preserve or increase
his power (glory), and especially his reputation (which he calls a form of
power)," Abacha's brutality further drove a wedged between him and
Nigerians, because he denied them of their fundamental human rights. He
blocked the outlets for their creative talents and energies; he
substituted wretchedness for self-respect. Such things as education and
good health became remote luxuries for the generality of the people.
Daily. For many Nigerians, economic security became a mirage. It was no
wonder, !
therefore, that there was no love lost between the Abacha junta an
government, by its conduct, the junta continued to remind Nigerians that
it was an illegitimate child. After all, the mere fact that an armed
robber succeeded in an operations has not removed the truth that robbery
is a criminal act.
One major plight TELL journalists faced under the Abacha transition was
the hostility public officers always displayed when the magazine tried to
seek the government angle to a story. They were most often unwilling to
talk.  And whenever they came down from their Plympian heights to grant
interviews, they issued threats, promising fire and brimstone if a
particular story was published.
The story: "Controversies Over Army Officer Death" published in the May
11, 1994 edition of Dateline is a case in point. All angles to that story
were reflected including that of the Nigerian Army, who was ably
represented by Col. Godwin Ugbo the then Army spokesman. Mbah was the
Dateline man who interviewed Ugbo. That was his only contribution, Ugbo
did not claim at the Aziza that he asked Mbah misquoted him. However, Ugbo
told Aziza that he asked Mbah to tell his editors not to publish the
story. It was for this reason that the Aziza Tribunal, supposedly made up
of "brilliant army officers", found Mbah guilty of being "an accessory
after the fact of treason" and jailed him for life. That was absolute
power at work.
General Abubakar, successor, has in the meantime put an end on some of the
obscenities that chuned the stomach in the Abacha era. It must be
remembered, however, that this is another military regime, Right now, it
may be spring time for Nigerian journalism, but how long will it last?
Will there be real summer, one of throroughbred democracy, rule of law and
good governance? Or as the seasons are wont to, will this suddenly give
way all over to another dreadful winter? 

*Akinkuotu, General Editor, TELL Magazine, made this presentation at a
recen media seminar in Lagos, Nigeria.

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