NAN-H-85
Harassment
By Angela Atabo
Abuja, May 24, 2017 (NAN) Dr Chidi Odinkalu, Senior Legal Officer, Africa Program of Open Society Justice Initiative, on Wednesday said harassment of media, especially by politicians, was the biggest setback to Nigeria’s democracy.
Odinkalu, a former chairman of the National Human Right Commission, stated this at the 8th Memorial Lecture of Tajudeen Abdulraheem entitled “A Conversation on Democracy in Africa: Trends and Challenges’’ in Abuja.
The lecture was organised by the Centre for Democracy Development (CDD) in honour of Abdulraheem, who was the Chair of CDD International Government Council until he passed away in 2009.
Odinkalu criticised state governors for attacking the media and urged them to embrace democracy as government of the people, adding that democracy was a form of government where everybody had a say.
He said that the media was an important tool for the enlightenment of the public and as such, should be given the opportunity to operate without intimidation.
He listed the cases as Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nassarawa state bulldozing radio station, Nasir El- Rufai of Kaduna state imprisoning anybody who said what he did not like.
Others, according to him, include Rochas Okorocha of Imo prosecuting everybody he wants to prosecute and Udom Emmanuel, the governor of Akwa Ibom, jailing people for Facebook posts.
“This is not a party issue; this is about people in power who decide that they will not hear what they don’t want to hear.
“As long as we have got that mindset, it feeds the mind that enlightenment is not useful, that different ideas are not important and that we don’t have to invest in them.
“So, we will shut them down and that for me, is the biggest challenge to our democratisation.’’
Odinkalu said that democracy was based on choice and that there was only one thing that could grant choice “and that is enlightenment, which is education’’.
He added that people should subscribe to being enlightened because if they were not conscious of their democracy, other people would mislead them.
He called on the Federal Government to invest more in education and expand education space to accommodate the rising population of the youth in the country.
Odinkalu said that right now, the youth population was growing, but school spaces not growing, new teachers not being trained, and the budget for education not increasing.
He said that if the government did not invest properly in education, Nigerians would not just lose democracy, but would also lose the country because social vices would be on the increase.
This, he said, was a clear example that Boko Haram activities were prevalent in the parts of the country that had the least education investment index, adding that illiteracy was another big threat to democracy.
The activist urged political leaders to emulate the legacies of late Abdulraheem, who he described as a pan-Africanist that exhibited selfless life as an inspiration of uncommon humanism.
He also warned against polarisation, saying that the phenomenon was already putting Nigeria apart.
Dr. Remi Ajibewa , Director of Political Affairs ECOWAS Commissions said media persecution would not change anything but would make the journalists stronger and bolder to criticize bad leadership .
Ajibewa said that the answer was not media harassment but dialogue and .
She urged the Governors and other politicians alike to address the issues that attracted criticism.
‘‘If you want to stop criticism with harassment, then you have failed as a leader. What you need to do is to do the things they are criticising you for by way of redress.’’
She also recommended mentoring of women and youths and the creation of training centre to help them cope with the current trends.
She called for the repeal of the electoral Act to give more political space to women and youth.
“We should reserve space in which they will not be in contention with men. Youth are not too young to run for political positions because the present leaders are recycling themselves.
“The youth need a centre for democratic tutelage.’’she said
In his remarks, Chairman of CDD, Dr Kole Shettima, said that the lecture was organised yearly to revisit the legacy of Abdulraheem, who stood for Africa’s democracy.
Shettima said that it was clear that Nigeria’s democracy was being tested by various challenges, adding that there was a lot of gerontocracy in the system.
He said that in Nigeria most of the leaders were above the ages of 60 years and 70 years “whereas in other parts of the world you find younger people of the ages of 30 years and 40 years in leadership’’.
He said that the second challenge was in terms of ethnic and religious violence that threatened democracy.
Shettima urged Nigerians to work to ensure that the challenges were tackled and to create space for youths to take over the leadership of the country. (NAN)
ATAB/OPI/OPI