Vitriolic and virulent attacks by state actors, including Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the president’s other spokespersons, following citizens’ expressions of fair comments on state policies, diminish Nigeria’s value in the global ranking of freedom of expression and press freedom. It is among the reasons why Nigeria’s press is not ranked as free…
One of the purposes of constitutions is to secure the blessings of civil liberty, including freedom of speech and other forms of (symbolic) expression, such as peaceful protests and petitions against unpopular state policies and actions. This is why the framers of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ensured that the right is enshrined in Section 39, providing inter alia, that, “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.”
This is the fundamental right that the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Most Reverend Matthew Hassan Kukah, exercised in his Christmas Day 2020 message titled, “A Nation In Search of Vindication.”
In the speech, the brilliant and highly articulate Bishop said, among other things, that: “Every honest Nigerian knows that there is no way any non-Northern Muslim President could have done a fraction of what President Buhari has done by his nepotism and gotten away with it. There would have been a military coup a long time ago or we would have been at war.”
These are not fighting words, which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace and security in the nation or any part of it. Has there been a coup since the speech was made? Has there even been the contemplation of a coup? Has there been a mutiny? Has there been a revolt or rebellion or any putsche among the rank and file of the military? So, where is the danger in the speech that justifies all the vituperative, angry and abusive attacks against the Bishop by some state actors?
On Christmas Day 2020, the Bishop merely pointed out the truth, which has been recognised as protected speech since 1735 in the John Peter Zenger case, which the minister of Information should be reminded has become a locus classicus in the reference to the freedom of expression throughout the world where democracy is practiced.
Bishop Kukah’s speech is completely devoid of a call for a military coup or overthrow of the government. It has none of it! The speech merely pointed out an aspect of governance, whereby President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is utterly weak and feeble. He did not say anything new that others – journalists, political critics and commentators – have not said.
On Christmas Day 2020, the Bishop merely pointed out the truth, which has been recognised as protected speech since 1735 in the John Peter Zenger case, which the minister of Information should be reminded has become a locus classicus in the reference to the freedom of expression throughout the world where democracy is practiced.
The Christmas Day speech was the Bishop’s honest expression on a matter of public interest based on facts accurately stated on how President Buhari is running the country. It is not blasphemous. It is not libelous. It is not mendacious. It is, simply, the truth. It is also a fair comment on the state of things in the country: An honest expression on a matter of public interest based on facts accurately stated. Bishop Kukah himself underscored this fact in The Nation newspaper of December 30, 2020 when he pointed out that, “What I said was my opinion based on evidence and the happenings in the country and if you look into the records, there is evidence that justifies that statement.”
A responsive government – which responds to the demands of the people and considers it very much part of the government – would pay attention to that Christmas Day message, and examine itself as well as its policies to determine if it is fulfilling its fundamental objectives and principles. It should not make the Bishop a victim of angry and virulent remarks by all the president’s men and women, simply for exercising his civil liberty of freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution.
To be considered in the global rankings of free press and freedom of expression, the government must learn to live with, imbibe and tolerate fair and honest speeches, such as “A Nation In Search of Vindication.”
Isn’t it ironic that those who have enjoyed the right of freedom of expression at other times, including the minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, now condemn the exercise thereof, of the same right by Bishop Kukah? Yet Lai Mohammed has – on numerous occasions – promised and assured that the right of expression is a fundamental civil liberty available to Nigerians. A catalogue of the promises which he made at national and international fora is available, if he denies it.
Vitriolic and virulent attacks by state actors, including Alhaji Lai Mohammed and the president’s other spokespersons, following citizens’ expressions of fair comments on state policies, diminish Nigeria’s value in the global ranking of freedom of expression and press freedom. It is among the reasons why Nigeria’s press is not ranked as free, compared with the press in countries like Jamaica, Namibia, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Senegal, Mauritius and neighbouring Ghana and Niger, to mention a few.
To be considered in the global rankings of free press and freedom of expression, the government must learn to live with, imbibe and tolerate fair and honest speeches, such as “A Nation In Search of Vindication.”
Chris Wolumati Ogbondah is a professor of Journalism at University of Northern Iowa, and PTCIJ Press Freedom Ambassador.
