The media and the war against corruption
By Victor C. Ibe
Posted to the Web: Wednesday, July 19, 2006
LIKE the National Assembly, the much - maligned Nigerian media redeemed themselves in the eyes of the people during the patriotic campaign to scuttle President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term ambition. In the main time, they refused to be bought or sold. However, as in all human associations there were a few traitors, a few quislings, and a few bad eggs. Such cheque-book journalists are known, and will go the way of Judas Iscariot, the one that betrayed his master for 30 pieces of silver.
Was it coincidence or vendetta that those known to have opposed the third term agenda are having licences or appointments revoked, have unscheduled strong-arm visits from the EFCC, or have themselves moved away from area of core competence to areas of tolerable performance. These coincidences that smack of vendetta suggested that a thwarted Chief Obasanjo is an enraged General Obasanjo who is not known for leaving vengeance to God, his self-proclaimed status as a born-again Christian not withstanding.
The foregoing calls for eternal vigilance on the part of the media, for this is the price of freedom. Vigilance is called for as the press itself is under attack and its practitioners prosecuted under non-existent laws in a classical case of if you can’t buy them, harass them, intimidate them and thus silence or neutralize them. General T. Y. Danjuma, a professed friend of Mr President and twice his kingmaker, opposed his third term ambition and his request for a second oil mining license, OML, on a subsisting (till 2008) oil prospecting license OPL lease was turned down without reason or explanation. The government that purports to support local participation in our foreigner-dominated oil industry penciled down his rich oil lease for a mini-bid round that had pre-selected foreign companies and pro-third term local companies in town. It was the General’s timely recourse to legal action that put paid, for now, to that attempt to rob Nigeria’s Paul to pay foreign Peter.
There is another reason for the media and other Nigerians to be vigilant. The current climate of impunity, arbitrariness and vindictiveness is not only hurting perceived enemies of the regime, it is more importantly hurting Nigeria’s international standing and the drive for foreign, direct investment, FDL Investors go to where due process is a routine and the rule of law unquestioned. That this is so is seen in the fact that a Transparency International affiliate, Finland-based Federation of Global Watchdog issued a statement in the first week of July decrying the lack of transparency and open-ness in the 2005 oil license bid round. According to the report: “The group in a statement signed by Mervi Nystrom, Programmes Co-ordinator, warned that there has been alleged cases of controversy which have trailed the 2005 oil license bid round, a situation which is not in conformity with global bidding standard and procedures".
The statement which was also forwarded to Transparency International in Germany said: “Indeed the participation of major oil companies in the bid round was insignificant as a result of this expected controversy because what is at stake is the indigenous oil companies that are being allegedly short-changed. The Federation of Global Watchdog does not only condemn this controversy and alleged ethical misconducts by officials but also wish to say that the whole exercise should be probed by President Obasanjo because of the need to redress the worsening situation immediately. At the end of the investigation, those short-changed should be issued their licenses while those that need revalidation should be revalidated accordingly. We also call on all other anti-corruption monitors to intervene and ensure that correction of the wrongs is transparent, open and just, for anything short of this would amount to an official endorsement of corruption by the Nigerian government”.
The agency recalled that such injustice done Gen. T.Y. Danjuma over OPL 246 was the reason for recourse to judicial review and adjudication.
This statement was posted in the agency’s website and copied to media houses and stakeholders in the oil industry.
Predictably, the Federal Government saw the piece as sponsored and pointed accusing fingers at Gen. Danjuma’s oil company which was specifically mentioned as a victim. It claimed to have spoken to Transparency International which denied any relationship with Global Watch. Curiously the government spokesman did not identify who in Transparency International it spoke with and to date Transparency has not posted on its website any such denial or disclaimer.
Yet journalists working for respectable media houses which did not publish the original statement, published the rejoinder as news, not paid advertisement, and proceeded to write commentaries on it, as directed in a text message to energy editors from a Petroleum Ministry aide. That kind of unethical conduct is likely to erode the new-found confidence Nigerians have learnt to repose in the nation’s media that acquitted themselves well and reached their apogee during the battle to put paid to Obasanjo’s Abacha-style transition from self to self.
The importance of the oil industry as the literal fuel of our economy apart, the fact that a General Danjuma can be a victim at the hands of a vengeful Obasanjo is an added cause for concern. For as a concerned Nigerian wrote recently, if they can do this to General Danjuma who put them there, what protection do we have, we whose votes don’t count and voices are not heard.
The media remain our last line of defence, if they bridge the defences of the National Assembly and refuse to obey the courts, they must not be allowed to silence the media through treachery.
