Press Freedom, Internal Security and the Rest of Us | METROWATCH

Sometimes one wonders when our younger colleagues will catch up with certain unwritten ideals and expectations of practice when it comes to our dear profession. Unwritten in the sense that we were taught in school that you can learn these only in the field of practice. And we actually tapped from the older ones we met in the field those days. But the same cannot be said about the younger generation.

Their display of Ignorance of their own turf sometimes baffles me and the pertinent question raised above sometimes comes to mind.

The General elections in Nigeria have come and gone but there is so much to worry about our security architecture in Borno, north east Nigeria when it comes to the conduct of colleagues and how they protect their own interests, and even their lives. There is too much eye service within the first three estates and it is beginning to rub off on the fourth estate of the realm.

How do you for instance play so much to eye service that you do not know how to control the security people to be weary of weapons inside the chambers of the NUJ? Is anyone above the law that we should allow them enter the main hall of the NUJ with his or her weapons? What if one of them run berserk due to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and shoots a generation of journalists inside the hall? Are politicians on campaign so fearful of journalists that they cannot come into our chambers without armed men protecting them. Regardless of the fact that we do not have a standing security yet in our one entrance compound, is the Chairman in council not strong enough to protect them? What manner of power show is it that would make them take weapons into the hall to protect their own?

When hoodlums entered the press Centre in Kaduna not too recently with all manner of weapons and pounced on members while in a news conference with the revered Comrade Shehu Sani, our comrades learnt their lessons In a very hard way. There will surely not be a next time before they put in place a security check to ensure that no one crosses the red line again with any weapon even if he was a security operative from the government house. We as journalists do not carry weapons to protect our selves therefore nobody should be allowed to carry weapons into our halls for news conferences again no matter how highly placed. It must be as sacred as a hospital, church or a mosque were weapons are prohibited beyond the entrance were members assemble for business.As a matter of fact, even horns from cars are forbidden in such places.

During the last general election, a lot of unprovoked wrongs were meted out on us as a group but because we regard ourselves as gentlemen of the press, we tended to overlook them as friends that would not kill us just like that because they looked quite normal.

The security details of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in Borno state had no business inside the centre even going to the extent of blocking our two entrances and teaching us how to handle our security. That was a big time wrong to congress and no press Centre anywhere in the country should tolerate it. If anyone would like to endanger the life of a politician its not journalists. We are gentlemen ruled by our ethics. They were supposed to stay outside and wait for the news conference to end before storming back into the centre to check their Principal. You do not carry your so called security drill into the hall of the NUJ anywhere and expect it to fly just because you get away with it inside the government house. Quite all right Jajeri was a Governorship  candidate and our friend and I don’t think there was any reason for us to want to harm him for any security to bring weapons into our hall to protect him. Your drill does not apply to any of our press centres in the 36 states of the Federal Republic.

I  have always been a proponent of colleagues treating the press Centre as our own “barracks” as such ensuring that outsiders accord it the respect it should be given. No smoking of weeds inside and no sniffing of drugs even by friends of colleagues. We also do not want to wait until a security detail from any one who runs berserk one day and begins to spray everyone inside the hall with bullets before we secure ourselves. The press center committee should be able to monitor and ensure that the place is always secured from overzealous security details or hoodlums no matter how highly placed afterwards every registered member knows how to comport himself based on our ethics. It is our carelessness that gave the army boys the freedom to work into our centre and pick one of us like a hawk picking chicken before the scale fell from our eyes and we realized that we must go and get the fellow. They were supposed to see the chairman and make their complaints for him to intervene and not to pounce on members like Chicken before any one of us get to know about it.

As a rider to this, most of you my colleagues were there when I raised that critical issue as a motion for action to a former theatre Commander General Ali while he came in to ponder over and advise his overzealous boys accordingly before they repeat the mistake twice. I told him point blank that we have gone passed the stage where the security operatives will go after journalists as if they are endangered species to be roasted for Sala or Easter. Invite our people if they wrong you and we will march into the barracks and iron out the issues like comrades in arms and pen are supposed to do.

Even though Vips are allowed into the centre on invitation, no orderly of vips should be allowed to bring his arms into the holiest shrine of the centre and that is the hall where news conferences are held. It’s a big wrong and should never be allowed to happen. That is the standard anywhere in the world and we should not tolerate such arrogance from any of them especially the DSS where some of their trainee boys view themselves as untouchable.

Doing this is completely opposite to the norms of the free press we preach about. And anyone who refuses to comply does not have respect for us as the fourth estate of the realm. Bringing details who will be manning our doors for us when we are supposed to man the entrances for ourselves is a way of inviting what happened in Kaduna to Comrade Sani to happen in maiduguri one day and I say God forbid to that. We cannot stand and look at such abominations happen and we let it go because they are guarding a Governorship candidate. If we allow them, the worse may soon be visited on us.

 All over the world, arms are not allowed into certain areas for the sake of mutual respect and accordance of status and prestige into the hall. Each time we watch the President of America walk into the hall meant for news conferences, he walks in alone in spite of the fact that he is the most protected human being on earth. Each journalist that is in that hall is well screened before entering the white house. That is the ideal in spite of the fact of whatever fears the intelligence guys may have against us. As an aside, you do not run press conferences inside the government house without the chair of the NUJ present for instance. That is a wrong that must be corrected one day.