- The law, not personal or institutional arrogance, must prevail
A titanic legal battle was shaping up between the Nigerian Army and the online newspaperPremium Times. It had the major elements of news: conflict, power, and novelty.
It was especially rich in novelty.
It began with a letter from the Nigerian Army, addressed to Dapo Olorunyomi, publisher and managing director of Premium Times, taking issues with a story to the effect that the Chief of Army Staff, Maj-Gen T.Y. Buratai, had been questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over his declaration of assets, and with the paper’s overall reporting on the army’s counter-insurgency operations in the Northeast.
The letter charged that the publication regarding Gen Buratai was defamatory, and demanded that an apology be published in three consecutive days in three different media outlets.
This was a sharp and reassuring departure from the reflex recourse to force and self-help that the Nigerian Armed Forces had traditionally employed in reacting to provocations real or perceived, with scant regard for the rule of law. The mechanism for the apology is needlessly burdensome, but it is in keeping with the civil course the Nigerian Army chose to follow.
However, the charge that the publications at issue “confirmed” the paper’s “unalloyed loyalty to the terrorist’s cause” was at once ominous and exorbitant. From there it was but a short step from charging the paper with treason.
Alarmed, Premium Times struck back, through its principal attorney, Jiti Ogunye, with a comprehensive indictment of the Nigerian Army, drawing on its role in the various crises that have racked Nigeria, from the January 1966 coup to the debauched rule of General Sani Abacha.
The Nigerian Army’s letter, Ogunye said, constituted an implicit threat to the lives and livelihood of his clients, and to their fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. He demanded that the Nigerian Army apologise to his clients and retract the letter, failing which his clients would seek legal redress.
It was at this point that reason gave way to force. The police, most likely acting at the behest of the Nigerian Army, swooped down on the offices of Premium Times, and seized Olorunyomi, and Evelyn Okakwu, author of some of the stories at issue. The two have since been released. No charges have been pressed, but the Nigerian Army’s letter contains a hint of what a formal indictment might consist in.
It is neither in the interest of the Nigerian Army nor that of the media that this matter should escalate. General Buratai is perfectly at liberty to pursue a defamation lawsuit in his personal capacity. It is a civil matter and the courts will handle it as such. Premium Times will confine itself to putting up the usual defence, without seeking to put the Nigerian Army on trial.
To pursue the matter outside this narrow confine will serve no useful purpose.
The police raid is deeply to be deplored. It is a throwback to those dark days Nigerians thought they would never have to go through again. It throws up an irony that cannot be lost on the public and the media, least of all on Olorunyomi.
Through his journalistic and political exertions, Olorunyomi was in the front ranks of those whose sacrifices made possible the freedoms we enjoy today. He was persecuted and hounded into exile. His family endured ceaseless harassment and acute deprivation.
Nothing should be done now and in future to make him and all those who contributed in various ways to bring democratic rule to Nigeria question the worth of their labours.
