Ganduje’s ‘Trumpization’ of press freedom

BY NAZIFI DAWUD

When the news first filtered into the social media that Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has removed a reporter from the Kano Government House over a report he did not like, I dismissed the story as one of the usual fake news designed by political mischief makers to discredit the governor.

Alas, it was when a Hausa-Language online news portal Alfijir published the report that I began to take it seriously.

According to the story, Governor Ganduje took offence when Abbas Yushau, a reporter with the popular Kano-based Freedom Radio, who covers the government house for the station, aired a report on how the governor encountered armed robbers while traveling from Abuja to Jos to condole with his Plateau state counterpart over the death of his brother.

Mr. Yushau, who was in Ganduje’s entourage when the incident occurred, reported that security agents protecting the convoy decided to find out what was wrong when they noticed no vehicles were coming from the opposite side of the road as they approached Riyom local government area of Plateau state.

He wrote that “the pilot car leading the convoy slowed down” as “roadblocks were mounted while robbery was going on”. This he said, led the police and DSS personnel protecting the convoy to fire shots forcing the robbers to flee and abandon their victims.

The reporter added that while the incident lasted, many people in the convoy had to duck or lie down in the vehicles to avoid being caught by stray bullets, concluding that the governor’s convoy then rescued the victims, taking them along and handing them over to the police at the next checkpoint.

To any professional journalist, the story of a governor running into armed robbers is one that no reporter in his right senses could afford to ignore. And Mr. Yushau did his job as any other journalist would have done.

Soon after, a reliable source told me that an enraged governor Ganduje summoned the reporter and expressed his displeasure, accusing him of flouting a “DIRECTIVE” he had issued that warned all the government house reporters not to report on the robbery incident.

Mr. Ganduje reportedly told Mr. Yushau that he had received hundreds of calls from sympathizers as a result of his report and finally ordered him to leave the government house. When the reporter ignored the governor’s order days later, the governor reportedly lodged a complaint with a senior official at Freedom Radio and requested the station to withdraw Mr. Yushau from the government house beat.

To cut the story short, the reporter was eventually withdrawn without being redeployed to another beat. My source told me this was not the first time Mr. Yushau would step on the governor’s toes, as he was also reprimanded last year after he did a report on how the government house press crew bus escaped a crash after it had a burst tire along Wudil expressway. What probably saved Mr. Yushau then was that he was not the only one who did that report.

I was also part of the convoy inside the immediate vehicle in front the ill-fated bus. I was compelled to publish the report in Daily Trust’s Kano Chronicle because just as I was about to enter the bus, a colleague warned me that one of the vehicle’s tires had a large bulge that could burst at any moment. My colleague complained that for over six months, they had been struggling to have the bus’s worn-out tires changed but to no avail. So, I changed my mind and joined another vehicle. A day after my report appeared, a new set of tires including an extra were bought for the press bus.

Nobody ever complained to me over that report, but Mr. Yushau was reportedly accused of witch hunt when he aired his own report.

What baffles me is how a government that boasts of a former president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) as one of its top officials would descend so low to humiliate a journalist not because he reported falsehood but because he reported a story the governor DID NOT LIKE.

Ever since I read my Mr. Yushau’s travails I kept wondering: Since when did journalism, our exalted, noble profession become so thoroughly disgraced and abused that a mere governor could issue a “directive” to journalists not to report on issues? What gave the governor the temerity to think that he could determine what journalists can report or not report? Has that governor, a PhD holder, who claims to be a seasoned public servant and politician ever spared a moment in his decades of service to read through the Nigerian Constitution and see where it gives express freedom to the press as long as they publish the facts?

I even heard that currently, under Mr. Ganduje’s government, journalists covering the government house have lost their rights to obtain copies of documents detailing activities and decisions taken at the weekly state council meetings. The implication of this sad move is that eagle-eyed, scrupulous reporters can not scrutinize the document to expose any potential financial embezzlement, misplacement of priorities or ask questions on grey areas.

But should we blame only governor Ganduje? No, it takes two to tango. I’m sorry but journalism in Kano has lost its meaning because a majority of us have sold our conscience and dignity for stipends, a few pages of advert and radio or television slots.

Rarely do you read or hear any report from Kano that criticizes wrong decisions, inactions, or poor efforts by the government. All you read and hear are announcements of government appointments of cronies or contract awards, but not about delays in payment of NECO exams fees for students or about yawning potholes popping up here and there.

The fact that almost all the journalists covering the government house complied with Ganduje’s “directive” by ignoring the robbery story while also looking the other way when their colleague Mr. Yushau was being victimized speaks volumes of their complicity.

And the fact that Mr. Yushau’s employers, Freedom Radio, could put its credibility at risk and help the governor to punish him for simply doing his job speaks even more!

One colleague told me that the station decided to accede to Ganduje’s demand to withdraw Mr. Yushau from his beat as a gesture to “repay him for the support and sympathy he had shown to them following the demise of their chairman AVM Mukhtar Muhammad”.

Let me remind Governor Ganduje that he ascended his position by taking advantage of democracy in order to hold public trust. He must understand that journalists cannot be held in thrall to abuse of power by any government, because they too, hold a very sacred public trust.

Dawud, a journalist, sent this from Kano