Keeping Fisayo safe: The battle between truth and bureaucracy

BY GBENGA OLONINIRAN

In what appears more like revolution in the sphere of journalism, the defying and groundbreaking works of journalists are radically shaping the mainstream media today than ever before. From Kiki Mordi of BBC #SexForGrades, to Agba Jalingo’s publication, to veteran investigative journalist Omoyele Sowore’s many revelations and actions, to Jones Abiri, and now Fisayo Soyombo’s undercover investigation, the media space has been rigorously aiding the transformation of radical information and the spread of sanity to the society.

As against common news on kidnaps, herdsmen killings and other ridiculous news in the entertainment industry and political sectors, such as ‘Naira Marley becoming role model to a 12 year old teenage ‘Yahoo boy’, ‘controversial sex on BBNaija’ or a Tinubu’s bullion Van story and likes, all of which have become the daily kind of dose in our mainstream media, we are now having a paradigm shift into the depth of ills of the system being reported. The few recent ground breaking revelations continually spur people’s concerns for government’s accountability. Indeed, we can better agree they every free society has a journalist.

The radicalization of the media and the people do not necessarily come merely by been privy to these news, but the persecution of the journalists and activists which follows with them actually blows the concerns.

Apparently, truth and sanity are in persistent wrestle with corruption and bureaucracy. The latter is seen in the state’s persecution and repression of dissent, the former is seen in the public outcry that immediately and aggressively follows to check the excesses of the state’s bureaucracy. For real, the degeneracy of the state into fascism is equally building a population with growing immunity of resistance. Fisayo Soyombo is another instance!

For the undercover journalist, whose work represents another cry in the wilderness by revealing the rots in the legal system, police and prisons services, he deserves all the accolades in this decade.

In what is no longer a surprise too, the state as usual is rather on its desperate path of response through the purported attempts to arrest and persecute this noble journalist. This is not new as Fisayo is not the first of journalists or activists to be attacked. This purported move is in fact, a confirmation of whatever the undercover investigation had ever revealed or intended to reveal pertaining to the behavior of the state and its security agencies. Shielding and abetting corruption and subsequently hunting down truth!

Importantly, we should #KeepFisayoSafe. While we do this, let us dissect what exactly the state authorities ever had in stock against him. Section 29 of the said Nigerian Correctional Service Acts, the purported offence making rounds to be charged the journalist with is

subsection 1 (C) of the Act which states that a person is deemed to have committed an offence if he “procures or facilitates the procurement of communication devices for an inmate or makes conversation or aids the making of conversation through a mobile phone or other devices to an inmate other than as provided in the Correctional Standing Orders and other related correctional policies.” This is not an ambiguous section of the law. The simple understanding of this section connotes the culpability of the Ikoyi Prisons staff and not Soyombo.  We need explanation on how Fisayo’s device made it into the prison. Probable instances are that he made in with the recording devices with the security unaware. This remains hilariously untenable as it exposes the porous security of the prison. Although the porosity is never shocking to some of us in a country where police barracks are robbed and kidnappers demand ransom to free DPOs and Police Commissioners. The second probable instance is that Soyombo could have been aided to make in with the devices. Literarily again, this confirms the height of bribery and corruption reportedly ongoing at the prisons. Without gainsaying, given the aforementioned instances, the prison controller and screening officers at Ikoyi prisons should be arrested and charged forthwith if we go by that section of the NCS Acts. Fisayo should be honoured on the motive and method employed to uphold sanity in the prison part of our system.

This is a revelation the government and public would never have been privy to in its raw state except having being jailed in the real sense of it. Too much a sacrifice to bear by any of us.

On the contrary, a country of ours, by indications, is fast degenerating into fascism, and we can no longer predict on moral terms or human rights provisions of the law, except that of manipulations and harassment of the law as mostly and recently employed against citizens. Thus, changing the narrative to seek protection and honor for Soyombo is the real battle of truth against bureaucracy. We could sleep and wake up to find out Fisayo is already being charged with “Treasonable Felony”, it is that worse nowadays! Yes, that worse because treasonable felony now appears to be the only popular offence in the country’s criminal code and can be dished out at will to any targeted victim. A simple “cough” against governance today can easily earn you a treasonable offence. Bureaucracy tackles truth in this part of the world, the people have a deep fight to carry out in changing the narrative.

Nigeria is undergoing a trying period of economic austerity, political somersaults, citizens onslaughts followed with persistent clampdown on dissent and democratic rights. These situations fuel more rebellion, because many are still continually forced into poverty, and glaringly, there is yet a way out. The clampdown is not working and cannot work without settling this economic battle the people are facing. The recent barbarism on MTN and Shoprite is a warning signal the people are desperate. The persecutions and threats to pro-people fighters seem more like thunder assisting explosions because many other persons are spurred and prepared to defy the odds.

Today, it is attack on journalism. Today too, judges and top policemen are kidnapped, others are robbed. Doctors are not spared, workers are starved and students are victimized. The reflection of the systemic decadence is cutting across all spheres. With these maturing conditions, we are bound to wonder, that in this battle for truth and sanity against bureaucracy, which sphere will take the lead?

Gbenga Oloniniran – Von. [email protected]