Fear Of The Press?

Rather than harness
their efforts at concluding the work at hand, having wasted so much time debating President Goodluck Jonathan’s speech on their inauguration, delegates at the ongoing National Conference are more interested in barring the press and keeping journalists out of happenings at the conference.
Having spent a whole month on frivolities, the delegates are not bothered that they have to speed up their deliberations if they must make a success of their brief within the set three-month time frame.
Not comfortable with the presence of the media, a one-time House of Representatives member, Hon. Musa Ilayo, prayed the confab to adopt the executive session approach of the legislature, at which issues are discussed in secrecy, away from the prying eyes of the media.
Thereafter, there was a proposal to amend Order 14 Rule 7 of the conference to empower the confab to revoke the accreditation given to media houses to cover its proceedings. This was aimed at media houses adjudged to have published offensive stories about the confab. Though the plot failed, proponents of ‘bar the press move’ were yet to give up.
Their grouse was the disconcerting photographs published and aired by some media outfits of delegates who were dosing during the plenary sessions. They were also offended by the way the press reported some developments at the conference, which included delegates’ bickering over issues of personal welfare.
Disappointingly and to the chagrin of many Nigerians, the confab leadership eventually succumbed. It barred the media from covering some of the issues. True to type, the new order was promptly enforced when journalists were stopped from covering the sitting of ten committees at the National Judicial Institute.
For me, it is hard to establish the ulterior motive of the confab members. Moreover when this is happening in a country where opaqueness reigns supreme in the conduct of government businesses. In line with global democratic practice and given the need to let people be abreast of what their representatives are doing, it is unthinkable that those whom we asked to represent us and articulate our views and problems at the confab are the ones now canvassing secrecy.
The questions I am asking are: has any media report been found to be false? Were delegates not actually caught sleeping or playing scrabble on laptops while plenary held? Why would the delegates come into the public space to do what they don’t want the world to know about?
Excluding the media from some sessions places credibility question on the confab. It smacks off some hidden agenda that will leave journalists with no other choice but to rely on insider sources and perhaps rumours for news of what goes on in those sessions.
The danger in relying on unofficial sources for news is that some delegates could be misrepresented in the media as stories might be embellished, a situation that would not have arisen if journalists had access to the sessions.
Again, by doing business in secret, the confab may face the same image problems the National Assembly currently suffers, which are allegations of corruption, jumbo pay, and national budget padding for solipsistic reasons that are regularly leveled against them.
Sadly, too, the position of some of the anti-media delegates run counter to Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution (amended) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which guarantees the right of the press to report the activities of government to the governed.
Apart from the constitutional provision that legalizes the effective press coverage of the confab, the media is the fresh air that the confab needs to actualize its mandate; and the sooner the delegates begin to see the press as partners to collaborate with, the better for the country.
It hasn’t dawned on the delegates that time is indeed running out and that the earlier they hurry up and conclude the assignment, the better for them. It will amount to a huge waste of time and resources and of the N7 billion tax payers’ money voted for the confab, if all what some delegates are interested in is to gag the press.
This confab is one in which all the representatives are meant to open up and tell one another the home truth. In doing this, the media has a major role to play, and that is the reason the country is spending so much on each delegate. Whoever is uncomfortable with the presence of the press at the confab should resign.
What Nigerians want is a conference where all views are brought to the table and resolved while Nigerians observe the process and contribute to the dialogue in the media.

Arnold Alalibo