The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila has assured that he would not be a party to any bill that seeks to gag the media.
Gbajabiamila made the assertion at an award ceremony tagged, ‘Recognising Good Governance and Legislative Excellence in the Face of Adversity,’ held in Abuja.
The speaker was reacting to calls by some stakeholders to expunge the Press Council Bill, which seeks to regulate activities of the media in Nigeria.
“I will not be part of any bill that seeks to gag the press. No bill will come to the floor of the House that seeks to gag the press because the press is supposed to be the voice of the people.
“However, there is press freedom and there is freedom of expression; it is important for Nigerians to listen to one another and understand each other so that we can make progress as a nation.
“There is nowhere in the world where freedom of expression in absolute, freedom of expression is limited to the extent that it does not affect another person’s freedom.
“That is made abundantly clear in the Constitution itself. If you go to Section 45, it states that the freedom of expression you have is limited for the sake of security, it is written in black and white.”
Gbajabiamila, however, said he was worried because whenever the National Assembly tried to make laws with the best of intentions, everybody descends on the parliament, even without asking questions.
The speaker said he had directed the proponents of the Press Council Bill to engage stakeholders and resolve grey areas, but the report he got was that they wanted the bill thrown out completely.
He said NGOs, religious bodies, social media and professors in the universities do not want to be regulated, saying that everybody just wants to have a free range.
Gbajabiamila said that people want good governance but do not want to be regulated; stressing that regulation was a key component of good governance.
“We cannot let every institution run amok, the Executive is regulated, the Judiciary to a large extent is regulated, the Legislature is regulated; institutions are meant to be regulated, there is not one institution that is above the law.
“Especially an institution that is meant to be the Fourth Estate of the Realm, whose utterances or writing can make or break even a government,’’ he said.
The speaker said that if the key sector refuses to be regulated, there may be crisis, noting that as a result of certain media content, marriages have broken, businesses destroyed, countries ruined.
Earlier, the Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, FCT branch, Mr Emmanuel Ogbeche, had said that gagging the media might not augur well for the nation’s democracy.
He said that all Nigerians were beneficiaries of the struggles against dictatorship in the country.
According to him, when politicians fled the country, journalists had nowhere to run to; so, they stayed back, went underground to brave the odds.
“Media houses were closed, some of us paid the supreme price so that democracy could thrive.
“If we survived dictators in the past, I’m persuaded that we will survive every attempt to stifle or repress or place a stranglehold on the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press and expression in this country,” he added.
Meanwhile, the lawmaker representing Ogo Oluwa/Surulere Federal Constituency of Oyo State in the House of Representatives, Hon Segun Odebunmi, has said that the Nigerian Press Council and the National Broadcasting Commission Amendment Bill has been suspended.
Odebunmi, who is the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Information, National Orientation Ethics and Values, said the bill was suspended for more consultation.
This is coming hours after the front banners of major newspapers in Nigeria bore a picture of an individual with a sealed mouth.
The picture had as its caption, “Information Blackout …It’s not just against the media….it’s about society’s right to know, your right to be heard.”
The message was jointly released by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) against the bill aimed at gagging the media.
While appearing as a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily, yesterday, Odebunmi said, “We have suspended the process for more consultation to happen on it. They demanded a lot of time and I said ‘no problem, we have given you; even if you spend three, four to five weeks’. So far, more consultations from critical stakeholders, and many people have been submitting their memoranda to the national assembly even within the industry.
“My intention is not to gag the press, and unless all the practitioners can say all is well with the industry, to the best of my knowledge I know all is not well. And I know the national assembly has the power to look into the existing act.
“All is not well with the NPC agency. It is an agency of government, and you’re expecting something to be given back to the society, but until now nothing has been coming from the agency.”
Odebunmi has a bachelor’s degree in Business Education from the University of Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, and worked as a petrol station attendant at Adeyemo Petroleum Nigeria Limited where he rose to the position of depot representative before becoming a politician.