The imposition of fines by the Federal Government on three broadcasting stations for the airing of the documentary by the BBC Africa Eye titled, “Bandits Warlords of Zamfara,” is most tragic, a barefaced display of arbitrariness and misuse of state power.
The BBC documentary is about bandit militias who raid villages and carry out mass k#dnappings for ransom in the country’s northwest. The government said through the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) that the documentary violated the broadcasting code.
Despite wide criticisms of the government’s threat to impose the fines, it eventually went ahead to penalize the three media organizations concerned with ?5,000,000 each on Trust TV, Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV, TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV), NTA- StarTimes Limited for the carriage of the documentary.
Before this fine, Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, had threatened the BBC and others for “naked glorification of t#rrorism and banditry in Nigeria,” which “undermines national security.” Notwithstanding the good intentions of the government, the actions of the government and the minister are morally wrong and unconstitutional.
For a minister who has worked as a public relations manager and therefore a cohort of the press, it is disappointing that he has turned his office into a needlessly unpredictable pit-bull of this administration, hounding journalists and sanctioning media houses with the same jackboot ruthlessness of the junta he had once vehemently criticized. Doing this at a time Nigeria is in dire need of intelligence and information to quell terrorist activities further strengthens the suspicion that government is complicit in terrorism.