By Obi Nwakanma

Wednesday’s raid of the Nation newspaper, and the arrest of six of the paper’s editors by the Nigerian Police brings back haunting memories of the military in Nigeria’s body politics.

For a moment, federal authorities forgot that we are now under a new dispensation – a democracy – and a democracy by whatever name called is still a democracy. Never mind that Nigeria’s version of democracy still leaves quite a lot to be concerned about in terms of the accountability expected of elected public officials and their obligation to the public.

So, we forgot for a brief moment, in one rush of excess testosterone, that this democracy is exactly the product of years of fierce struggle by Nigerians, much of it waged by many in the media, some of whom lost life, some who lost family, and some who spent years in prison and in solitary confinement, to make certain that we reduce the blind excesses of power and that we have accountability in Nigeria’s public life. President Goodluck Jonathan would not be president today but for these courageous men and women who fought for the dismantling of tyranny and for the transparency of state power.

It is bad faith therefore to target the media with extra judicial action, and the reason is quite simple: the media is by its very existence, the incubus that haunts the powerful in the protection of the rule of law. It is within its statutory right to be annoying. Newspapers are necessary mediators of public conduct, and are thus indeed a central pillar of democracy. Democratic governance connotes that we entrust the power of state to those who are held accountable through necessary forms of media oversight.

The media exists so that Nigerians would have the right to know whatever is going on in government, as well as the right to express their preferences through the ballot and through enfranchisement. They cannot therefore be dealt with roughly by men who throw their sham protuberances about as the weight of the law. Nigerians will have none of that; not any more. I think that this was the message conveyed by the instant public outrage that followed the siege on the Nation newspaper and the arrest of its editors.

But what was it all about? The paper was closed and the editors arrested, because of its publication of a letter allegedly written by former President Oremus Obasanjo to the incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan, basically “ordering” him to replace the executive leadership of the Nigerian Petroleum Training Development Fund. The publication raised the hackles of the former president who denied the veracity and ownership of the letter and threatened legal action, and followed up with a petition to the president.

The president is said to have memoed the Attorney-General who memoed a department in the Ministry of Justice, the Citizens Rights Unit, who memoed the Police authorities, who ostensibly memoed a crack team of police invaders led by Mr. Emma Ogolo, who apparently having not read the minutes of our last meeting, about the sanctity of the rule of law, swung into action; drove with full force and in bright and shinning Sports Utility Vehicles bought by the tax payer, and raided the premises of  the Nation newspaper and arrested journalists doing their legitimate duties.

There must have been some nostalgia in the mix, for a moment in the past, when such raids and such brutality on the pesky newspapers was routine. I always suspect that the prospect of raiding newspapers and arresting journalists gave many in the Nigerian Security Services suitable phallic turgidity.

The power to shut down newspaper operations for some is apparently an aphrodisiac of such quality that putsViagra to shame. But the arrest of these journalists, and with such mind-boggling efficiency, underscores the contradictions within the police system.

Here is a police service which shows an excess of enthusiasm in the closure of newspapers and in the arrest of harmless journalists, but which when it comes to Boko Haram, the Niger Delta militants, the kidnappers and the embezzlers of public fund who pose the real security challenges to normal law enforcement and the security of Nigeria, falls severely short.

It is salutary that President Jonathan, on learning about the arrests ordered through his Attorney-General the release of the journalists. Attorney-General, Mr. Bello Adoke, we learn, reminded the Inspector-General Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, that the request to investigate a citizen’s complaint did not amount to an order to arrest.

The former President would certainly be within his right to sue the Nation newspapers and its editors on grounds of libel, and it must be left to the courts to determine. Libel laws check the potentially “irrational exuberances” of newspapers, and Nigerian newspapers have much indeed to worry about, not just about libelous publications, but on questions of fairness and the pursuit of the truth, but no one has the right to squelch the press extra-judicially.

On another note, and I wish to speculate here, and explore potential angles of conspiracies, is it possible that whoever gave the order to raid the newspapers is setting up the administration for a potential media backlash? We have precedence: as General Buhari has revealed, one of the black-op methods used by those who ultimately subverted his administration was the order to raid the Apapa home of Obafemi Awolowo and the premises of the concord newspapers without his knowledge.

These actions were immediate in alienating, and ultimately dooming his government, and provided the necessary excuse that justified the coup that removed him. Who gave the orders to raid the newspaper and arrest the editors and why? President Jonathan must watch his back on such matters, and must in this instance, act quickly, set up an independent police internal affairs investigation on this scandal, andexamine its full ramification.

This incident, once again underscores the necessity and the urgency to retrain, refocus, and remodel the Nigerian Police Service, and turn it into a democratic, efficient, and modern police service of the 21st century from its character as a 19th century colonial constabulary force. It would require a bottom-up review and triage of the deadwood in the system. It is about time.