MANY elected officeholders hardly grasp the import of the oath of office and allegiance they take when being sworn in. They fail to understand that it is an undertaking to obey, defend and implement the Constitution and the laws that derive from it, and not merely to use it to feather their selfish interests and salve their over-bloated egos.

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, on Saturday, October 15, 2022, ordered the shutdown of five electronic media houses in the state for allegedly “breaking the laws of journalism” by covering a rally by the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dauda Lawal Dare. 

Dare also received deserters from the All Progressives Congress, APC, Matawalle’s party. The media included the Federal Government-owned Nigerian Television Authority, NTA.

We wonder why the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice failed to advise his boss that he had no legal backing to close down media houses and stop a peaceful rally by any political party.

The Constitution gives the media the mandate to hold government to account on behalf of the people without hindrance. 

Electronic media are regulated by the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, which is also governed by an Act of the National Assembly. Anyone who has any problems with the media have ample avenues to seek redress under the law, rather than resort to self-help or brigandage.

Matawalle’s advisers also failed to educate him of the futile impunity of attempting to stop a political rally at a time that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had already given the go-ahead for the campaigns to start for presidential and governorship candidates. The laws governing journalism practice and campaigns are totally off the hand of a governor or indeed, any other political officeholder or citizen.

We condemn Matawalle’s governance misconduct and demand that he publicly apologises to the media and the PDP. We must learn to seek legal redress whenever power drunk political officeholders cross the red line to perpetrate acts that offend our laws and conventions, or trample on our rights.

We advise those who seek to push journalists and media houses around to learn from the experiences of the colonial masters and the military whom the media battled until we won our independence and sent the military to their barracks. This made way for the likes of Matawalle to be in power. The media cherishes its constitutional mandate and will never give it up.

The culture of military-like impunity is very rife among the governors who run their states like tinpot dictators, thereby burning their fingers. We commend the NBC, the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, BON, and social advocates for bringing Matawalle back to earth after this ego trip of media closure.

Only eternal vigilance will save our democracy from political buccaneers.