The claim on Property Jonathan at the level of being on the driving seat at the centre seemingly has nothing to do with the fact that he is Izon from Bayelsa State. But because of what we have made of office-holding in Nigeria, it does have everything to do with where you come from.

Either way will without a doubt undermine the promise of credible elections that President Jonathan has given. Before we join the fray, let us look back to these schemes which we were all sold on only to discover that those who programmed them had other destinations in mind.

The Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, electronic media owners, was not a party to the suit. Other media bodies, as members of the Nigerian Press Organisation, were also not there. Those who initiated the suit in 1999 were not officers of the Nigerian Press Organisation (that is, the NPAN, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, and the Nigeria Union of Journalists) outside of Ismaila Isa Funtua, publisher of the rested Democrat who was then president of the NPAN.

I was regarded as a disappointment to many of my media colleagues when I was Minister of Information because of what they thought was a betrayal on my part. I had championed the promulgation of the Nigerian Media Council Decree of 1989 which was one of the bodies, along with the National Broadcasting Commission, recommended in the Mass Communication Policy that I midwifed.

Let’s not deceive ourselves. The kidnappers of four journalists are known.
They are not ghosts, not spirits as the radio jingle tells us.