The President made this known in his
keynote address at the opening of the Congress of the Federation of
African Journalists in Abuja. President Buhari who was represented at
the occasion by the minister of information, Alh. Lai Mohammed, said
that the present administration believes that the reason for the
existence of any government is the security and welfare of its citizens,
whether or not they are journalists and therefore committed to ensuring
the safety of all citizens.
‘‘I can report to this Congress that
not a single journalist is being detained or harassed in our country
today. The government of the day is not a threat to the media, and it is
not about to stifle press freedom or deny anyone his or her
constitutionally guaranteed rights. In his words, President Buhari
further explained that ‘‘Nigeria views the International Declaration for
the Protection of Journalists as a positive step, and strongly condemns
attacks targeting journalists in the course of their duties.
‘‘This administration sees the media
as a partner in progress, and has never even contemplated harassing,
not to mention killing, any journalist. ‘‘The media represents the eyes
and ears of the world. Any attempt to silence it through the harassment,
arrests, detention and murder of journalists, is akin to making the
world go blind and deaf,’’ he added. On what the administration is doing
to ensure security, he said that ‘‘This administration takes the safety
and security of its citizens very seriously. That is why it has
succeeded in defeating the Boko Haram insurgency that has left over
20,000 people dead and displaced about 2 million others since 2009.
‘‘Our military is currently involved
in mop-up operations against the insurgency, which has now resorted to
cowardly attacks against vulnerable targets. Of course, no government in
the world is safe from such attacks, as we can see in the recent
attacks in France, Belgium and Cote d’Ivoire. The government is also
seriously addressing other security challenges facing the nation,’’ he
said. He charged the Federation of African Journalists to work with the
governments of troubled countries to remove the existential threats to
media practitioners, adding that the Federation can also work with other
organisations committed to the protection of journalists, including the
Committee to Protect Journalists, the International Federation of
Journalists and the International Press Institute, to eliminate or
reduce the risks to journalists.
He also said that it was equally
important for media institutions to ensure the adoption of best safety
protocols for their journalists. ‘‘They must develop and implement
procedures and tools aimed at ensuring the physical and psychological
safety, as well as the digital security of journalists, in line with the
International Declaration for the Protection of Journalists which I
mentioned earlier.
Earlier in his welcome address, the
President of the Nigerian union of journalists, Abdulwaheed Odusile
urged federal government to be thorough and to show cognizance to the
rule of law in the fight against corruption. He also lamented what he
termed arbitrary tax regime against the operators of the media industry
and appealed to federal government to offer some level of subsidy on
newsprint, ink, plates and other relevant items in media operation,
stating that such step would bring some relief to the media operators.
On his part, the former FAJ and NUJ
President, Mallam Garba Mohammed, bemoaned the lingering poor
remuneration of media workers, especially Nigeria and also the delay in
payment of media owners and urged relevant authorities to address the
issues in a more and matured manner. Mohammed, who also blamed the delay
in payment of media workers on the present economic hardship, solicited
for more understanding of journalists for the challenges also being
faced by the media owners.
