NIGERIA IS AT CROSSROADS, SAYS CHIEF WOLE OLANIPEKUN, CALLS ON NIGERIAN PRESS TO RISE UP TO THE CHALLENGE

life is brutish

Emmanuel Ukudolo l Wednesday, June 05, 2018

IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association,(NBA) Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN today declared that more than ever before Nigeria is presently at a crossroads. The SAN who was speaking on “The Role of the Judiciary, the Media and the Political Class in Midwifing the 2019 general elections and sustaining Nigeria’s democratic process” in Lagos said that human life has become meaningless to Nigeria as a nation as blood of fellow citizens are shed unperturbed.

According to him, hundreds of Nigerians are falling on a weekly basis and that life is becoming unbearable, nasty and brutish. According to him, the helpless Nigerians who are falling in their droves, the legion of the Nigerian youths who despite acquiring the requisite educational qualifications remain unemployed, those rigged out of election and the teeming population of Nigerians who have no sustainable means of livelihood all look to the Nigerian press for redemption.

“The Nigerian press cannot for any reason whatsoever afford to let Nigerians down at this point in time”, he said.

Alluding to the paper he delivered in 2000, the SAN called on the press to take the lead in preaching and advocating the sustenance of the Rule of Law, which he said is a sine qua non to a successful democratic dispensation.

While referring to the case in the United States, Olanipekun posited that whatever might be the nuances of President Donald Trump, the American press curtails him and does not give him any breathing space.

“The point being made is that the American press, British press or the French press or any press within any civilised and democratic clime is and must be a formidable institution which cannot be pushed or brushed”, he said.

He posited that with current provisions, (section 22 and 39(1) of the constitution of Nigeria, which says the press, etc, shall at all times be free to hold uphold the fundamental objectives contained in in the constitution and that every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, etc does not guarantee a free Nigerian press, compared to what is obtained elsewhere and that the provisions as contained in the constitution remain omnibus.

Referring to the United States and Ghana, he said, “The first amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment or religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech ,or of the press or the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”, while the Section 162 (4) of the Ghana Constitution states that ” Editors and Publishers of newspapers and other institutions of the mass media shall not be subject to control of interference by government or shall they be penalised or harassed for their editorial opinions and views or the contents of their publications”, he said.

The SAN posited that for Nigeria to make any tangible progress in the quest for democratic stability, the Nigerian press has to be free and that the freedom has to be in diverse areas, including but not limited to freedom from censorship by either the government, its operatives and proprietors of individual media outfit; freedom from fear or intimidation or oppression or punishment arising from genuine brilliant and well grounded publications, freedom from mediocrity, freedom from religious, ethnic, political and partisan bigoted inclinations, freedom from hatred of persons, personalities, institutions and other ideas that do not tally with those of a particular pressman, journalists or his proprietor or sponsors and freedom from poverty.

Highlight of the event was the launching of NAJUC Ikeja, magazine, INSIDE JUDICIARY, a 40 page, colourful magazine which chronicles activities in the Nigerian judiciary.