Chris Wolumati Ogbondah
Governor Dave Umahi’s recent threat to ban the Ebonyi State correspondents of The Sun and Vanguard newspapers from entering government premises in the State in pursuit of their constitutional duty, as well as the brief arrest of the papers’ correspondents, represent the latest in the catalog of wanton attacks on the Nigerian media by public office holders. In a state-wide live broadcast, announcing the “life ban” of the journalists, Umahi also contemplated to wield the big stick against the press when he said, “If you think you have the pen, we have the koboko.”
It is shocking to learn that a governor – under a democratic government – would contemplate such a barbaric action against the press. Although the governor has apologised, following the media backlash that loudly greeted his unprovoked toxic utterance, it is instructive now to remind Mr. Umahi and students of the history of Nigerian journalism of a 1973 event involving a governor and the wielding of the “koboko” against the press. That governor paid a costly price for this.
Let me take a trip down memory lane because recently, history was astonishingly taken out from our academic curriculum, as if the past does not matter. If we do not study history, how are we going to know the past, to understand the present and predict the future?
In 1973, Mr. Minere Amakiri, correspondent of the Nigerian Observer in Port Harcourt, was dealt 24 strokes of the “koboko” on his bare back by the Ade de Camp (ADC) of the then governor of Rivers State. The incident arose from the publication of the news story of a press conference held by members of Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) in Port Harcourt, demanding the payment of their salaries. Amakiri’s report, “Rivers Teachers on The War Path,” appeared in the Nigerian Observer of July 30, 1973, the day the governor was celebrating his 31st birthday. His ADC claimed that the governor was embarrassed by it – just as the Vanguard and The Sun reports of the outbreak of Lassa fever, and an alleged military invasion of a community in Ebonyi State, were perceived to have embarrassed the Ebonyi State governor. Amakiri was arrested and, as mentioned, dealt 24 strokes of the koboko across his bare back.
The difference between then (the military regime) and now is that Governor Umahi did not utilise the “koboko.” However, that he contemplated the idea under the current civil democracy is shocking. It illustrates that Governor Umahi is probably unaware of the 1973 landmark occurrence and the price that a state governor paid for the “koboko” idea.
Nigerian press organisations’ response to the governor’s action made the governor’s life miserable. Lateef Jakande, the then chairman of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), in a telegram to the governor, said: “I cannot believe … the barbaric act of …inflicting bodily injuries on him (Amakiri) ….I urge you…to condemn publicly, unequivocally and without any reservations whatsoever this primitive assault on the freedom of the press and the dignity of man.” Following the telegram, NPAN, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) sent a joint petition to the then head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, protesting the governor’s use of the “koboko” against a member of the press. The petition, signed by Jakande; Prince Tony Momoh, secretary of the NGE at the time; and A.S. Fagbo, the then president of the NUJ, noted that “this incident has no precedent in the history of Nigerian journalism” (see Nigerian Tribune, September 24, 1973, p. 6).
NPAN took the “koboko” incident to court. This was where the governor paid the costliest price for the saga. The press retained the services of one of the country’s top lawyers at the time, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, and on October 2, 1973, instituted a suit against the governor’s ADC in a Port Harcourt court. On March 20, 1974, the chief justice of Rivers State, Mr. Justice Ambrose Allagoa, a kinsman of the military governor, delivered judgement against the governor, and awarded N200 (more than $350) at the time against the governor for every stroke of the “koboko” that the reporter received.
The lesson that Governor Umahi and other state actors, including the DSS, Nigeria Police etc. should learn from the 1973 landmark episode is that there is a costly price tagged with using the “koboko” against the press and its members. Perhaps, the lesson that will be remembered for a long time from that incident is the court’s admonition of the governor. Justice Allagoa warned state actors that: “The plaintiff should never have been flogged because whipping as a mode of punishment was abolished by Section 385 of the Criminal Procedure Law, as far back as 1970.” It is because of this admonition that throughout the remainder of the period of military rule, no governor contemplated the idea of the “koboko,” a consideration that has now embarrassed Governor Umahi, even more than his perceived embarrassment from the reports of The Sun and Vanguard newspapers.
*Ogbondah is s professor of journalism at the University of Northern Iowa, USA.
