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NigerianNews

Dare Babarinsa.

Former
Executive Director, Tell Magazine

Ti Oluwa Ni Ile Lodge
Okemesi-Ekiti
08022904926
babalekeleke@yahoo.com

Gubernatorial aspirant for Alliance for Democracy, Ekiti State

Curriculum Vitae

AN AMBASSADOR OF THE NIGERIAN PRESS

FRIENDS, BROTHERS, COUNTRYMEN

AN AMBASSADOR OF THE NIGERIAN PRESS
by Dare Babarinsa

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I am happy that many of our distinguished leaders in the profession are here this afternoon.  Just as we need leaders in our profession for it to survive and grow, so also we do need leaders to control the political space for our democracy to survive.  I am humbly here before you this afternoon to declare that I want to follow the footsteps of many of our illustrious trailblazers in the profession who have achieved honour and glory in the service of Nigeria.  I want to carry the flag of journalism into politics and make service to the Nigerian people the pillar of my endeavour.  In my quest for the office of Governor of Ekiti State, I am not just another politician on the hustings; I carry the mandate of this noble profession and  I am determined to make all of us proud.

The current democratic dispensation was won by Nigerians at a heavy price.  No other segment of this country has paid a heavier price for democracy than the profession of journalism.  Many of our leaders, from Dele Giwa to Bagauda Kaltho, have paid the supreme price.  Many more even today bear the scars of countless detentions, harassment and torture.  Many of us, especially during the dark days of military dictatorship, had to abandon the comfort of our homes and become fugitives on the run.  Today, it is a bitter fact that those who fought for this democratic dispensation are not in the garden to tend its delicate plant.  We have left that assignment to the same set of carpetbaggers who aided the death of democracy in the first instance. 

Our institution has nothing to gain if we do not stand up for democracy and good governance.  I am not just referring to the killings, the harassment, the torture, imprisonment and the loss of money that media professionals suffer during dictatorships.  The death of democracy would also lead to the shrinking of the media space.  One of the greatest institutions that survived the turbulence of the post-colonial government of the 1960s was the Daily Times.  It reached its apogee under the leadership of the legendary Alhaji Babatunde Jose.  It was an institution that even the military regimes of Generals Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and Yakubu Gowon could not ignore.  Then when the regime of General Murtala Muhammed seized power in 1975, it targeted the Daily Times.  The newspaper empire was seized by the military junta and the media space had never been the same.

The impact of the fall of Daily Times has been catastrophic on our profession.  In the early 1970s, the Nigerian journalist was the best paid professional in the Federal Republic of Nigeria; better than bankers and architects.  Today, I don’t think we are anything except in the remotest ranks in terms of pay.  The saddest thing about the Daily Times was that we just moved on and we never thought it was necessary for us, as an institution, to fight for the interest of the media house and its owners.  I hope now we have learnt our lessons.  The truth is that more than any other Nigerian professional group, journalists have a primary proprietary interest in the survival of democracy.

It is this proprietary interest that should make us more interested in the quality, calibre and character of leaders occupying the political space.  There are three critical categories in which we need to pay special attention.  We need to flash serious searchlights on people seeking and holding political offices.  We need to pay attention to leaders managing the institutions of democracy, especially the three arms of government, the press, political parties, security services and civil society organisations.  We should also pay attention to those leaders managing the delicate process of democracy, especially party nominations and elections, the electoral commission and the process of electoral petitions.

Only last week, the Appeal Court in Enugu dismissed Governor Chris Ngige, formerly of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from Office and upheld the election of Mr Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA.    In this case, the wrong governor had been in office for three years and the right one will be in office for only one year.  It is clear that something is wrong with a system that allows this kind of injustice.  It encourages and rewards election rigging and it is a formula for sabotaging the electoral process. Now another election is around the corner and members of the press need to be vigilant to protect the interest of the Nigerian people against power mongers. Within the next 12 months, almost all the elections would have been concluded and our solidarity with the people would be put to test. 

In Ekiti State, we are faced with the situation where the outgoing PDP government is doing everything it can to sabotage the will of the people.  For almost four months now, the Ekiti South Federal Constituency Two seat had been vacant in the House of Representatives, following the resignation of its occupant who is now the deputy governor of Ekiti State.  Though, statutorily, a bye-election must be held to fill the office, the outgoing government has been doing everything to ensure that the election is not held.  It has a willing tool in the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which is dominated by apologists of the PDP.  Both the state government and INEC are collaborating to deprive the people of the constituency their sacred right to be represented by an elected leader of their choice in the House of Representatives.

Two weeks ago, the youths of Omuo-Ekiti, an important part of this deprived constituency, protested against this injustice.  Since then, the state government has launched a general crackdown on all known or suspected opposition figures in the constituency.  As of now, more than 100 people have been arrested and detained.  Some of them have been charged to court for staging a lawful protest.  They are also accused of trying to sabotage the census programme of the federal government.  All these are being done because the PDP government in Ekiti State wants to do everything possible, including sabotage and other illegalities, not to hold a free and fair election to fill a vacant seat in the House of Representatives.  This is against the spirit and letter of the Constitution which stipulates that bye-election must be held within three months to fill a vacancy in the federal legislature.  The three months deadline for this seat lapsed on March 15, and yet INEC has not fixed the date for the bye-election.

I can assure you that Ekiti State would not be overwhelmed by tyranny and reaction.  We are the best educated people in Nigeria and we will not allow the current aberration of ignorance and darkness to go beyond the next general elections.  We are noted for competence, integrity and reliability.  We are the inheritors of a proud history and a great heritage.  We have the resources to defend our own democratic gains.  We are waiting and ready for the next general elections when we shall take proper control of our state. In the pursuit of this ministry, our goal is certain and our objective is very clear: to give our people a proper government that would set the benchmark for democratic rule in the Nigerian commonwealth.   

Therefore, my going to Ekiti State is not just because I represent the best that Ekiti has produced.  It is also because I am an ambassador of the Nigerian press.  I had been forged in its furnace and shaped by its historic nationalist activism.  As a general of the Nigerian press who was at the barricades with other patriots during the dark days of military rule, I had earned my medals in the thick of battle.  I had served with some of the brightest and best in our profession and have sipped from the purest spring of journalism. 

It is therefore with pride and humility that I bear the flag of my calling to the challenging terrain of politics in Ekiti State.  The Ekiti people have decided to have an educated governor and by God’s grace, the mantle has fallen on our shoulder.

I appreciate you very much for honouring me with your attention.
Thank you.

"One of the greatest institutions that survived the turbulence of the post-colonial government of the 1960s was the Daily Times.  It reached its apogee under the leadership of the legendary Alhaji Babatunde Jose.  It was an institution that even the military regimes of Generals Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and Yakubu Gowon could not ignore.  Then when the regime of General Murtala Muhammed seized power in 1975, it targeted the Daily Times.  The newspaper empire was seized by the military junta and the media space had never been the same."