 On Saturday, the Government of Zamfara State announced the shutdown of some broadcast stations in the state. Two of the affected stations are owned by the federal government, while the other three are privately owned. The State Information Commissioner Ibrahim Dossara said Governor Matawale ordered the immediate shutdown of the Nigerian television authority NTA Gusso, Federal Radio Corporation Pride FM Gusso, Al Muma TV, Gamji FM and Gamji TV. There is no indication that the Zamfara State Government got permission from Nigeria's broadcast regulator NBC to sanction the media houses. What's running us to discuss the seeming abuse of power is Deji. I will be there. He's a legal practitioner. Thank you so much, Deji, for joining us. Thank you for having me. So we know that in reaction to what happened in Zamfara State, the broadcasting organization of Nigeria Bonn had reacted, saying that the Government of Zamfara State had no powers whatsoever to shut down these media houses, whether they be owned by government or even private stations, enlighten us, as laymen, what the law says about issues such as this. Thank you very much, baby. One thing is clear, that the Constitution provides for the freedom of the press. I mean, that you will find in the second test line of the Constitution, which clearly provides that you can disseminate information, you can disseminate opinions without any fear of any rank call or any threats. So that's clearly provided for in the Constitution. Now, what's good is that the NBC and the BOM, as well as the NUJ, quickly came out in defense of those stations to ensure that press freedom is not suppressed. So if you have a right that is guaranteed by this Constitution, it cannot be taken away either by any arbitrary means or either by any under-antactics, of course, you can see that this one clearly has a political undertone, and that's why it played out the way it did. But interestingly, today, I read in the papers that the Government of Zamfara State had apologised for what seems to be an error of judgement in terms of trying to impose its will on the media houses, you know, because we went through a lot to get to this point. I mean, we went through the military rule, and we've tried to ensure that our flagging democracy is protected from the 1990s or days. So it's very important that the NBC and the NUJ and the BOM came out clearly in defense of these media stations, because the right to sanction media houses or to impose any penalties on them is clearly tested in the NBC. So without the NBC imposing any of those sanctions or penalties, it is wrong for any person, particularly in this case, the Government of Zamfara State, to try and impose its will on these media houses, just because the media houses did not do what it thought was favourable to it. In other words, the background to all of this is that the media houses went ahead to cover the rally of the opposition party, the PDP, and gave some media airtime to the Governor's opposition rival of the other party. So that's where all of this is coming from. And of course, I first of all found it very interesting that this defence of the government in terms of alleging security and unrest and if other suspicions and all political activities came shortly before the PDP rally. I mean, it wasn't a month before it wasn't known to even the media stations when in advance that there was an derivative order by the government. OK, so all of a sudden you just went ahead and issued a fiat like you are in the military era. I mean, we moved past all of that. Right now, we should be trying to salvage our nascent democracy, try to hold it together, try to promote it and sustain it, and not to have such pronouncements or such unguarded utterances issued by the deputant of government of Zafra state. I'm curious because many people have asked that question of, does the government of any state have the powers as outside of the electoral acts to say, well, we're banning all forms of political campaigning or politicking, especially at a time where INEC has said, well, we've taken off the ban on campaigning and so let the games begin. Does the state have any powers outside of the electoral act to put such a ban in place? Absolutely not. No state has that kind of power. And that's why in the statement issued by the NBC and the BOM, they did reference the fact that the actions of the government of Zafra state was unconstitutional. And of course, in a certain sense of that particular gap on the apart, they issued an apology. Now, don't forget that INEC itself is a body that's recognized by the Constitution of the Parliament of Nigeria, which is supreme. It's the sovereign instrument which all of us are bound by. Whether states, local, federal, we're all bound by the Constitution. And no matter how, how, how, how I agree with you feel about the content of the workings of the Constitution, it's still the preeminent document that guides our relationship as a people. So it's no governor, no, either the president, the governor or the chairman of the local government has the power to, you know, by his own will say, well, no more campaigning. Nobody can use this particular blitz. Nobody can, nobody can, no media house, you can cover any candidate. All of those things are things of the past. Because INEC has opened the floodgates for campaigning, it's campaign season. So what the government should be focused on is pushing out his agenda, his achievements. What have they done in the past four years to make the life of the average and far and better? What do they plan to do in the next four years to further enhance the legacy which has been in place in the last four years? So it's when you are, when you are afraid that you have anything to campaign on, that you then go ahead to try to impose and unmask your position. I believe that at this level of our democracy, we should be talking about issue-based campaigns. We're talking about ideas, about what we can put on the table to better the lot of our brothers and sisters in all parts of the country. And not just Muslim people out of the political space. The PDP is a political party just like the APC. The APC is in power now. But who says that the PDP won't be power in the next election after the results are counted? So we need to ensure that we are tolerant in our politics, either at the state level or the national level. We need to be very tolerant of all of your position. Politics of ideas without bitterness is what I look forward to as an African Nigerian to see this election season. But good news, like I say, is that the defense put forward by the NBC and by the PUN and the NUJ is quite commendable. And of course I have made the governments to do a uton and to apologize publicly to those media houses. And you know, for good measure, those media houses can, I mean, go ahead and take on the collection against the government if they so desire for, particularly the order directing all military personnel or police personnel to enforce that directive of the governor. I mean, it's a bridge of the benefits of human person, of all those journalists who work in that station, who might have to do all kinds of ill treatment on account of the governor's executive order. So it's important that these agencies, the NBC, the PUN, protect our democracy, protect the freedom of the press. Don't forget that lives have been lost to get us to this particular point, to get us to a point where we now enjoy this freedom that we all have, either on social media, either as licensed broadcasting TV or radio stations. We won't have to get to this point. We should not allow the likes of Governor Matawali to take us back to the days of Egypt. We have moved beyond that. And we are looking at getting to our Kenan land. And I believe that with the actions of the NBC and the PUN in curtailing the accesses of this kind of government, we would be able to get to the promised land in no sooner time. Let me talk, let's talk about the dangers of government owning this many media houses. We have been at forums where conversation has been had as to media houses in this country and how many of them are state owned. Now we know how it works in Nigeria. Every state does have its own media. The federal government also has one domicile there. So you have the federal and the state all owned by government. What are the possible dangers of government owning these many media houses and what it could also do in terms of bifling the freedom of press or freedom to cover as much as they would. Because many would say that some of these state owned media are just basically praise singers of the government in power. What must be done to change that narrative? Thank you very much for the question. I recall that when I was growing up the government stations were the only means of getting any official information from the government. So we all had to wait for the government stations to come on here and tell us and push whatever narrative that the government wants to push. But of course with private stations coming on board and we've all seen movements from people not having the choice of what to watch. So having very diverse TV channels pushing for different different arguments, different content for all of us to now pick from. So of course I really do not see any problem with government owning a TV station pushing out its own agenda is propaganda. But what I enjoy right now is that the people have the right to pick and choose which TV station to watch, which is a good thing that the government itself has enabled the environment for these private TV stations to also try. So it's now left for the government TV stations on TV stations or broadcast stations to now up their game to a level where people would willingly choose to watch their programs. For me, I don't remember the last time I ever watched a government's own station. I mean it's been years that I ever did that and I'm spot for choice. So each station has its own dynamic content and programming. So you find that sometimes even right now for the prime time slots, you have people switching channels and taking a bit of content from each different station. So it's good that you have some diversity and it helps the public to be better informed. So come at the days where you can decide to impose yourself and those pushing to government propaganda, none of that works anymore. People can even go ahead and pick out their own news online. I mean you have various online platforms also disseminating information. So people have better advice now. You know back in the day, I mean this campaign season will have been all stuff with watching rallies of political parties and nothing else. But these days all you just get is a recap of the highlights of these rallies, of these engagements. In five minutes on social media, you can watch a recap of all that has been said and you can move on. So Kudos must also go to the NBC and other regulators that have made this platform available for private individuals to own TV stations. I must also acknowledge the proprietors of the TV stations for the painstaking efforts that they've made to get us to this point. What is fascinating for me as a legal practitioner is that the constitution is supreme and no person should be allowed to disregard or engage in any action that would render our constitution to be at the backbone of national discourse. No matter what we think about the constitution, it still remains our supreme document that guides how we relate and how we do all that we do as a people within the territorial boundaries of Nigeria. So it's important that we are able as a people to pick and choose which medium wants to hear any information, which media outlets want to follow, want to listen to. And the government needs to understand that it needs to up its game from what they had done in the military era. We need to move with the times otherwise this will be left behind. Why would the government want to up its game if it's benefitting entirely from how this propaganda in your words or propaganda stations are working, why would they want to up their game again? You and I have had conversations previously about government trying in disguise of trying to regulate media to try to stifle the press and we've seen people come out on mass to fight against that, thank goodness. But then how do we also make sure that this doesn't come again in the future in another guys to try to regulate the media or social media and then of course try to stifle those private media houses who are able to put out the truth unfiltered as opposed to the propaganda stations that you make reference to in clothing? Well, like I said when growing democracy we're still in that sense, we're barely 15, barely say 23 years of this democracy so you will still expect that those military tendencies that we used to have is to take a while for those things to be pushed out of our system completely but however the point most we made that these private TV stations yes they are able to put out the news unfiltered but we also have civil society organizations, we have the NBA and other Star Wars that defend our democracy and you can see that there's been an improvement overall in how this democracy has been defended I mean we have journalists who have been arraigned on previous counts and charges in court but we also have access to legal counsel provided for them by these NGOs and civil society organizations so by and large it will take a while for us to get that right balance between government polling TV stations and private stations being able to put out the news unfiltered it will take a while for us to normalize hearing the truth the uncensored truth and being able to allow our citizens to pick and choose which news outlets they want to listen to but again if the government is not up its game these channels or these bigger houses will soon become a thing of the past because nobody will be watching them and of course the government financing of these stations will soon dry up and without any of these revenues or any of this financing you guys are as good as mine that these private media houses are the most watched channels in the country as of this moment will continue to hold sway and the government will have to rethink his own strategy going forward Deja Wobide is a legal practitioner always a pleasure having you thank you so much for joining us thank you for having me well that's the show tonight but before I go I would like to give you my take unity is a nice sounding bus word politicians like to employ when they ask for votes of groups and sections of the population which they cannot possibly identify with while it is a nice sentiment it comes with a caveat of insisting that such candidates are the only ones capable of carrying the flag of true unity now northern leaders have been a part and parcel of leadership since independence the people of the north have always had voices representing their interests at every level of government within the immigration service, the military the police and even in civilian parts of the government the Yoruba, Igbo and members of other tribes serve within these institutions but most often serve under the command of these northerners sitting at the highest levels even in the southern part of the country that with so much access to the levels of political power the north of the country is the least developed part of the country true unity may only ever be possible in Nigeria when we do away with the need for power sharing formulas and to make you know to make individual choices to vote for one of the most competent candidates we need to try as much as possible to fill candidates who actually represent a true Nigeria I'm Mary Anacong, have a good evening