Rights Group Condemns Buhari's Ban On AIT, Says It's Anti-democratic

As reactions from well meaning Nigerians, both at home and abroad are
still trailing the banning of coverage of African Independent
Television of President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari's programmes
of activities until further notice, a human rights group in Nigeria,
the Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) has strongly
condemned Buhari's action over the plan to resuscitate the
anti-democratic ethos in a democratic setting, noting that General
Buhari's action shown that the President-elect has hidden agenda in
governance of this country for the next four years.

The rights group however declared that General Buhari should be
tutored on how to conduct the act of governance in a democratic era,
believing that democracy was new in the President-Elect dictionary and
strange to his nature because of his military dictatorship background,
stressing that the Freedom of Press is one of the ground norms of
entrenching democracy in the world.

The group therefore urged the genuine pro-democracy Nigerians to stand
up to be ready to defend our current democratic experiment before the
anti-democratic forces returned the country back to the dark days of
military era where freedom of expression were withdrawn through
draconian decree of 1984.

Reacting to the development through a signed statement by the Centre's
Executive Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman, which a copy was
made available to newsmen in Lagos Tuesday, maintained that Buhari has
goofed with the decision of banning the respected media station from
covering his (Buhari) activities till further notice, describing the
banning of AIT by the President-Elect as undemocratic, illegal, evil,
ungodly, anti-masses and anti-development which should not be allowed
to stand in a democracy, saying that General Buhari lacks moral right
and constitutional justification to ban any media outfit from coverage
of his activities since he elected as the next President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria for period of another four years.

His words: "Nigeria people, particularly, the men of fourth estate of
realm should be extreme careful now with this present development from
Buhari, the President-Elect so as to avoid being the first victim of
Buhari's government after inauguration in May 29th, 2015. Buhari
should know that this is a democracy where there is no privacy for any
political leader. When Mrs. Turai Yaradua, the wife of Late President
Yaradua, declared that She has power on her husband, Nigeria people
told her that her husband, was President of Nigeria people and they
ought to know the where about of their President, which shows that no
privacy for General Muhammadu Buhari in a democratic setting again
until he finishes his term of office in 2019."

Comrade Sulaiman also declared that the functional media sector of a
country was the basis where the genuine democracy rest on, urged Mr.
President-Elect to be ready to uphold the democratic ethos and values
and demonstrate strong believe in our democratic institutions by
seeking any redress of his(Buhari) grievances in the court of law.

CHRSJ boss condemned the illegal clamp down of media outfit by the
President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari and urged him (Buhari) to do
the right step by rescinding the decision immediately within the
twenty-four hours(24hrs) and as well tender unreserved public apology
to the Nigeria citizens.

Supporting his position with the provision of 1999 constitution as
amended in section 22 which stated that: "the press, radio, television
and other agencies of mass media shall at all times be free to uphold
the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the
responsibility and accountability of the government to the people."

By virtue of this provision, the constitutional powers and duties or
obligation of the press are to help government realize the fundamental
objectives and directive principles of state policy as contained in
the constitution. The media or the press is also expected to uphold
the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.

In other words, the press performs a nation builder role (development
journalism) as well as being a watchdog of government actions or
activities pertaining to governance, transparency and accountability.
--Vanguard