Musa Yar'Adua

The Nigerian democracy began a crucial test of survival as President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua ordered a major investigation into the “funding, ownership and intentions” of internet media outlets, Pointblanknews.com and Saharareporters.com. Also, President Yar’Adua dusted up the colonial legacy of the administration of the “oath of secrecy” to principal aides on Tuesday in a bid to forestall leaks to the Internet outfits. 

Yar’adua’s paranoid change of direction on earlier stated commitment to openness and transparency in Nigeria’s nascent democracy came as a result of recent reports from the two U.S based Nigerian owned online-based news agencies on his worrisome medical situation.

Already, the two well-secured news websites have witnessed repeated failed attempts to be hacked and disrupted by suspected agents of Nigerian authorities.

The new twist in the otherwise cozy relationship between the government and the media has led to speculations that a silent fifth column onslaught to topple the Yar’adua presidency in Nigeria may be underway. Analysts say that the increased jitters with which the Government is trying to ridicule journalists could be efforts to make civil governance unpopular and engineer the comeback of the military. Last week, a minor gaffe by Channels Television that should have attracted a strong rebuttal from the government was handled with strong-armed tactics through arbitrary withdrawal of the operational license of the popular private television station and the detention of its top staff for several days. The government is being accused of using unconventional means in ordering the investigation of Pointblanknews.com and Saharareporters.com.

In what appears to be an attempt at creating opportunity for some “security operatives” to make quick bucks, President Yar’Adua was said to have directed the Director General of State Security Service, DG, SSS, Mr. Afakriya Gadzama, to investigate the two partnering media houses. Mr. Gadzama has in turn set up a high-powered panel headed by his Director of Operations to immediately carry out the Presidential directive.

According to sources, Yar’adua was angered by the increasing wave of leakages of matters considered top secret in recent times. The first was the embarrassing publication by Saharareporters.com of the picture of his son, Musa Yar’Adua Jnr. staging an ostentatious display of gun, automobiles and cash at the Aso Rock Villa. Yar’Adua Jnr. was recently sent back to his mother in Kaduna to forestall future juvenile exuberance on his part that could embarrass his father any further. Two, he was angered by the leakage of his sickness and hospitalization in Saudi Arabia. Third the President was said to be unhappy with stories of influence peddling by his wife, the first lady, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua and the vulgar boast by his daughter, Hajia Zainab Dakingari, wife of the Governor of Kebbi State that she has made billions by virtue of introducing favor-seeking contractors to the President. Finally, the President was said to have been surprised at the brazen disclosure by Pointblanknews.com that his National Security Adviser, NSA, General Abdullah Sarki Muktar was on admission for medical treatment at a United kingdom, UK based Hospital.

advertisement

According insiders, the President who also ordered the redeployment of security details, personal guards and mobile policemen around the Aso Rock presidential Villa, was said to be at wits end over the usual promptness with which the two concerned media houses usually gets “classified information,” leading to speculations that the two media houses maybe smokescreen for foreign intelligence agencies. At another time, they were tagged “Ribadu Boys” in mocking reference to adroit coverage of the anti-corruption crusade of the Nigerian government being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which was led by Mr. Nuhu Ribadu until recently.

But the management of Pointblanknews.com has always described such idea as “wicked, ridiculous, ludicrous and untrue” In a jointly signed statement in New York, yesterday, the Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Jackson Ude and the Managing Editor; Oladimeji Abitogun said that “our organization has no hidden narrative. We love our dear country Nigeria and no other place can substitute its importance to us. We do not receive any funding from any foreign government or alien individual, this is the fruit of our labor and we started this agency as an enduring commitment to bridging the digital divide between western world and nations of Africa particularly the shinning pearl of our civilization, Nigeria. Unlike our detractors, we have seen how a modern society should be run and govern and we cannot recommend anything less that good governance, openness and shattering of disgraceful public secrecy to our elected leaders in Nigeria.

“The individuals who are angry that we stay on top of news development probably preferred the old dispensation in which CNN, BBC, AP, REUTERS and other foreign media organizations used to be more authoritative on Nigerian events than Nigerian media organizations. That era is gone for good. We are better vantage to tell our stories than foreign journalists. Our leaders should be prepared to deal with it as we are not going to back of or relent in our efforts to report the facts.” 

Only yesterday, the Yar’adua forced all his aides to take the oath of secrecy as a way of making it legally and “spiritually” punishable for any of his aides found to have been behind the leakages of stories from the presidency to the two online-based news organizations.

Those who took the oaths were the Principal Secretary to the President, Mr. David Edevbie; Principal Secretary to the Vice President, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe; Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu; Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the President, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi; Chief Physician to the President, Dr. Salisu Barau Banye and Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to the Vice President, Mr. Ima Niboro.

A statement on the exercise from the Presidency and signed by Mr. Musa Aduwak for the Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Adeniyi, said “before the oath was administered, the Permanent Secretary, State House, Dr. B. K. Kaigama, said the oath was being administered on the instructions of President Yar’Adua.”

It added that civil servants in the State House had already taken the oath.

Justice Baba urged all who had taken the oath to respect the solemn promises they had made before God, as they discharged the tasks before them.