By: Hamid Hendrix<\/p>\n
Freedom without responsibility continues to pose a great challenge to the
\nrealization of the full potentials of our democratic dispensation and it
\nis rather unfortunate that foremost beneficiaries of such liberty are too
\noften also the major culprits.<\/p>\n
Though measures have been taken to curb the excesses of abusers of civil
\nliberties it is obvious that the more needs to be done to safeguard public
\ninterest.<\/p>\n
One area where this menace continues to rear its ugly head is in the rowdy
\nranks of human rights advocacy groups which were once credited with
\nfacilitating the successful liberation of several African nations from the
\nscourge of oppressive military regimes but are now becoming misfits in
\ndemocratic settings due to loss of focus and desperation to remain
\nrelevant.<\/p>\n
Rather than shifting their attention from the initial agenda of
\ncampaigning for democracy to the equally relevant aspects of ensuring free
\nand fair elections and dividends of democracy, several of the advocacy
\ngroups have been overtaken by pecuniary impulses that turned them into
\nrentable rabble-rousers, willingly lending themselves to the begrudged and
\ndisgruntled elements. Such groups end up mired in miscellaneous advocacy
\nof discordant diatribes as they drift into charlatanism under the
\ncounterfeit canopy of human rights advocacy.<\/p>\n
A typical example of such mischievous misadventures masquerading as human
\nrights advocates is the recent statement issued by Human Rights Writers
\nAssociation (HURIWA) claiming that \u201cunder the President\u2019s nose a minister
\nallegedly mismanaged N2 billion from the National Broadcasting Commission
\nfor digitisation of broadcasting but till now both the minister of
\ninformation and DG of NBC are walking the corridors of power free.\u201d<\/p>\n
This single sentence of spurious speculation casting unsubstantiated
\naspersions on the unblemished reputation of the Minister of Information,
\nAlhaji Lai Mohammed and the Director-General of the Nigerian Broadcasting
\nCommission (NBC), Malam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu and attempting to discredit the
\nhighly\u2013rated successful switch over to digital broadcasting (DS0) in
\nNigeria was purported to be an exercise in human rights advocacy!<\/p>\n
Incredulously, this fabricated defamation was an isolated insertion
\nlacking relevance or corroboration in a libellous list of
\npolitically-motivated wild allegations against the person and
\nadministration of President Muhammadu Buhari contrived by one Emmanuel
\nOnwubiko, coordinator of the so-called human rights group.<\/p>\n
It is manifestly outlandish to portray the deliberate misrepresentation of
\nthe nationally acclaimed resuscitation and diligent implementation of the
\npreviously paralysed DSO project and callous assassination of the
\ncharacter of the two government functionaries responsible for such an
\nachievement as a human rights infringement, just as it is absurd to smear
\nthe hitch-free scheduled switch over to digital broadcasting across the
\ncountry with the brush of \u201cmismanagement\u201d of a bogus two billion naira.
\nThese malicious distortions of verifiable facts amount to gross violations
\nof the principle of public accountability, which is a fundamental right of
\ncitizens in a democracy.<\/p>\n
To set the records straight, it is worth recalling that the DSO was
\nformally launched in Jos, Plateau State, in April 2016, followed by the
\nFCT, Ilorin, Kaduna, Enugu and Osogbo while the process of installation of
\nequipment for the roll out in Gombe and Delta states have reached advanced
\nstages.<\/p>\n
The NBC expects to achieve DSO roll out in 12 states soon. This impressive
\nperformance was the outcome of zealous commitment of Minister Lai Mohammed
\nand NBC DG Modibbo Kawu to break the four-year jinx that stalled the
\nproject prior to the debut of the Buhari Administration\u2019s change agenda.<\/p>\n
For HURIWA to single out this glorious chapter in the remarkable record of
\nprogress in the nation\u2019s broadcast industry for a vicious vendetta is a
\npathetic pointer to the ulterior motives that have hijacked the group and
\nfalsified its declared mission.<\/p>\n
In fact, a cursory review of its recent outings reveals a revolting
\nsurrender to the most ridiculous and irrational advocacies imaginable ,
\nsuch as campaigning against the ban on production of the much abused
\ncodeine cough syrups because it has \u201cled to great financial misfortunes
\nfor over 30 legitimate pharmaceutical companies,\u201d urging the Federal
\nGovernment \u201cnot to stop expectant women and nursing mothers from
\nparticipating in National Youth Service Corps (NYSC),\u201d appealing to \u201c the
\ngovernment of the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions
\non Nigeria\u201d and dismissing the terrorist classification of Nnamdi Kanu\u2019s
\nIPOB \u201c as a charade and a plot to initiate violent crackdown on the
\nmembers of this substantially unarmed and peaceful group\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even the EFCC has dismissed the occasional anti-corruption posturing of
\nHURIWA as \u201cethnic and political agenda by some mischief makers
\nmasquerading as human rights writers\u201d in one of its rebuttals of the
\npseudo human rights advocacy group\u2019s capricious campaigns.<\/p>\n
This was also endorsed by Emmanuel Otairu of the Centre for International
\nand Strategy Studies, Abuja whose article titled \u201cHURIWA As IPOB\u2019s NGO
\nArm\u201d in The Nation edition of September 18, 2017 concluded that it was \u201c a
\ntool for extortion, paid activism, ethnic propaganda mouthpiece and most
\nrecently a terror organization\u2019s NGO arm\u201d.<\/p>\n
The steadily expanding coverage of the DSO in Nigeria under the diligent
\nimplementation of Information Minister Lai Mohammed and DG NBC Ishaq
\nModibbo Kawu has surely switched off anomalous advocacy groups like HURIWA
\nalong with analogue noise.<\/p>\n
HAMID HENDRIX is a communications writer in Abuja<\/p>\n
By: Hamid Hendrix Freedom without responsibility continues to pose a great challenge to the realization of the full potentials of our democratic dispensation and it is rather unfortunate that foremost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n