The Return of the Dictator and Decree 4

The Return of the Dictator and Decree 4

In 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari declared before a mammoth crowd that thronged his campaign ground that he is ‘ a converted democrat’. He acknowledged and took responsibilities for the authoritarian regime which he presided over between 1983 -1985. He then promised a big change. He promised many things.

It will be recalled that on 31 December 1983, Major General Mohammed Buhari siezed power from the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari. One of the reasons he cited for the coup was ‘corruption’ he was hailed by the people as an agent of change. A chant that later haunted those who chanted it.

President Buhari did not waste time in putting the politicians of the Southern extracts to prison. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Bola Ige, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Ambrose Alli, Dr Omololu Olunloyo,Busari Adelakun and others. in fact about 500 politicians and businessmen including Fela Anikulapo Kuti were all arrested and detained on flimsy excuses. Major General Buhari ordered his military junta to ransack chief Obafemi Awolowo,(a yoruba man and the leader of Unity Party of Nigeria) house for no apparent reason. Of course, nothing incriminating was found in tbe house of ‘the best president that Nigeria never had’. Ninety percent of those who suffered this draconian assault and detention were mainly Southerners. Even President Shagari a Fulani man from the North who presided over the alleged corruption regime was only put on House arrest which was not strictly enforced.

Major General Buhari a Fulani man from Daura made another Fulani man his second in command by name of Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon, the name was a deception to the yorubas who initially considered Tunde Idiagbon as one of their own. He was not as he had never be. The combination of the duo put the whole country under suppression. Whilst it could be said that the rule of law was not totally supressed at that time, it was largely in abeyance.

General Buhari introduced Decree number 4 into the country, Decree 4 was the most repressive law ever enacted in the history of Nigerian law. What we did not understand then was that he cannot tolerate criticism, so the first thing on his mind was to curtail the freedom of press.

Section 1 of Decreee 4 made provisions that ” Any person who publishes in any form, whether written or otherwise, any message, rumour, report or statement ….. which is false in any material particular or which brings or is calculated to bring the Federal Military Government or the government of a State or Public Officer to ridicule or disrepute, shall be guilty of an offence under this Decree”. There was provision of punishment for anyone who infringed against this law. The offending journalists and publishers will be tried by an open military tribunal, whose ruling will be final and unappealable in any court and those found guilty would be eligible for a fine of N10000 and a jail sentence of up to 2 years.

Many journalists who spoke or published anything against the military government under President Buhari were thrown to prisons. Some were beaten by the zombie soldiers of Buhari whose tenure was one of the darkest in the history of Nigeria.

It was on these premises that the people were afraid to give him any chance to rule Nigeria again. Once beaten twice shy as tbey say, he tried more than two times and failed until ‘Jagaban’ Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu a Yoruba man packaged him and sold him to the Southerners. We all ignored the warnings of Chief Ebebezer Babatope that a Leopard cannot change his spots.

President Buhari won the election in 2015 and started his draconian rules gradually again. He was re-elected ln an election marred by rigging in 2019 and he made it clear in one of his interviews that now that he has power, he can now afford to be reckless. The country now is indeed in the age of recklessness. Decree 4 is back through the back doors.

A PDP youth leader from Adamawa was jailed for two year recently for insulting President Buhari over his criticism of the president for his failure to providing security for the people.

Another 70 year old man was arrested in May 2020 for insulting the president. It appears our President Buhari has been venerated and promoted to the level of the gods and any criticism of him is now labelled ‘ blasphemy’.

On the 24th of August 2021 Governor Ortom of Benue State appeared on sunrise daily news at Channel Television and criticised the federal government of President Buhari for promoting Fulani hegemony in the country and gave various instances of what is happening in Benue and other parts of the country. Retired Commodore Olakunke Olawumi was also interviewed on the 25 of August 2021 by Channel TV and he stated that he has worked under Buhari and was able to accessed some privileged information at that time. He made it known that there was a plan to Fulanise and Islamise Nigeria. He said empathically that in the present government are the sponsors of Boko Haram and so it is difficult to defeat Boko haram for this reasons. He challenged the president to prosecute identified Boko Haram sponsors.

The second day, the NBC served a notice to Channel TV and invited the anchors of the programme to defend why they allowed the executive Governor of Benue State to make statement that contained ‘ inciting, divisive and unfair comments which were not thoroughly interrogated by the anchors and that it negate the provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

Meanwhile, the cleric, Sheikh Gumi incited the bandits against Nigerian Christians in the Army, telling them it was the christians in the army that are attacking them. The news was carried by major newspapers and Television stations. However, no requisition was raised by NBC as to whether there was an incitement or anything that can cause division in Gumi’s statement.

The freedom of expression protected by section 39 (1) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria constitution is now under serious attack by the venerated Emperor Buhari of Nigeria. Anything against him may attract prison sentence.

Despite the constitutional protection, the Nigeria media under President Buhari is undergoing serious censorship that one begin to wonder whether we are in Democratic or Military government. This is surely a reminiscent of what happened in 1984 under Major General Muhammadu Buhari as he was known then.

On 26 April 2020, the Reporter Without Borders world press Freedom Index ranked Nigeria 115 out of 180 countries surveys. They cited killings, detention and brutalisation of Journalists alongside targeted attempts to shrink the Civic space by the Nigerian Government.

The situation in the country now is almost at the point of no return from disintegration and there is no attempt by the Federal government to arrest the situation. It is either we surrender to subjugation or we face annihilation. Those who raised their voices are either in detention or murdered.

‘Those who failed to learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ … Winston Churchill. There will be definitey chain of reactions to what is going on in the country.

We can no longer ‘siddon look’ we must ‘talk the talk and walk the walk’

Barrister Niyi Aborisade is the President of the National Movement for Positive Change