Introduction

This paper analyzes the watchdog role played by the media in Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation. It discusses the role of the media in the transition period between 1988 and 1999, as well as their championing of a cleaner and healthier polity in exposing highly placed state officials who attained office through fake credentials or by making bogus claims.

Case studies of the media’s role in this respect include the disgrace from office of Alhaji Salisu Buhari, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, as well as the fall of Senator Chuba Okadigbo, former Senate President, who was impeached in the wake of allegations of corruption and misappropriation of funds.

To get to grips with the role of the media in these national controversies, the editorial content of the publications, which championed these struggles were identified and collated. These were complemented where possible, by interviews with some of the editorial personnel involved in these episodes.

The Media: An Overview

Nigeria has the biggest and most virile press community in Africa, followed by South Africa and Kenya (Park, 1993:1). Ogbodu (1996:1) conservatively puts the number of publications (weeklies, dailies and magazines) at 116, although a number of these are fickle and are at the margins of survival. The period since 1999, has witnessed a mushrooming of sorts in the newspaper industry with new titles like The Anchor, and National Interest springing up, as well as the relaunch of moribund or prostrate titles such as The Concord. As political competition heats up more new titles are expected to be born, most of them with a predictably short life span. One consequence of the economic downturn of the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically a result of hostile authoritarian economic policies towards the media, is that as of 1999, the combined circulation of all newspapers barely reach half a million, in a country of close to 120 million people. If we add the circulation figures of magazines and other publications to those of newspapers, they still barely hit the 1 million mark.

The Punch, a privately owned newspaper, is perhaps the most widely read; its print run is between 60,000 and 80,000 copies per day. The Guardian, a favourite of the intellectuals and respected for its independent, sober views, had a print run in 1999 of between 50,000 and 70,000 copies per day.

Other newspapers such as the privately owned National Concord, This Day, Post Express, and The Vanguard, as well as the state-owned Daily Times and the New Nigerian do less well in circulation terms than The Punch and The Guardian. The magazine market is dominated by three giants, namely Tell Magazine, The News and Newswatch, which have circulation figures of about 100,000, 80,000 and 50,000 respectively.

One underreported, but increasingly assertive newspaper genre are the vernacular newspapers, which in the Yoruba speaking region made a rebound in the closing years of military rule. A host of vernacular newspapers has sprung up in recent years, trying to build on the success of Alaroye, whose circulation competes favourably with the most successful national dailies (see Dare 2000). In broadcasting, there are close to 45 television stations, with about 10 of these in private hands, while of the 44 or so radio stations, a handful are privately owned following the deregulation of broadcasting by the state in 1994 (Olukotun, 1996). The most successful private electronic media are AIT and Minaj television broadcasts as well as RayPower Radio, all of which offer refreshing contrasts to the heavily controlled contents of state electronic media.

As in Kenya, publications rise, fall and are sometimes reborn with dizzying regularity.

Media and Accountability: Case Studies

In this section, we consider in some depth media coverage of:

(a) The transition to democracy 1998-1999;

(b) The documentation controversy which led to the fall of Alhaji Salisu Buhari, former Speaker of the House of Representatives;

It should be borne in mind that the watchdog role of the media in this period went beyond these cases to include, for instance, exposure of the irregularities in and falsification of the biodata of Chief Evans Enwerem, former Senate President, which led to his forced resignation, as well as the furore over the biodata of Lagos State Governor, Chief Bola Tinubu, which triggered a political crisis. The latter, however, narrowly survived impeachment, largely because the Alliance for Democracy – dominated Lagos State House of Assembly ruled that the inconsistencies in his curriculum vitae, arose from genuine mistakes. We only focus on three of these cases, however, as mentioned earlier.

(A) The Transition

The media, in the New World order, have emerged as a crucial part of the apparatus for vetting and legitimising elections. Conceived here broadly as the print and electronic organs of mass communication, they provide information to the voters about the candidates, the electoral process, actual voting dates and the rules of the game.

All aspects of the transition to democracy (1998-1999) were extensively covered and intensely reported by the media. Following the defreezing of the political space by General Abdusalami Abubakar on July 20, 1998, and the release of a transition timetable, a senior journalist, Mr. Tunji Oseni, organised an agenda-setting seminar for journalists in August 1998. Entitled “The Media and the Transition,” it had the declared aim of getting journalists to reflect on the transition programme. Oseni set the ball rolling by listing the responsibilities of the media in a transition period. These include keeping the administration to its word or promise on the handover of power to civilians; being strong in the face of danger; offering, where necessary, alternatives to the transition agenda; serving as a feedback mechanism on government policies as well as expanding the scope of the transition to areas such as morality, accountability, management of the national economy and the amelioration of poverty (Oseni, 1999:16). There is reason to believe that the media, by and large, and in spite of a few excesses, took its outlined responsibilities seriously.

To keep the transition on track, for instance, Tell magazine week after week did a countdown to the handover in every single issue it published between July 1998 and May 1999. It printed in its November 7 edition “24 more weeks for Abubakar to handover to an elected civilian president” – in bold letters and boxed (Tell: 7).

This was a kind of advocacy advertising for the transition programme. Indeed, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, managing editor of Tell, said that had General Abubakar reneged on the handover date:

We would have gone back to the trenches to pick up guerilla journalism. We left our underground paraphernalia intact for most of 1999.

To underline their watchdog role, the media criticized General Obasanjo’s donation of N130 million to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the run-up to the December 5, 1998, local government elections.

For instance, the Tribune Editorial (November 24, 1998: 8) called on Obasanjo to supply to the public a full disclosure of the identities of those involved (in aiding him) – to help members of the public in establishing the real character and motives of the contributors – in the final analysis, however, the authorites most seriously consider setting a ceiling on the amount individual aspirants could spend in the course of seeking public office.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was put on its toes by the media in the interest of fair elections. The Guardian Editorial comment of August 19, 1999 (p.16), suggested that INEC should put in place measures to avert rigging of elections; it also counseled that INEC should distance itself from manipulation by ‘‘security’’ agencies, state administrators and bureaucrats.

In terms of balanced coverage, the three competing parties got fair coverage, although the effect of bigger advertising spending by the PDP was felt in enhanced coverage (see Olukotun, 2000b). However, the regulatory guidelines of the Press Council and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission prevented any serious excesses.

Abuses and irregularities were fully documented and monitored by the media. In its report of January 25, 1999 (p.27), Newswatch reported irregularities in the run-up to the state Assembly/Governorship elections. These include underage voters in Katsina and multiple voting in Abia State, as well as bribery stories in Delta and Ekiti States. Most print and electronic media did the same.

The Presidential elections of February 1999 were intensely covered by both national and international media. Confronted with a choice, between accepting a flawed election or its cancellation, the media mostly advised a grudging acceptance of the results, without glossing over the hitches and the flaws.

Doubtless, the watchdog role of the media was at work throughout the transition and beyond.

(B) Alhaji Salisu Buhari vs the Media