The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) on Monday declared that freedom of speech was under a siege in Nigeria.
The Board Secretary, WSCIJ, Mr. Jiti Ogunye stated this at the 2019 Nigerian Reporter Of The Year Award, in Ikeja Lagos.
According to him, events of the recent past, particularly attacks on journalists and arrest of human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, among others, all point to the fact that “the right to freedom of expression is going through a serious siege” under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He recalled the antecedents of Buhari as a military leader in 1984 and noted that the nation was witnessing a repeat of his anti press freedom/freedom of expression disposition of those years.
He however, called on journalists not to give up their roles as the conscience of the nation.
Ogunye pointed out that the work of journalists was important to remaking the country and its democracy.
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He lent his voice to the call for the immediate release of Omoyele Sowore, Olawale Bakare, Dasuki and others illegally detained by the current government at the federal level.
In his own comment, Mr. Chido Onumah, an activist and journalist, noted that the Nigerian society was repressive.
He said: “Nigeria has always been a repressive society but the level of repression has gone several levels higher than in the last five decades.”
Condemning the clamping down on voices of dissention in the country, Onumah described the situation of things in the country as “the dawn of fascism targeted at the media and CSOs.”
According to him, the use of government security agencies to intimidate journalists, activists and innocent Nigerians was proof that time had come for those who love Nigeria to return to the trenches.
“We have done it before and we will do it again,” Onumah maintained.
He called on the Federal Government to immediately release Sowore and other journalists in detention saying “that is the only way the present government will receive legitimacy.”
