SOMETHING terrible is happening to Nigerians. It is not that they are being beaten that bothers me so much. It is that they no longer react, no matter how they are pummelled. Shockingly, the media appears to have become a victim of this.
This so-called final warning also referred to an earlier interview session featuring guests, Dele Farotimi, an outspoken opposition activist; and Oladotun Hassan. Ilelah’s contrived belligerence came for no other reason than that the interviewees spoke their minds about Tinubu’s certificate and identity controversy. Ilelah tried to intimidate Arise TV, but Okonkwo took a serious exception to his name being mentioned. He threatened court action should that happen again.
Shortly after the 2019 general election, former President Muhammadu Buhari, obviously needed a Decree 4 of 1984-like instrument with which to muzzle the electronic media, especially the private broadcasters which had proliferated all over the country. He called a meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, and lamented that the election was characterised by too much “divisive” utterances which must be arrested.
The Commission was dragged before the High Court of Abuja presided over by Justice James Omotosho. On May 1, 2023, Omotosho ruled that the NBC had no power to sanction any broadcasting station, pointing out that the Constitution vested that power in the courts of law. It seemed that Mallam Ilelah was oblivious of this court ruling, hence his intimidatory grandstanding against Arise TV and their guests.