The history of print media in Nigeria goes as for back as the 1859 when European missionaries established community newspapers to propagate Christianity (Rev. Henry Townsend’s “Iwe Iroyin”, an example).

 This initiative later gave rise to the establishment of indigenous newspaper outfits by the likes of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1937 titled the West African Pilot. Zik’s paper and other newspapers existing at the time pioneered a general protest against the British colonial rule and resulted to the eventual attainment of independence in 1960.

 This powerful influence manifested by the paper led to the establishment of many newspapers especially in the 1960s. But an abysmal change soon engulfed the reasons for creating these newspapers. Since the common enemy had been removed (colonialism), newspapers began to act as tools by their owners to express private and personal views, instead of that for the general populace. This was contrary the ideals of what the newspaper was to stand for.

 As an expert puts it, the “Nigerian Press was born of anti-colonial protest, baptized with the flood of nationalist propaganda, and matured in party politics…” and I add “…reproducing objectivity and fairness in a democratic locale”.

 Here is a brief summary of what the press looked like under three (3) different government regimes, which showed that the press in Nigeria had acceded to several forms to be what it looks like today.

The Government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari and the press at that time (1979 – 1983)

 Alhaji Shehu Shagari (born February 25, 1925, served as the President of Nigeria's Second Republic (1979 - 1983), after the handover of power by General Olusegun Obasanjo's caretaker government.

 In 1978 he helped form the National party, and his subsequent election as president marked the end of 13 years of military rule in Nigeria. Continued economic problems and government corruption, the Nigeria election of 1983 marked by accusations of electoral fraud, coupled with a decline in world oil prices, led to a marked deterioration in the national finances under Shagari's watch, while religious and political violence became so endemic that his overthrow by General Muhammadu Buhari on New Year's Eve in 1983.

Shagari won the 1979 election with the help of his campaign manager, Umaru Dikko, political men of prominence in the North and among southern minorities, and some money bags interested in protecting their interest. Nevertheless, the party captured the ethnic and social demographics as good as or even better than his adversaries. The party's motto was "One Nation, One Destiny" and it tried to promote this motto even to its detriment. Shagari, made Housing, Industries, Transportation and Agriculture as the major goals of his administration, particularly in his early stages of governance during the oil boom. However, most of his programs had inappropriate outcomes.

 The Nigerian presses were quick to evaluate the government’s inconsistencies in all these sectors, and realized that they had actually fallen let selfish individuals loot the nation’s treasury under the pose of one reform or the other.

 In Housing, he (Shagari) launched a large scale housing program that built estates such as "Shagari Estate" but also launched the careers of Nigeria's legendary money bags who swamped the Nigerian ports with imported cement to complete the housing projects.

 In Industries, Shagari completed the Delta Steel complex in 1982, and spent hundred of millions of dollars on the Ajaokuta Steel complex and the Steel rolling mills. However, allegations of bribery to prominent politicians illuminated on those projects.

 In terms of agriculture, a Green Revolution program was initiated to foster the use of mechanical machinery in farming. It favored large scale farmers in order to produce mass products. However, it was hampered by the prevalence of retired military officers, who had acquired large hectares of land as parting gift under the previous administration and used them to influence large favours under the program.

 With the return to civilian rule in 1979 after 13 years of military rule, the press tried to help in the development of democracy once more. The few surviving privately owned newspapers in Nigeria were joined by an array of titles.

 The new newspapers appeared, in part, to serve the political parities of their owners. For instance, the Nigeria Tribune and the Daily Sketch were used to advance the political interest of Obafemi Awolowo, so did the Concord Group of newspapers representing the interests of their owner, Moshood Abiola and his party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN).

 The role of the newspapers in political party partisanship continued throughout this political dispensation. Newspapers were used purposely to provide platform for certain political views, and were used as tools by those people.

 It served socio-cultural responsibilities to upgrade the efforts of the government, but they soon realised that the government itself was not so credible as presumed.

 Under this administration, the characteristic politics of ethnic and regional security that ruined the First Republic re-emerged. The coalition collapsed in 1981. Internal disagreement, corruption, and abuse of power by the administration became manifest and weakened the credibility of the government.

 We know, for instance, that following the coup of 1983, carried out by Major Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, illegally amassed millions of Naira, Dollars and Pound Sterling were recovered from the houses of several Governors in Shagari’s Administration while teachers and civil servants were left unpaid during that Administration.

 One powerful feature of the press prior to the government of Shagari was that the press had become “radical” in the coverage of news stories. These Radical presses of the 50’s and 60’s were promulgated by nationalist and philanthropists who believed they could make a difference in the democratic dispensation.

 These papers included “The Advance” of 1965 which was into trade union activities, functioning as an arm of the Nigerian Trade Union Congress; “The Nigerian Worker” established in September 1965, under the umbrella body of the United Labour Congress (ULC); “The Nigerian Woman” established by Funmi Ransome-Kuti, on the 1^st of March 1950; The Nigerian Freedom (Calabar) established on the 3^rd of July 1950.

 Others included “The Hotline”, “News Horizon”, “The Analyst”, and so on. These newspapers were symbols of the new radicalism in Nigerian Press of the 1980s

The Government of Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and the Press of That Time (1985 – 1993)

 General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (born August 17 1941), popularly known as IBB, was the military ruler of Nigeria from August 1985 until his departure from office under heavy popular pressure, especially from the print media, in 1993, after his annulment of elections held that year which were widely held to have been the freest and fairest in Nigeria's post-independence history.

 Babangida was Nigeria's sixth military ruler, and as of 1990, the most powerful of them all. Babangida once took up a political position under the administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari, but overthrew him on 27 August, 1985 in a bloodless military coup that relied on mid-level officers that Babangida silently and strategically positioned over the years.

 Compared with Buhari, Babangida was more of a disciplined ruler, and his style was idiosyncratic. Where Buhari was strict and resolute, Babangida was clever and tactical, little wonder the press nicknamed him “Maradona”.

 Although, his relationship with the press at that time started out as harmonious, after at his assumption of office he quashed the existing Decree 4 of 1984 (29^th March) promulgated by the previous Buhari Military Government, which was largely against press freedom (“It shall be an offence under this decree for a newspaper or wireless telegraph station in Nigeria to publish or transmit any message, rumour, report or statement, which is false in any way, materials particularly stating that any public officer has in any manner being engaged in corrupt practices, or has in any manner corruptly enriched himself or any other person”).

 This decree empowered the military government to prohibit the circulation of any newspaper which was detrimental to the interest of the Federal government, as from the perception of the Head of State that is.

 With the abrogation effort by General Babangida, and stoppage of the Buhari-Idiagbon concept of stopping government adverts in private media, as well as friendly policies he created towards the press, Babangida enjoyed a reciprocal friendliness from the press, with less frequent criticisms.

 The press soon realized the “tactics” of this military government, and was fast to retract on their once familiarity, thus acting as major critics and decried the government's violating human rights.

 For example, the head of the pro-democracy movement was arrested for accusing Babangida and the military, of fomenting the strife to forestall the transition to democracy.

 Likewise, on the 23^rd of June, 1993, Babangida nullified the election of Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (aka MKO) in Nigeria as president on 12 June.

 Faced with riots, in which 100 people were killed, and lack of support from the military, even excess pressure from human right activists and the Nigerian Press, Babangida stepped down on the 26^th August, 1993, and installed a military-backed interim government headed by another southwestern Nigerian businessman, Ernest Shonekan.   

 Shonekan received little or no public support because he was perceived as a stooge for the military. He was unable to deal with Nigeria's ever-growing economic problems and was removed on 17 November 1993 by Sani Abacha, who then assumed full political authority.

 The press usually published confidently, but with the elements of fear of being shut down of operations, as it was common phenomenon for any newspaper that chose to chastise the government.

 The Offensive Publications (Proscription) Decree 35, 1993, made it possible for the government to clamp down on six media houses across the nation. Even government-owned media were not spared. This kind of suppression also took place after the 22 April 1990 failed coup d’état, when over seven media houses were closed down, like “The Guardian” for example, amongst others. The Military government felt these presses were not only national threats, but threats to their continual stay in office.

 The killing by a letter bomb of Dele Giwa, a magazine editor critical of Babangida's administration at his Lagos home in 1986 remains a controversial incident to this day. It signaled his fast dislike of the press at the time, which seemed to act more as a watch dog on his activities and try all motives conceivable to end his dictatorial reign.

 The detention of several journalists and other critics of the military regime and the temporary closure of some newspapers, however, indicated the government's awareness that it had overstayed its welcome and would have to govern with even stricter controls than before.

 Likewise, the trial of The Guardian Newspapers Limited, and two of its reporters exposed the fragility of the press and press freedom in the hands of intolerant rulers, and the dangers journalists are exposed to in the coverage of political news.

 Aside from government control of the media through laws, decrees and the courts, other means of control exist and obstruct freedom of expression. The government used certain preferential treatments to 'buy' the most influential journalists in the country appointing these influential critics in the media to top positions within the government.

 This ensured that journalists were reduced to being mere stooges of government officials. “…It is not surprising therefore that the then editor of the Guardian had to publish an article reassuring his readers that his proprietor's (Mr. Alex Ibru) acceptance of a ministerial appointment in the government could not influence the objectivity of the newspaper in handling issues concerning government…”

 As the nation was preparing for the fourth republic prior to the 1993 general elections, a number of privately owned newspapers emerged. These newspapers and others that came into existence after the 12 June annulment, played significant roles in criticizing the military government. Since then, the country had seen a formidable opposition press, which in spite of all forms of intimidation had turned the people’s encounter with government into full battle.

 

 

 

 

The Government of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and The Press of That Time (1999 – 2006)

 During the dictatorship of Sani Abacha (1993–1998), Obasanjo spoke out against the human rights abuses of the regime, and was imprisoned for his participation in a bait coup. He was released only after Abacha's sudden death on 8 June 1998. It was after his release from prison that Obasanjo announced that he was a born-again Christian.

 Normally, Government, state of federal, always find a way of dismissing Judges that passed judgment against them, Obasanjo’s administration never did that. The law council was more independent in the dismissal of corrupt or comprised judges. This made the press assume that his administration was credible, thus several appraisal of commendation usually crammed the media during the early years of his first tenure (1999-2003).

 After Obasanjo won the civilian election in 1999, after a long stretch of military rule, there seemed a glimmer of hope for the press and its freedom.

 Obasanjo was said to have viewed the press with disdain, and during his previous regime, harassment of the press was intensified, but the press knew that under this new democratic dispensation, his hands were tied and he had to live with the press that had always been critical of him.

 This was possible when he was unable to implement reforms and development effectively to states and local government level (even in the states controlled by his party, the People’s Democratic Party). The states and local governments were still riddled with corrupt officials, and he failed to solve police and security issues in the country as he promised in his manifesto.

 His third term ambition was seen by the press as being over zealous. He had become chairman of the board of trustees of the PDP, and from that position he could control nominations for government positions and even policy and strategy.

 It is correct to say that in Nigeria today, there are no fiercer oppositions against the government other than the independent media. They (independent media) championed the call for the passage of the Freedom of Information bill, which several civilian government has many times tried to evade its promulgation into law (although it did not come to be in this dispensation either).

 The main objectives of the presses of the 21^st century in Nigeria were to help create and develop a properly implemented democratic government, which would be responsible to the people (masses), and likewise be held liable for every action they take

 The press was saddled with the responsiblilty of being the gatekeepers between government and the people, making them the “fourth estate of the realm”, after the evecutive, legislative and judiciary arms of government.