By Emeka Alex Duru
(08054103327)
No matter the restraints, the temptation to liken Ebonyi State governor, Dave Umahi to the German strongman, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and General Sani Abacha pushes greatly. The four share similarities in pint size, volatile temperament and highhandedness. Hitler, Mussolini and Abacha gave comparative attention to infrastructure uplift in their countries during their time. But beneath the agenda at flashy physical environment, lay an insidious mind that did not brook opposition of any sort. They were dictators. Umahi seems bent on fitting into this class.
Critics and admirers concede high intelligence and hard work to the governor. Of course, given his efforts in transforming Abakaliki the state capital from the status of a glorified village, he can lay claim to good performance. He can also beat his chest for paying workers’ salaries, especially in our unusual system where such is celebrated as an achievement. If these are the feats making him to see himself as a demigod before whom all must genuflect or prostrate, it is yet to be properly situated. But whatever it is, he appears to be a victim of narcissism who likes to be celebrated even when he does not deserve such.
This will explain why he is usually at odds with journalists that he does not count among his cheer men. In the last five years of being in power, Umahi parades the odious record of falling out with journalists more than any other governor. His latest victims were the Correspondents of The Sun Newspapers, Chijioke Agwu, and the Vanguard Newspapers, Peter Okutu, who he barred from entering Government House and all government facilities in the State over reports he considered uncomplimentary to his administration.
The governor announced the ban on the two journalists through a live broadcast aired in the State’s television and radio stations. To spice up the broadcast, he reminded the journalists that if they thought they had the pen, he had the koboko (Cain). He threatened to halt the allowances to members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in the state for two months because of the failure of the organisation to discipline its members.
Umahi’s relationship with the media, has not been robust. Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Obinna Odogwu and Emmanuel Uzor, all of The Sun Newspapers, had earlier had brushes with him. In similar way, Samuel Nweze, publisher of Peoples Leader Newspaper and Charles Otu, publisher of Conscience Newspaper, two local tabloids based in Ebonyi, had had issues with him. His order on Agwu and Okutu is therefore in line with his style of running Ebonyi. The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), a human rights group describes him as a man of highhandedness. In a statement after the ban on the journalists, the group went to town on his dictatorial antics.
“In Governor Umahi’s administration in Ebonyi State, government appointees and citizens live in perpetual fear. He behaves like the Lord of the Manor, his words are law while the EXCO members of his administration are made to become dummies that have no idea to bring during meetings but decisions are shoved down their throat to implement even against their will”, the CLO wrote.
This sums up the mood and mindset of the man the journalists in Ebonyi are dealing with. When therefore he was banning the journalists from covering the activities of the state for life, Umahi was merely acting the modern day King Louis XIV of France, who in the height of his power and grandeur, declared ‘L’etat c’est moi’ ( I am the State). For Umahi, everything in Ebonyi, should be about him. He dispenses favour to who he is pleased with and hands out punishment accordingly. He is truly the State of Ebonyi. Withholding the allowances of members of the NUJ is thus, the most appropriate means of calling the media men to order, he must have amused himself; after all, he that pays the piper dictates the tune.
But is Umahi to be blame? Truth be told, he should not. The blame should rather go to the system that has reduced the media man to a servile position in a nation he has regularly put his life on the line to keep running. The media managers also share in the blame. When the media owners send out the Reporters without the necessary empowerment, they are exposing them to all manner of experiences. It is akin to sending one to a salt market and invoking the rains on him. With the exception of few, most media establishments in the country are owing their employees various ranges of salary arrears that in some cases run into years. In that regard, the journalists are left to fend for themselves. This affects the standards in the industry. It also makes the practitioners vulnerable to the fleeting temperament of the likes of the Ebonyi governor.
The way to avoid the sordid experience from Umahi and his fellow petty minds is returning the practice to its glorious past. It will require a drastic change from the mindset that pigeonholes the journalist as a mere watchdog to the avant-garde of his society. Practitioners and media owners have a huge role here. Journalism in Nigeria needs to be repositioned so that the practitioners will no longer be seen as the flotsam and jetsam of the society who are not good in anything else, as Chief Obafemi Awolowo observed in his great book, Awo: The Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
It is only by this that Umahi and his co-travellers will begin to accord the media men their deserved respect. Besides, he needs to be educated that Nigeria that has today made him a governor, could not have come to be without the heroic efforts of Journalists as Herbert Macauley, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Awolowo, Bob Ogbuagu, Melie Kafundu Chukelu (MCK) Ajuluchukwu, Mokwugo Okoye, Lateef Jakande, among others. He may also not even be sitting in Ebonyi State government House but for the spirited fight the journalists gave to the ravenous military administrations of Generals Ibgrahim Babangida and Abacha.
