Governor Matawalle Again

The Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Putting it appropriately, he benefitted from the rascality of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for which they were punished by the judiciary. Soon after he was sworn-in, he jumped ship and joined the APC. Since then, it has been one false move after another by the leader of a state besieged on all fronts by a myriad of problems ranging from insecurity to poor assessment of the actual needs of the people and how best to manage available resources to improve the welfare of the down-trodden.

Recently, he was in the news, again, for the wrong reason. The governor, reportedly, shutdown four media organisations in the state: Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Gamji Television, Alumna Television and Pride FM station. His reason for taken this obvious bizarre decision is equally preposterous. According to media reports, the affected stations were punished for providing media coverage for a rally by the PDP Governorship candidate in the state, Dr Dauda Lawan Dare.

Matawalle rationalised the illegal order by claiming that his government had banned campaigns for security reasons. Indeed. We are informed enough to educate the governor that the Electoral Act, promulgated by the National Assembly and assented to by the President is a law that must take precedence over any other quasi-order by a state government for whatever reasons. As provided, any law on electoral issues that is inconsistent with the Electoral Law is, to the extent of that inconsistency, null and void. The Attorney general of the state ought to have advised him properly.

Be that as it may and as is to be expected, the ill-advised and heavy-handed order by the governor is receiving widespread criticism with media stakeholders condemning it as reprehensible and unacceptable. As at the time of this report, the governor has resisted entreaties for him to rescind the decision which was taken in bad faith to hamstring the political outing of his opponent because he assumed, wrongly, that he was in a position so to do.

This newspaper is compelled to remind the governor that in compliance with the Electoral Act, political activities including campaign rallies by candidates, have officially commenced. Which means that the PDP candidate in question acted within the law to have held the rally and, the media, in the performance of their statutory roles of informing, educating, enlightening and entertaining the people, were well within their rights as provided by law to cover such political gatherings.

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The security situation in that state, it must be pointed out to the overzealous operatives in Zamfara state, is not a recent development. Some despicable things had happened within government circles even with the security situation so deplorable. Actually, at the peak of it, the governor threw caution to the wind and wasted state resources that could have been deployed to serve the security needs of the people in buying limousines for traditional rulers. The royal fathers themselves, the beneficiaries, frowned at that misplacement of priority. It was also in the same state that a wanted terrorist was recognised publicly and a revered traditional title conferred on him. The terrorist’s comrades in crime were all present, the state government and its agencies looked the other way and only half-heartedly acted when the public rose in uproar.

We admit that Zamfara state has been a playing field for bandits, terrorists and other anti-social elements pursuing agenda that are as criminal as they are irresponsible. Similar scenario is playing out in Kaduna and Katsina states in the same North west. But it is nothing compared with what obtains in the North east or even in the South east. But at no time did the governors in those areas attempted to play smart so as to disorganise the opposition. We agree that there were pranks aimed at disallowing the use of certain venues for political purposes but the matter did not get to the level of shutting down media houses on the basis of a flimsy and ill-conceived official instrument.

Curiously, in our opinion, the federal government seem to have acquiesced to this illegality even as one of the media houses affected in this brain-wave belongs to it. The perception in political circles is that what happened in Zamfara is indicative of a pervasive tendency towards desperation by the ruling party with the sole aim of ensuring that the other political parties lose steam. If that is the case, then, we consider it unfortunate and an attempt to constrict the democratic space.

However, and in our considered view, we endorse the joint position of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the International Press Institute (IPI) that what Matawalle did violates the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as other international statutes. To this end, therefore, we are persuaded to urge the federal government to call Zamfara state governor to order and force him to reopen the media houses. We  are assuming that it, the federal government, is not complicit in this misdirection.