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To promote democratic societies around the world, the United Nations designated September 15 as the International Day of Democracy, which was commemorated yesterday. This day is celebrated every year to carefully examine the state of democracy around the world, encourage democratic movements and promote freedom, peace and human rights. Democracy is a system of government in which the citizens of a country will be represented by voting. In a true democracy, citizens can take an active role in government and hold leaders accountable by election. Furthermore, democracy is related to human rights and aims to ensure that everyone in society is represented. International Day of Democracy was first established by the United Nations in 2007 and each year, its activities revolve around a different theme. This year’s theme focuses on the significance of Media Freedom for Democracy, Peace, and the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. A free, independent and pluralistic media that informs the public on matters of public interest is a key element of democracy. Also, democracy enables the public to make informed decisions and holds the government accountable. When media freedom is threatened, the flow of information can be stifled, distorted or cut off entirely. Journalists around the world are increasingly facing constraints on their ability to function freely – with serious implications for human rights, democracy, and development. While the COVID-19 crisis has created major challenges globally, new upheavals in Europe are reminding the world that democratic principles are constantly under threat. Now more than ever, democracy is regressing, civic space is shrinking, distrust and disinformation are growing, and threats to the freedom of journalists and media workers are expanding. In a video message to mark the day, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres’ stressed that “democracy cannot survive without a free press, freedom of expression”. Hence, protecting media freedom is a critical component of a healthy democracy. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reported that 85 per cent of the world’s population experienced a decline in press freedom in the past five years. Globally, media practitioners are increasingly facing attacks (online and offline) and expanded detention. Governments use defamation, cybersecurity or hate speech laws to curb online expression. There is growing use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation Laws (SLAPPS) and surveillance techniques to target and hinder the work of journalists. The COVID-19 crisis has also demonstrated the need for the media to gather and assess facts and combat disinformation. Female journalists are particularly affected. UNESCO and the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) found that 73 per cent of 714 female journalists from 125 countries reported experiencing online violence during their work. Attempts to silence journalists are increasing, and they often pay the ultimate price. From 2016 to the end of 2021, UNESCO documented the killing of 455 journalists, either because of or on the job. Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But around the world, some governments and those in power are trying to get in the way. Article 19 states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Unfortunately, Nigeria has never lacked rulers who pay lip service to democracy. The country has many mediocre politicians in leadership positions who need a basic understanding of democracy and the ability to unleash the boundless productivity and creativity of the people. The Nigerian State, therefore, strives in vain to build “democracy without democrats.” Nigeria needs to strengthen its democratic institutions to promote the rule of law. These institutions include political parties, electoral management bodies, legislatures, judiciary, executive authorities, media and civil society, among others. Although there is no denying that the institutions work to an extent in the country, they need to be more efficient and effective. A ranking of 115 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index 2020 highlights the precarious state of liberty in Nigeria, 22 years into the Fourth Republic. The conclusion by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) that journalists in the country operate under a “climate of permanent violence” where they “are often spied upon, attacked, arbitrarily arrested or even killed,” is an indictment of the government. It shows how very little progress has been made in entrenching respect for human rights as a major prop of democracy. Attempts to weaken the media identified by the RWB include the arrest of journalists, killings, disinformation and state-sponsored violence at public events such as rallies and elections. It cited harassment by the police and some governors. Even though the most recent ranking was 120 in 2019, even this damning account sounds tame for Nigerians who have had to endure the brutality of politicians and security agents since 1999 and the previous junta. Maintaining the spirit of International Day of Democracy, the Nigerian government and lawmakers must halt their obsession with passing restrictive laws to gag the media and suppress social media as was the case with Twitter, and the continuous clampdown on the electronic media for very flimsy reasons. Nigerians should boycott political leaders who act like medieval emperors, are intolerant of criticisms and tend to be arrogant. As Thomas Jefferson rightly wrote to a friend in 1787, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Every Nigerian has a responsibility to defend the right to freedom of speech and the press.
Business activities at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, appear to be taking an ironic twist, particularly at the arrival terminal area, as touts and touting actions have now gained tremendous advantages at the arrival arena. Many arrival passengers have never been finding it easy with the influx of touts, who claim to be hustling at the airport for their daily bread. Some passengers brazenly argue or scream at them for foisting themselves on them. The number of hustlers has risen in recent times and their manner of operation is to approach arrival passengers, whether known or unknown, to ask for assistance with the following opening gambit: “Anything for the boys? Your boys are here-o”; or “Welcome-ooo, your boys are hungry; we are loyal-ooo”. They constitute a nuisance, as several times open brawls had ensued among them on how to share money from some benevolent arrival individuals. Nevertheless, a few of them conduct themselves well as they assist passengers to load or offload their luggage, and are appreciated by such passengers, while others shun them. The question is: Why does this situation persist while the airport management is apathetic, even when some commuters have been protesting? The security operatives, particularly the airport security personnel, appear to be overwhelmed by the situation. Especially worrisome are the criminal activities of some airport taxi operators, who periodically abduct their passengers and take them off their routes to strange destinations, robbing, maiming, or even killing them. Furthermore, there seems to be an intentional endeavour by the taxi hire service operators to convert the airport into a motor park. Car theft and vandalism at the airfield, among other nefarious activities, are now widespread. Flight ticket racketeers otherwise referred to as fraudsters, that were once flushed out of the airport, have resurfaced with their scandalous activities. This paper had initially reported their unwholesome acts when they emerged sometime last year, which were promptly tackled by the airport’s management. The phenomenon has taken another bold dimension as they carry out their actions more openly. They extort money from travellers who are not conversant with airport operations. The Port Harcourt airport is not alone in this unpleasant state of affairs. Other airports in the country exist in a similar portentous state. Common criminals breaching security layers at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, raise a red flag that should bother all responsible agencies. Curiously, the flagship international airport in Lagos has become infamous for violations of security standards that civil aviation upholds globally. Recently, Seymour Aviation Multi-Level Car Park which services the international entry port has become a den of thieves where parked vehicles are vandalised and assets stripped off. Last December, Arik Air filed an occurrence report with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on the attempted robbery of its taxing aircraft by unidentified men who encroached the runway at the Lagos airport. According to reports, runway robbers attempting to open the cargo compartment of its taxing Boeing 737-800 was the second of such foiled attempts recorded by the local airline in just two weeks. On December 16, 2021, it was the case of an ignorant auto-technician test-running a faulty car on the Runway 18L and heading for a collision with an oncoming Max Air Jet. In March 2021, suspected bandits stormed the staff quarters of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) at the Kaduna International Airport and abducted some families. And one year later, gunmen attacked an area very close to the airport runway and a security operative with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) was shot dead. The MMIA recently witnessed another blight show. On Runway 18R, the mangled body of a young man who probably dropped from the undercarriage compartment of an aircraft was found. Security operatives who removed the body for further investigation believed that it could only be another failed stowaway attempt. As the busiest gateway in Nigeria, the Lagos airport has an unbeaten record of having the highest number of stowaways. No fewer than 25 airports in the country are exposed to security breaches, due mainly to substandard fencing. Currently, some international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt have partial perimeter fencing, while the others owned by the Federal Government are not yet properly fenced, a situation which has led to encroachments on the lands by some undesirable elements. The alarm raised by the Federal Government over plans by some criminals to attack major airports across the country has further heightened the security challenges facing Africa’s most populous nation. Despite being plagued with leadership incompetence and a faltering economy, Nigeria also gasps in the grip of terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping. The threat to attack airports is a new dimension that must be prevented at all costs. Nigerian aviation is not yet on the path of wisdom given its tolerance for petty thieves, touts, beggars, extortionists, accomplices of illicit trades and other corruption acolytes. They are all testaments to the vulnerability of the air transport system, and a loophole for criminals to explore. But to avert doomsday, it is time all responsible agencies woke up to their duties and sanitise the system for the good of all. Every effort to protect our airports must be calculatedly executed and no one, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to compromise security directives at the terminals. Passengers and workers within the airport premises should demonstrate responsibility because security is everybody’s business. They should be on alert and swiftly report perceived threats to the security forces. This is not the time for security agents to show overzealousness. Vigilance should be the catchphrase of everyone to collectively frustrate the stunts of criminals.
These are difficult times for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). An exacerbating leadership crisis is increasingly threatening to split Nigeria’s main opposition party. The whole crunch has been reduced to calls for the resignation of the current National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu. This has thrown up push and pull forces around the tenure of the embattled party chairman. One camp, led by the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, is insisting on Ayu’s resignation as a condition for peace. The opposing group headed by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is putting up opposition to the call. The growing dissension has caught up with practically all the crucial organs of the party, slashing their ranks down the middle. The situation has now assumed a North/South power struggle built around mutual distrust and suspicion. The National Working Committee (NWC), which Ayu heads, is not insulated from the conflict. Members of the organ are split up over calls for the chairman’s resignation. The emergence of Atiku as a presidential candidate has altered the entire power control levers in existence before the presidential primaries. The call for Ayu’s sack took an extensive appeal as some Southern and Northern leaders, like PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) member, Chief Bode George, and former Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang, joined the call for the party’s leadership structure to be balanced and reflect a North/South geopolitical spread. While Atiku has declined to commit to Ayu’s sack, the national chairman had declared that he would not vacate the seat because he was elected for a four-year term in office. But the gulf between both camps further widened when Ayu got a confidence vote from members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) last Thursday after weeks of speculations about whether he should retain his seat. The decision did not go down well with Wike’s group, which has continued to insist that he must step down. The former BoT chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, however, gave up his position for Senator Adolphus Wabara, the former Board Secretary, who moved in as acting chairman to guarantee the presence of the South in the party’s top leadership echelon. This has been repudiated by the Wike’s camp as not far-reaching enough. Every effort must be made to end the impasse in the main opposition party. We are concerned and deeply worried that the unfolding events in the PDP portend a possible recast of the 2015 scenario, where unresolved internal disputes led to high-profile defections to the then-opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). Among the defectors were five PDP governors who accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of reneging on a gentleman’s agreement to zone the party’s presidential ticket to the North. Senator Ayu’s indiscretion is to blame for the current escalation of the problem. Rather than pursue a peaceful resolution of the matter, the national chairman reacted provocatively to the issues at stake. As the party chairman, we expected that he would be more circumspect and peace-embracing in handling the matters. Unfortunately, he reacted immaturely. His reference to Governor Wike and his supporters as “children” in issues of politics is regrettable. This indicates that the chairman is a poor crisis manager and puerile in his temperament and approach. It is within the right of the Rivers State governor and his proponents to ask for what is fair and equitable, particularly when there is evidence that the presidential candidate of the party strongly promised that Ayu would step down soon after the primaries to maintain the power-sharing tradition which PDP is recognised and known for. It is unfair for the national chairman and Atiku to renege on this all-important mutual pact. Therefore, Wike’s insistence on the right thing to be done is justifiable because it serves the interests of justice, peace, and unity in the party. And the right thing is for Ayu to identify with popular calls for him to resign, since he cannot emerge from the same region as Atiku. The truth is if the PDP must go into the campaigns and subsequently the general elections unscathed and in one accord, the so-called confidence vote on the national chairman by the NEC must be revoked to prevent disintegration. Ayu’s complete disbelief in the party’s history and its philosophy of inclusion, spread, and fairness is inconsistent with its founding fathers. The reason the chairman initially committed to resignation should the presidential candidate emerge from the North was because of the established norms and conventions that find an anchor in the principle of rotation and inclusion. Furthermore, the reason former Vice President Abubakar and others left the PDP in the run-up to the 2015 elections was due to the perceived breach in the rotation of power arrangement that led to the party’s defeat. It is therefore self-serving and myopic for anyone to advise the party to violate a well-known and settled principle between the North and South that prohibits the presidential candidate and the national chairman to come from the same region. It is unfounded and deceptive to say that five months to the 2023 elections is too short for the party to embark on a simple re-organisation of the NWC to guarantee the inclusion of the South and success at the poll. The emerging arrogance and grandstanding in some quarters that the North has aligned towards the PDP and therefore the South has become inconsequential may be the party’s undoing for the third time. Every time the PDP lost between 2015 and 2019, it relegated the South in the scheme of things, and it is in the interest of the party to rise above manipulated pre-election polls that tend to corner the presidential candidate to expend money and move on with the campaigns. A party with 13 governors and in which about five are in controversy is a non-starter ahead of the 2023 elections, regardless of sentiment and grandstanding and also not when competing against a party like the APC. Nigerians are carefully watching the PDP whether it is a party that can rescue the nation and guarantee fairness. It is this kind of short-changing of the South in the main opposition party structure that will make the people rethink. Sadly, the party appears not to have learnt enough lessons that would make it stand firm against all odds, as individual ambition is fast becoming the overriding interest of its leaders rather than the passion to serve the nation. The crisis in the main opposition party has robbed Nigerians of the opportunity of giving attention to alternative views and having the Federal Government put on its toes. Not a few Nigerians were disappointed that the party could not project any official position when the pump price of petrol was recently jerked up. Former Vice President Atiku, who today is regarded as the head of the party, must brace up to the challenge and muster the political will to do what is right. He has to reopen negotiations quickly and consider Wike’s demands, including ensuring Ayu’s exit for peace to return to the party. We make bold to state that Governor Wike cannot be intimidated, ignored or relegated, as he still relishes an enormous following. The party must beware of the activities of moles and fifth columnists in its folds, whose interest may be to fan the embers of a relentless feud for the APC to reap from and advance in power beyond 2023.
Today, the world marks the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) designated 9 September to observe the Day. Education is acknowledged as a fundamental right, despite the situations, and countries must safeguard schools and children’s right to learn. Many children are denied this essential right because of the persistent attacks on educational facilities. In commemorating the Day, UNGA denounces attacks on education and the use of schools by military forces in violation of international law. It recognises the grave consequence of such attacks, particularly on women and girls, and calls for action to prevent them. It also calls on states to do more to mobilise resources for humanitarian funding and education programmes. While we admit the facts may vary across several countries, the bottom line remains the same. Increasingly in conflict countries and fragile states, teachers, and students are putting their lives at risk simply by showing up at school because rebels, terrorists, armed forces, and repressive regimes consider schools, universities, students, and teachers to be legitimate targets. It is crucial that schools be safe because they are convenient and positive environments for teaching and learning. Dangers to students and teachers from external threats pose occupational health and safety issues, as shown by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other health and safety concerns include poorly designed school buildings, exposure to asbestos or other hazardous substances, psycho-social threats like work-related stress, violence, and harassment. However, regardless of progress in protecting education from attack, the extent of assaults remains disturbing. The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), an inter-agency coalition that addresses the problem of targeted invasions on education during armed conflict, has documented a systematic pattern of onslaughts on education in 37 countries, and military use of schools and universities in 34 countries over the last five years. Armed forces and groups were reportedly responsible for sexual violence in, or on the way to or from schools and universities in at least 17 countries, GCPEA said. Female students and teachers were directly targeted in the same period because of their gender, including the bombing of girls’ schools, abduction, rape, and harassment, in at least 21 countries. Offensives on schools have become progressively frequent in news headlines in several African countries. Since the 2014 Chibok girls’ kidnapping in Nigeria, blitzes on schools have continued to rise. While some children have been released by or have escaped from the kidnappers, many remain in captivity. Leah Sharibu is one of those children. At the age of 14, Leah was among the hundred girls kidnapped from a government school in Yobe in February 2018. Because of her disinclination to conform to the beliefs of her kidnappers, she has since been held captive like many other children in the region, including some Chibok girls. Whether they are released or not, the forays disrupt or completely halt education for many of these children. These stories, unfortunately, are not uncommon. Nearly two million children, particularly in Western and Central Africa, cannot attend schools following the growing insecurity in and around institutions. In numerous instances, schools are direct targets of assailment. Data from 2018 show that more than a quarter of all the verified incursions on schools globally took place in the region. Nigeria’s descent further into the cavity of state failure is becoming ignominiously obvious in its incapability to protect school children from banditry. Reports say that more than 800 students, including those attending higher institutions, have been abducted in coordinated attacks on schools in mostly Northern states in recent times. While some students were lucky to be freed, others like Dorothy Yohanna, Precious Nwakacha, Sadiq Muazu and Benjamin Habilla were all brutally murdered. Notwithstanding the closure of schools for over six months nationwide two years ago, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, states have once again been compelled to shut over 60 mostly boarding schools in susceptible areas because of insecurity. This has increased the number of out-of-school children put at 20 million, as parents are daily being restrained from taking their children to school. Security must be beefed up within and around schools, especially boarding schools located in remote areas. Incidentally, the Northern states that are closing down schools make up for over 80 per cent of the total number of children out of school and the area is the least developed region in the country. But the answer to insecurity in schools is not to shut the schools down. It is to enrich security by involving the communities. The closing of schools inadvertently fosters Boko Haram’s agenda, which is that Western education is evil and should be discontinued. Unfortunately, long after the Federal Government inaugurated the Safe School Initiative to ensure a safe school environment for schoolchildren, things have worsened even as the $30 million raised for the programme has now become a subject of an altercation. This does not characterise Nigeria as a country that is ready to take education or the security of students sincerely. The growth in violent attacks in and around schools will not be deciphered overnight, but identifying the magnitude of the challenge is the first step. Governments can build schools with the most modern infrastructure, equip them with the best books and learning materials, and train teachers with the best pedagogical techniques. However, little advancement will be made in education if children cannot attend school because they worry about what might happen if they do. Article 26 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that everyone is entitled to education. This right to education has been reaffirmed in many human rights treaties and declarations adopted by the United Nations, to which Nigeria is a party. We must therefore protect this right by ensuring that children are not kidnapped. As Amnesty International points out, schools should be safe places and children should not be compelled to choose between their education and their lives.
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