* Bwala |
By
Tony Icheku, Abuja
If
Inuwa Bwala was to belong to profession like medicine or law where
practitioners are registered before they can practice, he would have been
struck off the register of practitioners for unprofessional conduct and
criminality. But in Nigeria, the practice of journalism is not strictly
regimented, thus when Bwala was caught with his fingers literarily in the soup
pot, he was let off with a light tap on his itchy fingers. It was indeed a case
of ‘everyday for the thief, one day for the owner’
That
day of reckoning came for Bwala on November 14, 2016, when Justice M. T. Salihu
of Federal High Court, Maiduguri fined him over N5 million for false
publication, and authoring a false petition.
Bwala,
sacked as Commissioner for Information
in Borno State under controversial circumstances is also the publisher of
National Trail newspaper. He was dragged to the Federal High Court, Maiduguri
by Yusuf Dikko. Amongst other reliefs, Dikko sought a declaration that the
purported publication made in the April 27 - May 3, 2016 edition of the newspaper by Bwala, his newspaper, the National Trail and
his reporter, Dauda Mbaya was false.
He
further sought a declaration that a 2-page petition
against
the Borno Commissioner of Police, CP allegedly authored by him was false.
In
the course of the trial which also had the Borno State Commissioner of Police
as 4th respondent, it emerged that Bwala concocted a fictitious petition to the
CP signing Yusuf Dikko as the author. He then published the
fictitious petition in National Trail. This caused the arrest, detention and
unquantifiable suffering to Dikko,
Justice
Salihu delivering judgment, granted Dikko his relief, specifically that the
purported publication made in the April 27 - May 3, 2016 edition of the National Trail was false. He further
declared as false the 2-page petition
against the Borno Commissioner of Police, CP allegedly authored by Dikko. He restrained Bwala and
his agents from further publication of false stories against Dikko.
Justice
Salihu also ordered Bwala, to tender
unreserved apology to him in any national daily newspaper widely read in the
North-east, particularly in Maiduguri. Bwala and his newspaper company, Trail
Publications Limited are also to pay N5
million jointly as damages for authoring the false publication which led to the
arrest, detention of Dikko and causing him ridicule, embarrassment and
suffering.
The
4th respondent, the CP was fined N1 million for illegal arrest and detention of
Dikko without any complaint or having any reasonable justification to do so.
The respondents were equally jointly and severally fined N600,000 as costs of
litigation.
There
were reports that some quarters in Borno State were elated at Bwala's conviction. Certainly a black spot for the journalist with years of practice behind him and currently the
Media aide to Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, the factional National chairman of the
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
In Maiduguri, widespread views hold that since
he was eased off the cabinet of Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, Bwala had
wielded his pen rather unprofessionally and mercenarily, hacking perceived political opponents.
Indeed,
the Borno State Government had instituted several suits on libel against him,
but such cases had suffered hiccoughs here and there. Bwala often offers a
stout defense of him being victim of political victimisation, even when his reports
drips with falsehood, unconfirmed allegations and outright concortion
Nigeria’s
loose laws governing the practice of
journalism had allowed villians like Bwala to severally, deliberately publish
one-sided, distorted and alarmist stories against opponents for selfish,
personal agenda and mercantile interests.
Though
advocates of freedom of speech and freedom of expression are vehemently opposed
against laws regulating the practice of journalism. Nonetheless, they maintain
that transparency, integrity and accountability should serve as ethical
standards. The international body, Society of Professional Journalists insists
in their ethical standards that "Deliberate
distortion is never permissible".
In
the United States of America, USA where freedom of expression advocates canvass that the First Amendment guaranteeing free speech is 'untouchable', some 17 States
had made it a criminal offence to lie in politics, for instance, the law in West Virginia states: "Any
person who shall, knowingly, make or publish, or cause to be made or published,
any false statement in regard to any candidate, which statement is intended or tends to affect any voting at any
election whatever is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall
be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or confined in jail for not more
than one year, or, in the discretion of the court, shall be subject to both
such fine and imprisonment."
By
implication, if a scamp like Inuwa Bwala committed the offence for which he had
been convicted in West Virgina, USA, he would be cooling his heels in prison.
Unfortunately, even if he pays the fine, he will still continue to use his
rag-tag newspaper to concort falsehood, extort
and blackmail for his greed and mercantilist agenda.
Bwala's
conviction indeed lends credence to arguments in the past by the Special
Adviser on Communications and Strategy to Gov. Shettima, Malam Isa Gusau,
that Bwala is part of the cabal that is telling all manner
of lies against his principal.
In
an interview, Gusau has described the
cabal as "very desperate politicians struggling for power" and
engaging in the fabrication of all manner of reports published online and
in newspapers against the Borno
governor.
“A
cabal whose thuggish wing is led by a cruel and hurt sacked commissioner is
behind all the blackmail. The members want power at all cost but have lost out
in the APC and are not being welcomed in the PDP in Borno, so they are politically
homeless and would stop at nothing to set other homes on fire", Gusau
argued.
Perhaps
with the conviction of desperados like
Bwala, time has come to take
another look at the laws governing the practice of journalism in Nigeria. A
stitch in time saves nine
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