Media Freedom: How Ganduje’s Govt, Where Garba Was the Image Maker, Gagged the Media

By Danlami Ibrahim

It’s laughable enough to read a statement issued by former NUJ President, Malam Comrade Muhammad Garba, in which he accused the present Kano State Government of press intimidation by validating the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism’s report on media intimidation in Kano.

Maybe Muhammad Garba, who was the image maker and chief information officer of the Kano Government, where he served as the state commissioner for information, easily forgets how the former Ganduje Government gagged the media through intimidation and threats.

Maybe Muhammad Garba was intoxicated by power then, as the state commissioner for information, which is why he is now slamming the present Government of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf for gagging the press.

There were many atrocities committed under the government in which he served as information commissioner not only intimidating the press, but to borrow a word from an article once written by one of Nigeria’s veteran journalists, Bala Ibrahim, titled “Governor Ganduje Going Gaga.”

Not only “going Gaga” in 2018, the publisher of Daily Nigerian was asked to come to Kano and testify before the state assembly on the Dollar video. From the Kano airport to the state assembly, the Daily Nigerian publisher was accompanied by heavy security due to fear of the unknown if he were allowed to come alone.

By 2021, Jaafar Jaafar had to flee Nigeria due to fear for his life and that of his family. As such, former Governor Ganduje was accused of “going Gaga.”

During the March 9 inconclusive election that returned Governor Ganduje for a second term, in Gama ward where the inconclusive election and other wards took place many journalists, including those who came from Lagos and some members of the Correspondents’ Chapel, had to flee for fear of their lives as thugs were recruited to attack them. Some were even attacked, but for one reason or another, the journalists themselves kept mute. Some said they were persuaded by Garba to keep quiet. Only Freedom Radio aired the story.

For the record of students of media history, let me also remind Comrade Garba, who was a two-term president of the NUJ, how government media reporters at the Emir’s Palace were withdrawn when the Government of Ganduje drew a battle line with Emir Muhammad Sanusi II.

Another scenario was the expulsion of a Freedom Radio reporter attached to Kano Government House during Governor Ganduje’s tenure Abbas Yushau Yusuf—over a robbery incident he reported, which affected Governor Ganduje’s convoy on their way to Jos.

It was under Comrade Muhammad Garba’s watch that journalists in Kano were divided, as his ministry excluded some from its activities. Instead of carrying all journalists along, the then government had a selective approach, which brought serious division.

Another incident was when former Governor Ganduje’s convoy was again attacked on its way from Zamfara to Kano. Many journalists in the crew developed a sense of fear and chose not to report the incident. Reports say they were even warned not to report it, which is a clear breach of their constitutional mandate.

The government in which Comrade Garba served as commissioner for information had, on several occasions, come out to falsify reports by the media that the state government perceived as negative.

It’s good to always reflect on records and history.
Danlami Ibrahim writes from Kano.