11
and decided to return the military to the barracks. After years of military dictatorship and a
relentless anti-military media and civil society, the military had no choice. General Abubakar
organized national elections in 1999 in which Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired general and former
military leader emerged as the new President under the platform of the People’s Democratic
Party. From 1999 to 2011 Nigeria enjoyed 12 years of civil rule, although flaws and the very
pertinent issues that threaten to disrupt her unity still remain unresolved. Most scholars agree
that Nigeria’s problems flow largely from incompetent leadership which has brought upon it
endemic corruption, reckless financial management of the revenue earned from the oil rich
Niger Delta, and ethnic and religious tensions.
11
The media in Nigeria have had to operate
under an unstable political dispensation, quasi-democratic and a dictatorial military
environment for nearly three decades.
2.2. NIGERIA: MEDIA OVERVIEW
Nigeria possesses one of Africa’s most vibrant and still thriving media on the continent.
12
In
almost five decades, the Nigerian media has blossomed and survived several attempts at
curbing it.
13
With over 100 newspapers and magazines in circulation and presently over 40
television stations with about a dozen of them privately owned and a proliferation of about
100 AM and FM (mostly private) radio stations,
14
the media are not doing badly. Radio remains
king.
In 1994 the deregulation of the broadcast sector led to the emergence of private television and
radio stations which was dynamic in altering the media landscape.
15
The free rein of these
private media organs was somewhat curtailed in 2004, when Nigeria’s National Broadcasting
Commission, NBC, the government regulator, banned the live relay of foreign news and
programs on domestic channels. This was seen as a subtle kind of censor by a government that
was politically insecure.
However, it is in the newspapers (print media) that the backbone of the Nigerian media can be
located. This is clearly justified by the history of the media industry. The combined circulation of
the newspapers in Nigeria has been on a steady decline, hovering around half a million in a
country of nearly 140 million. The reasons for the decline include the economic downturn, the
high cost of newsprint, and a marginalized middle class and in recent times the advent of the
internet and the multiplicity of online platforms to obtain news and information for free.
11
Usman, Abdullateef Ph.D. “Nigerian Socio-Economic and Political Direction Issues and Prospect for National
Growth and Development”. Department of Economics, University of Ilorin Ilorin, Nigeria, October 6,2009
12
Park R. Preface to Nigerian Press Under the Military: Persecution, Resilience and Political Crisis 1983-1993, in
Adeyemi A, A discussion Paper Presented at the Joan Shorenstein Center, JF Kennedy School of Government, and
Harvard University. May 1995
13
Kakuna Kerina, Introduction ‘Outliving Abacha: Six Nigerian Journalists Prison Notes”.CPJ Special Report, 1998
http://www.cpj.org/attacks98/1998/Africa/NigeriaSR.html
14
http://www.pressreference.com/Ma-No/Nigeria.html
15
Olutokun, Ayo, “Governance and the Media: Nigeria and East African Perspective” paper read at the Governance
Seminar, held at Novotel, Arusha Tanzania, May 12-16, 1996