Nigeria’s Whitewashed Heads of State — The Kano Emperors (4): Abacha’s End

By: Akinyemi, Muhammed Adedeji

Press Freedom and Repression Under Abacha

The anarchist//illustration by Sef

A dictator and free press are like oil and water, they do not mix well. Within two months of seizing power in November 1993, General Sani Abacha’s military government began a series of attacks on the media aimed at bending it to its will (1). The government has been provoked above all by the activities of a vibrant independent press which has been prominent in calling for an immediate and unconditional return to civilian rule (2). In furtherance of this, Abacha considered the creation of a press court. The special “press court” would try journalists accused of making “false reports” (3). The regime would subjectively determine what a false report was, and punish journalists accordingly.

From November 1993, dozens of journalists working for the independent press have been arbitrarily arrested and detained incommunicado without charge or trial for prolonged periods (4). Hundreds more have been arrested and briefly detained, sometimes repeatedly, by security agents of the government — either as a warning to them not to pursue sensitive or controversial stories or as punishment for stories already published (5). Journalists were detained under Decree 2, which precluded…