Elder Senator Anyim Ude is a former senator who represented Ebonyi South Senatorial District at the upper legislative chamber of the federal republic of Nigeria in 2007. He clocked 80 on June 1, 2021. During his birthday celebration he interacted with our correspondent Ruth Oginyi on media practice in Nigeria during military and civilian regimes in the country.
What is your reflection on media practice then and now?
When I compare what we did and what is happening now, I have the impression that the military was more tolerant in terms of issues affecting the media than the present leaders. For instance, we operated mainly during the military period between 1966 and 1979 when the military handed over to the former president Shehu Shagari.
I was in the news so I am making my comments based on personal experience managing news operations and writing news, doing news analysis. l have the impression, now when I compare the two periods, that the military was more tolerant than the present civilian administration.
For instance, I operated on the radio from the lowest to the highest but no time did any military governor direct me or anybody in my establishment to put the news in a particular dimension. They believed we were professionals and so we knew what to say and when to say it and we gave everybody a chance. Even when the military allowed the politicians to come on board and start competing for positions, we gave everybody a chance.
There were parties supervised by the military SDP, NRC, etc but what we observe now is that it is unlikely that you go to any state radio or television and you hear any mention of an opposition party. If for instance, it is PDP that is in power, you will never hear anything about APC; if it is APC you will never hear anything about PDP. That is intolerance and I also pick a few information here and there when I travel outside my base. We have some governors with commissioners of information, special advisers on media that write their news and force it on the media people. I give you one example when I talk of intolerance.
When I was the general manager of BCA Umuahia in 1992, the NRC was in power with Dr Ogbonnaya Onu as the governor and when people saw how we were accommodating opinions and news from both parties, SDP in particular in that NRC-controlled state, they went and told him some false story that we were giving more prominence to SDP than NRC, saying that it appeared that the DG was a member of SDP. However, he told them he knew the man there and that he was doing his job.
One day we were discussing, he mentioned it and I thanked him for defending me, adding that any day he lost confidence in me or my colleagues who were working with me, he should just tell me and I will resign. You don’t need to sack me. So, the issue of intolerance is what bothers me and this is part of what gave room for this thing they now call fake news on social media.
When you don’t allow people to express their views honestly, through the normal channels, when you stifle them and believe that what you say is what you do and what your party does must be heard, they find other areas of expressing their opinions. That is the major difference between our time and now. When some of us who sit by the side watching make contact with the editors or managers, they draw our attention to this thing and they express their helplessness and the professional body, like NUJ, should come out in defence. Sometimes, they don’t go as far as they should go to make the authority accept their professionalism and so, the younger ones are at a loss sometimes and then they say ‘ok, let me not lose my job; let’s sing their song.’
What do you think will be a way forward to remedy the decaying situation?
First of all, the professional bodies, like the NUJ I just mentioned, should do more than what they are doing now because when a journalist knows that he has a defence, he has a group of people that will come to his defence if he is victimised by the government, for instance, he will be encouraged to withstand the dust and they must be professional. It is not to go and collect money from people and write what you should not write. You, too. must be sure you are professional in your approach to issues.
What is your take on Biafra agitation?
It is a very sensitive thing, a very delicate thing. Some of us who went through the Biafra war knew what led to the war and how it ended on a note of ‘no victor no vanquished.’ We know how we crawled back to Nigeria; some not very happy but could do nothing about it. We thought we were properly welcomed and accommodated but, over time, now over 50 years, the signals are reminding us of the things that led to the war in 1966.
What are those signals? Exclusion of some tribes, some zones, some states from the mainstream of Nigeria, either in terms of appointment, provision of infrastructure facilities. Like the Sultan of Sokoto said, not too long ago, the leaders should know that the youths are hungry and angry. They should ask questions. Call them, listen to them, ask them why they are angry and attend to their needs. The answer is not to get a big koboko and say ‘no, we must crush you!’”
Nigeria is like an egg in the hands of our elected political leaders. They should not allow that egg to fall. It will be tragic.
Do you think we are heading to another civil war considering the way things are going?
What! The fears are there; the cloud is gathering but one good thing the older ones, like us, see is that God has a way of coming in to rescue us and so we expect God’s intervention. How it will come, we don’t know but for us, Christians, we believe God will not allow Nigeria to die; he will still do that thing he did in the past and teach our political leaders some good lessons on how to do things properly, fairly and not attempt to discriminate against one another using religion or ethnicity but be fair to all concerned.
What is your advice to southeast governors in tackling insecurity in the zone?
Well, I think, for now, they are doing the best they can under the circumstances. The alignment they are having with their colleagues in the South-South, South West and the North Central is going to help bring some pressure to any of their colleagues in the far north. It will help to bring these dangerous signals to the end and, at the end of the day, the suggestion will be to assemble a conference where everybody will be and at the end, we find a solution.
There is no way, even in the international war, that, at the end, people do not go to the table and sort out themselves. So, we are expecting that our leaders in the South East, South-South and North Central will see reasons and get together regardless of party.