The International Press Institute (IPI), a global body committed to protecting press freedom and the free flow of information, has raised the alarm over the recent cases of media repression in Nigeria.

President, IPI Nigeria, Mr Musikilu Mojeed, raised the concern at a dinner organised by the institute, to honour one of its members and a retired Director, Digital Media, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Hajia Hadiza Hussaina Sani, in Abuja on Saturday.

LEADERSHIP reports that the dinner was organised to honour the media icon for her dedication and service, after clocking mandatory retirement age of 60 years.

It was also gathered that the identical twin sister of the celebrator, Hajia Ameena Hassana Sani, equally retired meritoriously from the services of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as a Director.

Speaking at the event, IPI president Mojeed, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, cited the recent “disturbing” instances of banning of live political programme in Kano State and the arrest of a journalist in Ekiti State.

“Akwa Ibom State Government recently evicted Channels TV crew, a journalist and a cameraman, from the press centre inside Government House, Uyo.

READ ALSO:Police Arrest Siblings Over Communal Clash In Ondo

“The repressive action was taken, over the publication of a video clip, where the governor, eventually confirmed he is defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“A journalist with FIJ, Sodiq Atanda, was recently arrested by the police in Ekiti State.

“A former “ThisDay” employee, Azuka Ogujiuba, was reportedly arrested and harassed by the Police for doing her job.

“Every single day you wake up, it is one form of harassment or the other against the media,” he said.

Mojeed called for continued advocacy to protect press freedom and promote independent journalism.

He stressed that efforts to protect journalists’ rights and promote independent journalism are crucial in Nigeria’s media landscape.

READ ALSO:Alleged Infidelity: Soludo’s Wife Issues Senator Ekwunife Ultimatum To Apologize

Mojeed said Sani’s retirement came at a critical time when the media sector in Nigeria is facing numerous challenges, including harassment, arrests, and censorship.

He noted Sani’s significant contributions to IPI Nigeria, including her role in organising its World Congress in Nigeria in 2018, as well as her subsequent active participation in various committees.

Mojeed appealed to the celebrator to continue advocating for press freedom and supporting the work of IPI Nigeria, emphasising that her expertise and experience are invaluable to the organisation.

The Director-General, VON, Mallam Jibrin Baba Ndace, expressed gratitude to IPI Nigeria for recognising Sani’s contributions, stating that the gesture also reflected positively on the entire VON team.

He described Sani as a professional journalist who seamlessly transitioned from traditional journalism to modern digital practices, leading the digital department with innovation.

According to the DG, Sani’s leadership in the digital space kept VON at the forefront of public media institutions and global competitiveness.

READ ALSO:Resident Doctors Suspend Warning Strike After Two Days, Resume Work Nationwide

He commended her experience, passion, and love for journalism, which he said, enabled her to excel in her role and serve as a role model for younger journalists.

The VON DG emphasised that, “journalism is a marathon, not a sprint”, and Sani’s long-standing career is a testament to her dedication and commitment to the profession.

Malam Garba Shehu, former spokesman to late President Muhammadu Buhari, described the retirement of Sani as a significant loss for the organisation but a potential gain for other sectors of the journalism profession.

Shehu praised her as “a strong and young professional with much to contribute to journalism.”

He highlighted her unique qualities, particularly her social responsibility, selflessness, and commitment to helping others to succeed.

According to him, Sani embodies the principles of servant leadership, a concept often touted by politicians but rarely exemplified.

READ ALSO:How Bello Deceitfully Assured Me Of Kogi Guber Ticket For 4 Years — Onoja

“Her legacy as a role model for young journalists and a champion of socially responsible journalism will continue to inspire others in the field,” he said.

Abdulwaheed Odusile, former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), commended Sani’s dedication and expertise, which he said, have earned her recognition and respect in the industry..

On her part, Sani expressed gratitude to God and her family for their support throughout her 34 years career in public service.

While reflecting on the challenges and rewards of her time in service, she highlighted the importance of dedication, clear vision, and family support.

Sani emphasised the need for media professionals to adapt to new technologies and appreciate their impact on the industry and the society

She stressed that telling a good story starts with understanding oneself and one’s audience.

Despite retiring from active public service, she assured to remain active in the media space, pursuing research, teaching, writing, and lecturing.

READ ALSO:Ex-World Boxing Champion, Ricky Hatton, Is Dead

“It has been a very difficult, challenging, interesting and rewarding 34 years in service.

“It’s not easy. You have new and great ideas, but some people don’t understand, so they find it a bit difficult to agree with you.

“But if you are consistent, if you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, and you are dedicated and resolute, the sky is not the limit.

“I have pulled out from active public service, but have not retired. My brain is still exceptionally active, and I plan to utilise it.

“I’ll be doing a lot of research work and writing, and I won’t get tired of seeing myself in the media space,” she stated.

The Federal Government has announced major clarifications on the roles and responsibilities of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) and the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI).

The clarifications, according to a statement on Sunday by the Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Education, Boriowo Folasade was part of reforms to strengthen the teaching profession, streamline education delivery, and ensure high-quality learning for every Nigerian child.

Under the new framework, the NTI will return to its core mandate of in-service teacher training and continuous professional development at the foundational, basic, and post-basic levels, while the TRCN will focus exclusively on regulating the teaching profession and licensing qualified teachers nationwide.

Announcing the reform, the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa said the move reflects the Ministry’s aggressive agenda to restructure its agencies in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope mandate towards providing the highest standard of education across the country.

READ ALSO:FG Revokes 5% Telecom Tax On Voice, Data Services

Also, in line with this reform, the Federal Government has introduced new welfare terms and operational guidelines for both agencies covering teacher licensing and registration, professional development requirements, monitoring and compliance mechanisms, teacher welfare and benefits, as well as curriculum and professional practice standards.

“Going forward, no teacher will be allowed to stand before a Nigerian classroom without proper registration and licensing by TRCN. This ensures that every child is taught by competent, professional teachers who meet the highest standards,” Alausa said.

The Minister explained that both agencies now have new operational guidelines to enhance governance, oversight, and accountability.

Key provisions for TRCN include mandatory teacher registration and licensing, digital integration with the national Education Management Information System, and strict enforcement of ethics and discipline within the profession.

READ ALSO:FG Gazettes New Tax Reform Laws

For its part, the NTI will serve as the national implementing body for distance-based teacher training programmes, while ensuring its courses align with approved standards and frameworks.

Alausa described the reform as “a big day for the Nigerian child,” emphasising that the restructuring will sustain ongoing progress in teacher quality and educational outcomes.

He reaffirmed the government’s commitment to embedding professionalism in teaching, expanding access to continuous professional development, and enforcing compliance across all levels of education.

“This reform is about results and sustainability. It is about building a future where Nigerian children are taught by the best, prepared for the best, and supported by the best. We are consolidating progress to ensure sustainability, capability, and accountability in our teaching workforce. It is Renewed Hope in action,” the statement said.

By Tony Erha

Everywhere in the world, guns and guns run and ruin the affairs of men. It’s such unenviable era, where sacred human lives have become worthless. An anomie void of human feelings. Man’s inhumanity to man is an escalating order, where warfare, dangerous partisan politics, religious crises, militancy, robbery, kidnapping, economic sabotage and other criminality breed excessive human killings, maiming, arson etc. Nigeria, African’s thrust, is so ‘lucky’ to have more than a fair share of the attendant insecurity, as she ‘competes’ for the gold-medal spoil in Africa. Suffice that the most populous black African nation, is a runner-up to the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC), in the insecurity rating, according to the Africa Organised Crime Index of 2023.

In Nigeria, prided African giant and engine-room of the continent, gun and its debilitating components are a blight which puts the country and her people on the heat. Although ‘light arms’ are officially endorsed to be used in the public space, but its proliferated acquisitions and usage, have altogether become huge and forms a lethal threat to the society. Whereas the Boko Haram and its associated multinational armed groups are on the offensive, rebellious and succession militancy, ethnicity and religious crises have worsened the nation’s escalating insecurity.

Gravely, a certain ethnic minority tends to be the most that is at war with the rest tribes of the country, who are in the majority. Over the years, this minority group, aided by their nomadic herders and the terrorists, pill up light arms and others weapons of mass destruction against the Nigerian state. And they have overwhelmed the nation with their widespread and brazen attacks, causing high death tolls and destabilisation. It gives a rise to camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) established countrywide. Their daring attacks and a shoddy fight against them, have not only caused government perceptive integrity loss, but also of the souls of its numerous security operatives and resources ordinarily meant for the growing need of the public.

READ ALSO: OPINION: On El-Rufai, Aláròká And Terrorists

The merchants of death have obviously cashed in on the fear factor of ‘gun’ to wage protracted wars on the rest on the people. Their miscalculation is that it is they alone, who have the monopoly of causing fear, using the gun and its complementary weapons of death. Indeed, the Boko Haram and their accomplices in the ‘terrorism business’ parade before all sophisticated weapons, which the Nigerian security operatives barely have. The conspiracy theory is that some foreign powers are fingered as aiding the terrorists to destabilise the country.

It’s so obvious that the relentless attackers are motivated by the complex narrative that “Authority lies in that man who wields the barrel of the gun”. This is a similitude to the marbled words of Mao Zedong, the late Marxist and theorist, whose founding of the People’s Republic of China, and as Chairman of the oriental land was by gun and duress.

Like Mao Zedong, Poke Toholo, a Semiliole Indian protagonist of the James Hadley Chase thrilling fiction, Want to Stay Alive?, also gave his own theory that; “Fear is the key that opens the wallets of the rich”. “I have found the formula for fear”, boasted Toholo, whose assassination gambit and financial exploitation of his willy-nilly human targets had temporarily validated his theory, until another fearless man told Toholo to ‘go to hell’.

Being a man who once hunted animals for survival, with the Dane and double-barrel guns, I do not need to be told how very powerful the gun can be. With a single shot in the wild all were bound to obey. From the extroverted tweeting birds on the arboreals to the noisy terrestrial animals, including the ants, that are instantly scared to a standstill and muteness, the gun is the beginning of wisdom. Even the ghost-trees and the wind will pays homage to the gun as they amplify the wild with echoes of its shots!

READ ALSO: [OPINION] Nepal Bloodshed: Of Nigeria’s Big Masquerades And Gọntọ

The world, Nigeria inclusive, has turned a killing field of human lives, by the gun, the gunpowder and its derivatives. That is where the aforesaid Chairman Mao Zedong’s China gets implicated for inventing the gunpowder in the 9th century, just as Alfred Noble wouldn’t be ‘ennobled’ for similarly creating the dynamite and explosives and assorted guns, which champion today’s warfare, killings and maiming in larger scales. Where face-to-face or conventional warfare of infantry and weaponry, have ceased to be the vogue, long range missiles is the in-thing, where wars are fought far-off or remotely, by mere pressing of the buttons. No thanks to the perilous creativity by the Chinese and Alfred Noble, without which our world would have been safer. Nevertheless, this isn’t to entirely blacklist a civilisation, where the invention of the gunpowder and its accessories have immensely contributed meaningfully to its leaps, more so that the gunpowder has other important uses that have hastened industrial and human advancements.

Penitently, Alfred Noble (1833-1896), the Swedish chemist, inventor and businessman, by creating dynamite, explosives and manufacturing of guns for sales and human destruction, that have been de-emphasised. The disasters associated with his inventions, later brought about today’s Noble Prize awards, which discourage the use of his deadly creations and others to harm humankind. In his demise, scandals had spread over his name, when a daring journalist vaguely regarded him and his inventions as “merchant of death’.

Unfortunately, Nigeria, a hitherto peaceful country that became more proned to internal crises, which now redifines earns her ‘a brigandage culture’, evidently accuse her security apparatus as an aggravator of the security lapses. It thereby runs true to the sarcasm of the late General Salisu Ibrahim of “an army of anything goes”, where serving army chiefs have severally corroborated the sabotage within its ranks and files, in the fight against terrorism and militancy.

Also, Dauda Lawal, governor of Nigeria’s Zamfara State, once lamented that despite procuring 150 vehicles for security agencies in Zamfara, he had no control over their deployment, since directives must come from a distant Abuja, that is less perturbed about the insecurity upsurge in the Nigerian border state.

But there are exceptions to the sabotage by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Maj. General Christopher Musa and Mr. Adeola Ajayi, National Security Adviser, Chief of Defence Staff and Director General of the Department of State Services, respectively, who are currently undetterred at the onslaughts, which turn the table against terrorism and banditary. As the insecurity blight is ordinarily fought by all and sundry, the efforts by the aforementioned three, is invitational to the public to brace up and fight the insecurity scourge, in the same manner an intrepid man had told the ravaging assassin, Poke Toholo, to ‘go to hell’

Tony Erha