THE NIGERIA MEDIA UNDER THE MILITARY RULE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: As one of the most important institutions in nay organized human society, the media is always objected to play vital roles in the society. The obligation is, in many ways self imposed and goes well with the freedom to report comment participate and publish which the media always fifth for, guards very jealousy and cherish enormously.

The child of circumstances came to be generally known an accepted as the Abacha regime. Before this military regime, Nigeria had undergone series of military government, each Junta era brought with itself several measures which acted as impediment on the Nigerian media. The dictatorship stand for eight long years, which the media under these years had a raw deal from it.

It is only in an environment of freedom within the law and with responsible judgment that the role which the media has fro the role can be vitally carried out.

Once this freedom is unjustly and intermittently interfered with by government, law courts or any others groups or individual, the media tend not to function very effectively and the most affected are the people because they are not well, informed .

There was a lot of dictatorship under the military because they had the ultimate power which is the power to Gun. They didn’t give the media room to play their roles as watchdog of the society rather they mate out extra- legal measures on the media more as punishment for reporting fats than as check as and balances.

The media can be regarded both as a compass and a morrow compass as used by the surveyor to map out the surrounding effectively and to set up the needed direction and on the other hand a mirror no only to see himself as he is, but also to see clearly how crooked or straight the path already mapped out is, without deviating from cutting out al the important direction. It is hoped that this work will go long way in reviewing critically the Nigerian media under Abacha regime.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Since her political independence in 1960, Nigeria has been ruled more by military regimes than by elected civilian a.dministrations: The various rnilitary governments whichruled the country at differe11t times are expected to have some patterns of relationship with the press, which is a major institutional actor in governance. Of a major concem to this study is the exploration of the nature of the relationship between the Nigerian military governments and the Nigerian press. The relationship between the government and the press (at any point intime in society) is usually a reflection of the relationship between the government and the citizens (Siebert, 1952.)The former, no doubt, is a very important evaluative component of political communication which is becoming a growing field of communication studies. However, this area, in relation to .. Nigerian military govemments, has not received enough academic attention. This is a major ' . gap the bridging of which this study attempts to contibute to

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of every study or research work is basically to discover new facts, gather information and then suggest where necessary solution to problems and discuss ways of preventing such occurrences in future. Due to the nature of this regime and the circumstances that led to its inception, the media needed to maintain creditability so as to foster justice, unity and progress which every Nigerian longed for. The objectives of this work is to know how free the media fared during the periods in question in order to render its services ad eh watchdog of the society.

The study is to ascertain the relationship between the media and Abacha regime was it healthy or unhealthy? The effect that the relationship had on the profession in particular and the security in general.

In researching in to this topic I will be able to bring together and analyze vital facts on the facts on the problems and propose ways to solve the problem as it affects journalistic profession in the country.

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of this study is to highlight the fate of the journalist under military role and the consequent effects of this on the journalism profession.

However, the study will sere as insight for military role and possibly build up their strong will towards the profession.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

There are question that were asked to help provided answers to this work the Nigerian media under military regime.

The research questions in this study are:

1. Did the military government impose any restriction on the media?

2. To what extent did the media exercise its freedom under military regime?

3. Between military and civilian government which one ensure the free form of information?

4. Was Abacha era worse that his predecessors in terms of government/media relationship

5. Did the media help to stop military dictatorship in this country.

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Hi: Military regime imposed server hindrances to information dissemination.

Ho: Military regime did not imposed server hindrances to information dissemination.

H2: The media had total freedom under military regime

Ho: The media had no total freedom under military regime

H3: Abacha’s tenor was better than other military regime in terms of government /media relationship

Ho: Abacha’s tenor was worse than other military regime in terms of government /media relationship

1.6 CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS

Mass media: Newspaper, printed publication, radio and television usually issued daily

Dictatorship – Having authority over the people/thing.

Performance – The act of doing something.

Practicing journalism- Somebody who works for the media and has training and qualification in journalism or mass communication.

Era- the period during which one is in authority

Operational definitions

Mass media- Total number of media stations sampled for this study

Dictatorship – Total average scored or responded to questions addressing Abacha military dictatorship towards mass media.

Performance- total average scores drawn from the questions which were used to text variables.

Practicing journalist – the aggregate number of journalist who make up the population for the study feed its public with anything to make it up for flow.

1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study is limited to certain media publication as it deals with the Nigeria media under military regime. (Abacha tenor) even though the other tenors before Abacha treated our journalist in the same way.