[size=14pt]Another president sues[/size]
08/03/2011 00:00:00

President Goodluck Jonathan has threatened to sue NEXT, a Lagos-based newspaper, for publishing what his aides described as false, calumnious and malicious reports on the president’s activities and family. His Special Adviser on Media, Mr Ima Niboro, lists three recent published reports in the paper as part of the evidence they hope to present in court if they decide to sue. These include a report suggesting that the president had engaged over 130 advisers since he assumed office, a report indicating his children continued to attend classes when the Federal Government had shut schools for the recently concluded registration of voters, and another report, this time apparently a mix-up attributed to the Edo State governor, Mr Adams Oshimhole, that the president voted four times in the 2007 elections. If NEXT does not retract the reports and apologise, warned the media adviser, the president would seek legal redress.

Jonathan’s predecessor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, suffered similar irritations from the media. Unable to take it any longer after Channels TV announced in September 2008 he might resign over his poor health, he forgot himself, shut down the station, got the broadcast media regulator, the NBC, to suspend the TV station’s licence, and ordered the secret service to occupy its premises. At the time, the country was nine years into democracy, but Yar’Adua was so incensed he acted like a military head of state. While still mired in the embarrassment he caused himself, his government and Nigeria, Yar’Adua again responded to another provocation from Leadership newspaper, an Abuja- based media establishment, by asking his lawyers to take the paper to court. Why he chose court action instead of the heavy-handed clampdown he orchestrated against Channels TV two months earlier was unclear. Leadership had reported in November 2008 that Yar’Adua had fallen critically ill and was unable to attend state functions for two days running. The late president’s media adviser described the story as politically motivated and a malicious rumour.

But surely, presidents do study their own predecessors, if nothing else. If Jonathan read up on his predecessor, he would recall that the shutdown of Channels TV brought nothing but bad publicity for Yar’Adua, and the litigation against Leadership attracted scorn and ridicule, not only because of the contradictions involved in a president suing but could not be sued, but also because the ill-advised exercise ended up in a cul-de-sac. Leadership exulted in the indiscretion of the late president, and revelled in all the publicity it attracted. Should Jonathan go ahead to sue NEXT, there can only be two outcomes. First is that the Jonathan presidency would be ridiculed for lack of imagination, a sad reputation that dogs its every step; and second is that the litigation would arrive at a dead end. If he could not be sued, why does Jonathan think he can sue? Even if the judiciary were to be led by nincompoops, they still would not gratify him his anomalous desires.

Sure, NEXT probably got some of its stories wrong; but so did Channels TV and Leadership. There are obviously better ways to handle inaccurate media reports than for the presidency to mock the exalted office and make an ass of itself.

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/editorial/hardball/30130.html