₦airaland Forum

The president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, is obviously not happy with the Nigeria’s private TV channel, African Independent Television (AIT). The reason is known to every Nigerian who was aware of the hate campaigns characterizing the last elections. But for those who are shocked that AIT was barred from broadcasting events involving the president-elect, I will bring in some updates. Nigeria’s presidential election 2015 will go down in the history of Nigeria as one of the most fiercely contested.

The presidential election that pitted the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan against the incoming Buhari was a tug of war both in the media and the political space. Two major political parties, the opposition APC (as it was then) and the ruling PDP, deployed everything at their disposal to convince the electorate. In the print, electronic and online media, both parties published documents, slogans and jingles. But the campaign was unprecedented. It was not a campaign of issues or policy. Politicians from both parts of the divide played dirty. They threw everything at each other.

The country was almost plunged into chaos by the violent rhetoric deployed by “win-at-all-cost” politicians. The toxic speeches directed at the opponents overheated the polity. Citizens feared the country may be thrown into war. The private television station, AIT, owned by the business magnate, Raymond Dokpesi, played a big but predictable role in the campaign. The seed of the present rift between AIT and Buhari was planted during the campaign. Throughout the campaign period, the TV station was running a documentary that was thought to be injurious to the president-elect.

In the documentary, Buhari was portrayed as incapable to govern Nigeria. There were clips from the documentary that deliberately described him as an Islamic fundamentalist plotting to Islamize Nigeria. The documentary also alluded to the time when he was a military head of state and was said to run a brutal regime unjustly imprisoning journalists, politicians and ordinary Nigerians. The retired general was said to be a cold-blooded person, a founder of Boko Haram terror group who signed the death warrant for three drug couriers. Other AIT media campaigns also targeted Buhari’s private life.

Many Nigerians were confused by the blatant manner in which AIT documentary attempted to demonize the president-elect. In fact, many wondered why AIT would broadcast a documentary that sought to paint Buhari in an unsavory manner rather than dwell on issues. But the documentary was also aired by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). Many also reasoned that if the NTA could be excused for playing the script of a government in power, AIT, a station thought to be independent, should not have done so.

But those knowing Raymond Dokpesi as President Jonathan’s loyalist and a member of the PDP were not surprised by the role his station played during the election. The ethical questions of balance reporting and the independent role of the media did not matter since the media house did not hide its loyalty to the president’s party. Some even assumed that he got a substantial amount of the media campaign funds allegedly disbursed by the outgoing president in his botched re-election bid. While the president’s supporters enjoyed weekly “Buhari and the APC bashing” in the thick of the campaign, a lot of Nigerians were riled and put off by the documentary classified as hate broadcast. Experts have opined that one of the reasons why Jonathan lost was because a lot of Nigerians were embarrassed by Buhari bashing and decided to vote for the opposition APC and Buhari who was seen as the underdog at the time. . Following the recent barring of AIT, it has become obvious that Buhari was hurt by AIT’s role in the campaign. His offence has come to the fore recently when the station was barred from covering the events organized by the president-elect.

However, the APC swiftly issued a statement in which the party cleared AIT. According to the statement, AIT was free to play its media role in covering all activities of the president-elect. The controversial owner of AIT, Dokpesi, who almost lost his life during the election, released a “we-don’t-have-any-regret” response. In his statement, Dokpesi appeared to be unrepentant. He said he stood by his decision to broadcast all the campaign materials that were thought to target Buhari. He added the station was just fulfilling its role as a media organization.

It is interesting to see how Buhari-AIT situation will be resolved in the coming years of Buhari’s presidency. One thing is clear: going by precedent, Buhari may not tolerate excesses in the media such as the one displayed by AIT. Will there be a face-off? Is the matter now resolved with the APC intervention? Dokpesi’s pugnacious response to the barring of AIT looks like the continuation to the face-off. Has AIT oversteped the border as a broadcasting medium? Should they apologize to the president-elect or should they call it all bluff as Dokpesi has done?

gregg2:
[size=13pt]Apologise to who?

Nonsense! Is Buhari God?
Let him be sworn in and let us see what he will do to AIT.
Apologise my assss.

I love the way Dokpesi responded to him[/size]

gregg2:
[size=13pt]Apologise to who?

Nonsense! Is Buhari God?
Let him be sworn in and let us see what he will do to AIT.
Apologise my assss.

I love the way Dokpesi responded to him[/size]

WendellSimilin:
[s][/s]
I'm not surprised you're in love with the way Dokpesi responded to him, they say "like minds think alike" so I'm sure you're a silly thinker too. The real problem Dokpesi has is not even with Buhari or APC as those two entities have been able to climb above all hate and propaganda by PDP and it's goons to win the Presidential Elections. Dokpesi's new problem is how to convince the average Nigerian population as well as the international space that his TV Station is to be taken seriously anymore with such unprofessional-ism which was displayed during the Elections (personally I don't take AIT seriously anymore and I'm sure it's not only me who shares such sentiments). Another problem Dokpesi should be thinking about resolving is his case with NBC which was also as a result of the unprofessional-ism of his TV Station during the Elections.

Now we know the truths about what transpired between "Buhari's team" and AIT, it's now more than obvious that Buhari was not aware of this development but Dokpesi being the fool he is, choose to massage his ego by continuing along the hate path. Dokpesi should take out this important time to put his house back in order instead of facing-off with Buhari because that man Buhari is obviously not interested in such childish tantrums. There are too many important things for the President elect to be worrying about right now and Dokpesi/AIT is obviously not one of them.

vivacious01:
Iam currently allergic to AIT as a station since the first day I watched that hate documentary like seriously,I unconsciously find myself shouting at whoever tunes to the station,the hate was too much.I don't know what should be done to Dokpesi to make I and Buhari happy,seriously.Someone please suggest.