By Etim Etim
The International Press Institute (IPI) is a global organization that champions press freedom and promotes quality journalism. Founded in 1950, the IPI has members from over 120 countries, including editors, reporters and media executives who share the common goal of defending freedom. Musikilu Mojeed of Premium Times is the President of IPI Nigeria.
At its 2025 Conference held on Tuesday December 2, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa yesterday, Mojeed announced the launch of ‘’Nigerian Book of Infamy’’, a new platform designed to publicly name government’s officials who perpetrate abuses against journalists and violate press freedom in Nigeria.
He went further to state that Governors Umaro Bago of Niger State and Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, as well as the IG of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, are the first names added to the ‘’Book of Infamy’’. He accused Gov. Bago of closing down a radio station and Gov. Eno of asking for the redeployment of Channels TV correspondent from the Government House. For the IGP, his offence was ‘’failing to address systemic media repression by police officers across the country’’.
Aghast by these pronouncements, Vice President Kashim Shetima who was the special guest at the conference pleaded with Mojeed to allow him a two week window to personally engage the three officials before their names become permanent entries in the book.
I commend the VP for his good judgement, and while we wait for the Vice President’s intervention, I will like to make the point that Gov. Eno does not deserve to be in this Book of Infamy. If anything, the Akwa Ibom chief executive should actually be commended by IPI for his contributions to the development of journalism, and support to journalists in his state.
I will explain my stance, but for now, let’s go back to what happened last May or thereabout. Gov. Eno was holding an event at Government House, Uyo, and journalists were present. At the end of the event, the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary requested that a certain portion of the remarks made by the governor should not be published. It is an age-old tradition for governments and other organizations, including those in the private sector, to request for an embargo on certain remarks or information. But the Channel TV correspondent, Chris Moffat, flouted this age-old tradition and got the embargoed portion in his report that evening. He was the only one that broke the trust. The government was understandably incensed and asked Channels to redeploy Moffat from Government House and send in a replacement. The matter had long been settled between the news outlet and the government.
I have been a journalist for almost all of my professional career (and I am not a young man) and I know that it is a sacred duty of a journalist to keep to an embargo request from his sources. Another very important duty of a good journalist is that he cannot reveal the sources of his exclusive stories to anyone, including government, military or police. It was my refusal to reveal the sources of my stories that made the military regime of Gen. Babangida to detain me for three months in 1988 when I was a young reporter with The Guardian newspaper. I was only 27 then. I was not tried in the court of law; just detention in a cell. No journalist worth his name would flout these basic ethos of the profession.
It is therefore inconceivable that a request for a redeployment of a Government House correspondent who flouted the basic ethics of the profession would be seen as a repression of the press by the IPI. Is there more to it? Journalism thrives on the confidence our sources place on us. If journalists become too irresponsible to keep to their ethics, the industry would be irreparably damaged. It is notable that no journalist in Akwa Ibom State has been detained, harassed or invited for questioning by the State government since Eno assumed office in 2023. No media house in the state has been shut down, sanctioned, restricted or barred from doing their duties.
I am aware that the governor meets with the press quite frequently and holds journalists with utmost esteem. The Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, holds press conferences every month just to help the journalists perform their constitutional duties. Under Gov. Eno, Akwa Ibom State government has assisted the NUJ in the state to complete and commission its auditorium building which was under construction for 20 years before Eno became governor. The government has also donated cars to some journalists who did not have one. In all these, Umo Eno had never asked for a quid pro quo! But no good deed goes unnoticed. In October 2024, the NUJ honoured Eno with its ‘’Most Media Friendly Governor’’ award at its 3rd Annual Milestone Recognition Event. Last January, NUJ honoured the governor with an Award of Excellence in Development of Media Infrastructure during its 70th anniversary celebrations. Gov. Eno is therefore not the right candidate for IPI’s sanctions.
In the past, IPI Nigeria have been blessed with seasoned journalists as its President. I remember in particular Mrs Remi Oyo who later became President Obasanjo’s Chief Press Secretary. I am therefore surprised that Musikilu Mojeed would make such an uninformed judgment about the governor of Akwa Ibom State. He was not well advised. If Mojeed is worried by Nigeria’s 10-place drop in the 2025 Global Press Freedom Index, from 112 to 122, he should look for the reasons that plague press freedom in the country. Gov. Eno is not one of them and his name should be expunged from IPI’s Book.
Etim is a Journalist and Political Analyst based in Abuja.
