Published 2012-12-31
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Abstract
This paper examines the role of the mass media in the struggle for civil democratic rule in Africa with a special focus on Nigeria from 1993 to 1999. The paper argues that Nigeria for the most part of her post-independence existence had been under military rule. But 1993– 1999 was marked by an unprecedented military dictatorship leading to the suppression and muscling down of democratic forces and the eventual annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections presumably won by Chief M.K.O. Abiola, which was generally believed to be free and fair. The mass media having fought for the nation’s independence stood diametrically opposed to continued military rule and insisted on the country’s return to civil democratic rule. To achieve this, the mass media extensively and effectively employed antimilitary publications and reportage mostly at the risk of losing their lives to expose the evil and misrule of military rule in order to mobilize the civil societies against the military juntas. This resulted in series of episodes of mass protest, industrial strife, and civil disturbance across Nigeria by various civil society groups and labour unions.
In spite of the hostile environment created by the military such as arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists, political assassination, extra-judicial killings, abuse of human rights, closure of media houses, seizure of publications among others, the Nigerian media kept its resilience in the anti-military struggle. This paper concludes that the struggle by the mass media against the military regime between 1993 and 1999 extensively tarnished the image of the Nigeria military junta and resulted in both international and domestic pressures that eventually forced the military to cede power to a democratically elected government in 1999.