We write in response to a news article
published on Wednesday 28 August 2013 in the Daily Trust newspaper. It was written
by Eyo Charles, a Daily Trust correspondent in Calabar. In the report, the journalist
alleged that “leaders of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Cross River state who were on public
protest on the streets of Calabar yesterday engaged officials of the Socialist
Party of Nigeria (SPN) in a street brawl”. Nothing like this occurred at the
rally.
As a matter of fact the members of
the Democratic Socialist Movement, the organization that initiated the
Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), are represented in the leadership of the
Joint Action Front (JAF) that initiated the ongoing nationwide mass rallies to
save education. The members of SPN were much more active at the August 13
protest march in Lagos where the national action to mobilize mass support for
ASUU demands and save education campaign was flagged off. The mass rally continued in Calabar with DSM
comrades in attendance with two banners, one for the SPN and another for Education
Rights Campaign (ERC). Thousands of ERC leaflets were received from the DSM
comrades in the rally including ASUU officials for mass circulation.
However, the major problem by some
right-wing elements on the demo was with the SPN banner and the leaflets which
had the manifesto of the party. This led to unfortunate arguments and an
attempt to arrest DSM comrades, but not the physical fight that the report
claims took place.
Mr. Eyo Charles threw all journalism
ethics to the winds when he reported that “the SPN were also on similar mission of
protest but both parties threw caution to the wind and engaged in a
free-for-all fight right opposite Governor Liyel Imoke’s office in Calabar”. This
is nothing but a fabrication. The procession passed through the front of the
Governor’s office without such an incident. It was equally false that “trouble
started when each of the parties wanted to be the leader of the protest into
the governor’s office”. There was no attempt to enter governor’s office let
alone battle over the leadership of the protest as this journalist reported as
the leaders of JAF was in the clear leadership of the protests.
It is equally grave, misleading and highly fraudulent to report that “when SPN leaders saw that ASUU officials, Non Academic Staff of Universities, National Union of Teachers, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities in collaboration with Joint Action Front (JAF) were having the upper hand, they ordered their boys to shove the ASUU officials aside and take over the protest”. The SPN comrades and members of SPN were part of the rally and the ERC banner which they also displayed was at the forefront of the rally, without any opposition whatsoever. To show that this media report was fallacious, only 2 SPN/ERC/DSM members participated at the rally. Where then did the reporter get the numbers he brandished when he stated that SPN leaders ordered their boys to shove ASUU officials aside in order to take over the protest? The only union that participated in the protest was NAAT apart from ASUU members. Again, unions like NASU, and NUT never participated in the rally, so how on earth could SPN leaders shove unions that never participated in the rally. What this reporter did was to look at JAF banner that states thus “FG. & State Governments must Implement Agreements Reached with ASUU, NASU, SSANU, NAAT, ASUP, SSANIP, COEASU, SSUCOEN and NUT” and fabricated that 2 of the prominent unions (NASU and NUT) listed in JAF’s banner participated in the rally.
Given the magnitude of fabrication
of this report by Eyo Charles, it is not out of place to conclude that this
report was sponsored. What the sponsors of the report is hiding is the fact
that the SPN comrades was subjected to harassment by some right-wing elements
at the rally, working hand-in-hand with operatives of the State Security
Services to arrest the SPN comrades and hand them over to security operatives.
Since inception in the mid-eighties,
the Democratic Socialist Movement, which initiated the Socialist Party of
Nigeria has struggled shoulder to shoulder with workers, youth and the poor and
intervenes in the day–to-day struggles of the working people. We have no
problem debating our ideas with fellow activists but oppose any attempt to use
physical force or to involve the security forces in debates.
It is therefore mere mischief to state that “this led to both groups dragging themselves about, punching and tearing each other banners and hurling inventive at each other”. Where is the evidence? No such thing happened. The report is just to paint SPN members in bad light.
Nobody spoke on behalf of the SPN leader, Segun Sango as reported neither was any of the 2 members that participated in the rally was interviewed by any reporter. The report also has it that JAF was also part of those SPN members fought when in actual fact it was the JAF Secretary, Abiodun Aremu, who was the only JAF national leader on the demo, that resisted the move of the right-wing elements and the SSS operatives to whisk away 2 of DSM/SPN members! In short, this is a self-contradictory report that is bereft of ideal journalism expected of Daily Trust and its staff! We therefore call for immediate retraction by the Daily Trust newspapers and published apology.
Onwunalu Alexander
Protem Publicity Secretary
Rivers State Chapter of SPN
Who also participated at the Calabar Rally
No comments:
Post a Comment