A 65-year-old Nigerian professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Isikilu Bayo Oloyede, has criticized the Nigerian government’s use of security agencies to repress and assault journalists.
Oloyede showed this displeasure on Thursday, November 28, 2024, while delivering the 15th inaugural lecture of the Redeemer’s University, a Christian faith-based institution in Ede, Osun State, titled, “Journalism: A Fertiliser and Combustible for Human Rights Activism”
He advised Nigerian security agencies and the government to follow the law in arresting and prosecuting journalists, emphasising the importance of due process and stressing that rather than politely inviting journalists for interrogation, it is the practice of the law enforcement agencies to lay siege, ambush and arrest journalists like kidnappers.
He reiterated that the wrongful arrest of journalists in Nigeria is not in tandem with the rule of law, which dictates that suspected offenders be presumed innocent until proven guilty, adding that, there is no room for suspects’ ambushing or kidnapping in Nigerian law.
Regarding the ‘unwanted publications’ by journalists and citizens, Oloyede advised the Nigerian governments to adopt Chafee’s three-pronged recommendations for maintaining the delicate balance between freedom of expression and state or personal interests.
Pointing out that realistically, a country’s press can only be as powerful as the country makes it, the erudite scholar noted that the Nigerian press cannot have the liberty to hold government responsible and accountable if it is not free from the editorial thumb of government.
He stressed that election periods are some of the best times when the press can ensure the government’s accountability to the people, adding, “In a democracy, neither the executive nor the legislative arm of government has the right to dictate to the press what MUST be published.”
Winding down his lecture, the don advocated that every individual and every organ of society, including groups and government, should always claim, exercise, enforce and defend the foremost rights of freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
He said, “They should not sleep over these rights. They should exercise them maximally. In their relationship with others, they should always adopt Voltaire’s rightful policy of ‘I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'”
He also recommended that the government must respect, appreciate and defend the rights of free expression, and free press.
Urging the government and people to understand, appreciate and accommodate dissent and criticism, he opined that intolerance of dissent and criticism constitutes major yardsticks for repression of free expression and free press.
Oloyede also urged individuals and government to understand and appreciate the role of freedom of expression and the liberty of the press as safety values for peace and peaceful change in society.
According to him, “The reason usually given by individuals and government for the repression of free expression and free press is the probable disruption of the social order or the bringing down of institutions and governments. For peace to thrive in any society, the remedy for objectionable ideas must be counterarguments. The discontented must be allowed to talk in order to know the cause(s) of their discontent and take steps to end those causes.”
“One of the major mistakes individuals and government who repress free expression and free press usually make is to believe that the ideas they are trying to suppress have died. Repressed ideas do not die; they continue to circulate, even more widely and wildly, in secret, many times with greater negative consequences”, he added.
Oloyede, married to a Senior Evangelist, Gbeminiyi Tolani Oloyede, with the union being blessed with three children: Tolulope, Olusola and Oluwafemi, was born into the family of late Alhaji Wahab Adigun Oloyede, and Nimota Aduke Oloyede in Abeokuta on June 22, 1959.
He had his primary education at Itesi Methodist Primary School, Adatan, Abeokuta, from 11965 to 1971, and his secondary education at Egba Comprehensive High School, Asero, Abeokuta, from 1973 to 1978.
He made Grade One in the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE)). He also attended the Federal Government College, Odogbolu, Ogun State, for his Higher School Certificate (HSC)) education from 1978 to 1980. He passed the General Certificate Education ((GCE) Advanced Level Examination in 19979, after only a year into his two-year HHSC programme.
Oloyede is a cumulative product of the University of Lagos (Unilag), from where he earned, first, the Bachelor of Science Mass Communication degree, with Second Class Upper Division in 1983, and second, the Master of Science Mass Communication degree, with Distinction, in 1990. In addition to winning a University of Lagos postgraduate scholarship and passing out as the Best Graduate of the 1989/1990 MSc Mass Communication Set, Oloyede is on record to have earned the First Distinction in MSc Mass Communication to be produced by the University of Lagos in the University’s ten-year history of running the programme from 1980 to 1990. At the University of Ibadan, where he earned a PhD Communication degree, he was a doctoral laureate of the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) which funded his doctoral research.
He started his lecturing career at the then Ogun State Polytechnic, now Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, during his National Youth Service (NYSC) in the 1983/1984 session. On account of his excellent performance, he was retained and offered an Assistant Lectureship after his service year in the polytechnic. He obtained his Master’s and PhD degrees while lecturing at the polytechnic and served the institution for 25 years, rising from Assistant Lecturer to Principal Lecturer before moving to Redeemer’s University as a Senior Lecturer on January 2, 2009.
While at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, he served as a Visiting Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at the Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, from November 1, 2007 to October 31, 2008. He has also served Elizade University, Ilara Mokin, as a Visiting Professor from September 2015 to August 2016. Oloyede was reappointed by Redeemer’s University, as an Associate Professor on March 16, 2010 and as a full Professor on August 1, 2013.
