I didn’t know I was attending a security briefing: The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), held her Biennial National Convention in Enugu from June 26th – 29th, 2025. The theme of the occasion was, Building A Secure And Cohesive Nigeria: The Role of Dialogue, Inclusion and The Media.
The Keynote speaker was DG of the Department of State Service, (DSS), Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi. All of this information was in the public space (see see event pamphlet).
On Friday, 27th of June, at the point of the keynote address, the entire hall was suddenly garrisoned by operatives of the DSS; all our reporters and photographers covering the event were cleared from the hall!
The compere then announced that the DG, DSS didn’t want the keynote address reported, that it was to be a confidential briefing of sorts. Talk of an external body brazenly setting agenda for editors!
It was a full hall of about 400 editors. Many of them were aghast at this development, many could only murmur impotently as this was uncharacteristic of the NGE and more so, it was never discussed at any fora prior to the event.
The speaker, gave his talk, which was rather brief and without depth nor much substance; not to mention any release of high-level security information. As I mentioned in my column, the address was anticlimactic considering the hype and gag preceding it.
To make matters worse, many editors couldn’t get in questions as the speaker closed the session after answering the first few questions!
QUESTIONS NOT ASKED: It was this scenario that prompted my article in my column, EXPRESSO Umbrage: GUILD OF EDITORS’ MEET: Questions DG, DSS missed.
Here, I asked (and discussed) three questions I could have asked at the convention if I had the opportunity.
The questions are as follows:
QUESTION ONE: In your meetings at the highest level of security gathering, (NSC?), is there any contemplation of closure for this protracted terror and criminality raging in Nigeria for so long? Do you people discuss timelines for closure and strategies for ending this malady bedeviling Nigeria for almost two decades or have these vices become our norm?
QUESTION TWO: What really is the primary duty of the secret police (DSS) that you head? Why has intelligence failed Nigeria in the battle against terror and insecurity? If operatives are embedded in every LGA and even wards in Nigeria, why do bandits operate with much impunity, to the point of giving advance notice? Why are many LGAs in Nigeria currently under the control of bandits and terrorists who levy taxes on farmers and hapless citizens?
QUESTION THREE: How come bandits and terrorists have become headquartered and domiciled in Nigeria? All through the west coast of Africa – from Mauritania through Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana and even Togo and Benin Republic, not one of these countries is being terrorised like Nigeria?
MY FIRST ALLEGIANCE IS TO NIGERIA AND NIGERIANS, NOT TO THE DSS:
These questions were the crux of my article which I published online on Friday July 3rd.
On the evening of same day, I was contacted on phone by an executive of the Guild over this article. I was asked to join an online meeting. I declined since I had no prior information about the meeting. I was told by the caller (someone I respect a lot) that my article breached the confidentiality notice of the Convention and therefore, I was requested to pull it down by the meeting.
I told the caller that if that was the issue, there was no point joining the impromptu meeting because I wouldn’t pull down my article.
I told him I wasn’t thinking of the DG DSS or the GUILD while I wrote, I was more concerned about the insecurity in Nigeria, the daily bloodshed and the currently besieged people of Benue and Nigerians sequestered and wasting away in IDP camps for over a decade.
I told him I was more concerned about these issues than the embargo by the DSS. Not at a period over 200 compatriots were massacred in Benue about a week earlier. We were supposed to be interrogating the DG DSS over this senseless killing and not him giving us orders at our conference! That’s our duty as editors!
I DIDN’T KNOW THE EDITORS’ CONVENTION HAD BEEN ‘SOLD’ OUT TO THE DSS: I would never have taken the trouble (and wasted scarce resources) travelling to Enugu If I had an inkling that this year’s NGE convention had been hijacked by the DSS.
Considering the fresh and recent massacre of Nigerians in Benue by non-state actors, we rejoiced at the theme of the convention and we were quite happy at the choice of the speaker.
But alas, we didn’t know that Nigeria Editors conference has been suborned to become DSS security briefing. Nobody prepared our minds for this. Some of us would have stayed away.
If the DSS wished to brief editors, it must organise its own conference. Not at a professional media conference where we paid our conference fees.
It’s disrespectful enough and indeed uncouth for the DSS to garrison the hall where the cream of editors in Nigeria were meeting. To now embargo editors from reporting and discussing the THEME of their once-in-two years convention is unheard of in the annals of the Guild!
But the truth is that I wasn’t thinking about the issue of confidentiality while I wrote my column because in my wildest dreams, I didn’t think any guest would insist that editors should not interrogate the theme of their conference. It’s unheard of.
EXACTLY 30 YEARS AGO I BECAME EDITOR OF THISDAY (Saturday edition): I started my journalism career in The Guardian in 1987 (38 years earlier) after graduation and mandatory NYSC. I became Editor of THISDAY (Saturday Edition) in 1995; exactly 30 years ago today. I joined the Guild 2003, (22 years ago) as pioneer editor of NewAge.
I reported the turbulent eras of the military juntas of Babangida, Abacha, in the thick of June 12 and the struggle for return of democracy. Up till the eventual retreat of soldiers back to their barracks and the transition from military till date. I never experienced this manner of brazen gagging!
I joined in presidential interviews and was invited to security briefings several times in the Presidential Villa. I have attended over a dozen NGE conventions and conferences, never have our functions been converted to security briefings.
DISRESPECT AND GRIEVOUS DAMAGE TO THE MEDIA: I find it as a mark of utter disrespect bordering on impunity for the DG DSS to even think of converting the Guild’s Convention to a confidential briefing. It suggests a lack of understanding and regard for the media and its highest practitioners in the country.
I make bold to ask: where was the DG of the DSS 30 years ago when I became an editor. It’s very poor of him to think I don’t have an understanding of what constitutes national security breach. And there were far older editors and members seated at this conference and I find it utterly insulting for the DG to think we are too stupid to understand what constitutes a security breach.
How in the world do I attend a conference of editor and someone from a government establishment instructs me NOT TO INTERROGATE THE THEME of the conference!
This is happening because the current Exco has degraded the Guild so much. I wrote my first column in The Guardian in 1984 as an undergraduate.
Today, as a senior citizen, I am being ordered to pull down an article I wrote! A report of a public conference! The temerity of it! Some of these people who served their internship under me now order me to pulldown my article!
I AM NOT INFALLIBLE: I do not suggest for a moment that I know it all or that I can’t make mistakes. I actually told them that if my article is flawed in any detail whatsoever, if I breached any security code, if my article is independently analysed and it is shown to me that I didn’t write in good faith, if I didn’t write in the utmost interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. I will be the first to beg and apologise profusely to the DSS and to the NGE.
Until then, I think the DSS actually owes members of the NGE an apology for trying to muzzle the press and set an agenda for them. I want to believe he wasn’t properly briefed!
And the Exco of the NGE needs to be given a refresher course on the duties, ethics and privileges of the media as the Fourth Estate of the Realm. I imagine many of them are not well tutored on the essential codes of journalism practice and especially, our raison d’etre.
WHERE ARE THE ELDERS AND FELLOWS OF THE GUILD?: One hopes that the obvious faux Pas of the DSS garrisoning our conference hall and chasing out our reporters will NEVER happen again.
And NEVER AGAIN must the Guild’s conference or convention be converted to a confidential security briefing. The NGE represents the GOLDEN GATE of the media and if some ‘small boy’ can muzzle Editors in this manner, then it means the Nigerian media has been completely CAPTURED like the other arms of government.
The other day, a weird STATE OF EMERGENCY RULE was invoked on Rivers State and an elected governor was dubiously yanked out of office. The GUILD was mum in spite of my protestations and promptings! Our elders and Fellows feigned numbness!
THIS IS NOT THE GUILD WE BUILT! If the Guild is so captured, degraded and overawed in this manner, the politicians will enjoy a free reign of impunity. That’s what we are faced with today.
Nigeria has become a signpost for corruption, terrorism and sundry maladies because the media has continued to wane and fail woefully in its constitutional role as WATCHDOGS.
The Guild must wake up and reimagine itself.
FINALLY: It’s okay for the Exco to suspend me and make me seem like a villain to the DSS. I am not moved! I would rather be SUSPENDED, I would even denounce my membership first, instead of being a member of an EFULEFU GUILD.
Osuji was Editor at The Guardian, Thisday, NewAge and Member, Editorial Board, The Nation.
Feedback: steve.Osuji@gmail.com
