The Nigeria press and armed robbery in south western Nigeria, 1960-1987.
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Date
2021
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Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University.
Abstract
This study examined newspapers narratives of armed robbery incidents in southwestern Nigeria between 1960 and 1987. It is fact of history that newspapers played a crucial role in the nationalist agitations, decolonisation and Nigeria‟s independence. Nonetheless, newspapers involvements in everyday social, cultural and economic developments during and after colonial periods are also noticeable. Beginning from the 1950s, newspapers attention had shifted gradually, especially from colonial antagonism to focusing on challenges and prospect of self-governance. Personality and ethnic politics also dominated newspapers engagements at the time. On the other hand, social problems, particularly, crimes became permanent features of newspapers reportage and public engagement. This study therefore focused on armed robbery in southwestern Nigeria from the newspapers point of view.
This study relied on primary and secondary data. Specifically, the primary data were predominantly newspapers – Daily Times, The Nigerian Tribune, The Guardian and The Punch. Headlines, editorials, opinions, and letters focusing on armed robbery incidents were carefully collected and analysed. The study adopted historical methodology and highlighted the transformation of armed robbery and government responses during the civil and military rules. The study also relied on extant literature such as books and journal articles to draw relevant information on armed robbery in southwestern Nigeria.
The study found out that newspapers were crucial to the debate on armed robbery, law and criminal justice during the period under investigation. Aside the fact that newspapers provided day to day reports on armed robbery incidents, it was also a platform through which concerned individuals engaged the government on possible ways to abate armed robbery in the society. One instance was the proclamation on shoot at sight by Gen Yakubu Gowon in 1967. The study also revealed that armed robbery reports and debates were used as pretext bythe newspapers to challenge the military administrations at various times. For instance, while newspapers reports condemned Anini‟s atrocities in the old Bedel State, it also pushed the narratives of bad governance, especially under the administration of General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida who approved the Structural Adjustment Programme against the will of the people.
The study concluded that in spite of the institutionalization of penal code in the eradication of armed robbery in Nigeria, it remained endemic throughout the period covered. Factors such as corruption, unemployment and infrastructural decay which contributed to the rise of armed robbery remained unattended to and by 1987; armed robbery had become an institutionalized culture in Nigeria at large.
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SIKIRU, A.Y. (2021) The Nigeria press and armed robbery in south western Nigeria, 1960-1987., Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University.