Ubale Musa can report again

DW hopes that this step is a sign that the new government wants to establish more cooperative and trustful relations with the media than its predecessor did towards the end of its tenure.

The accreditation for reporting from the Presidential Villa was withdrawn by the prior government under Goodluck Jonathan due to “inappropriate questions”. Musa had asked critical questions to Idress Déby, President of Chad, who was on a state visit in Nigeria at the time. In response, the DW reporter was excluded from the conference and had his accreditation withdrawn.

Director General Peter Limbourg officially protested to Nigerian officials against this hindrance to free reporting. Ubale Musa reports for the Haussa program of DW from Abuja, especially from the Presidential Villa in Abuja, since 1998.

With support from DW, Ubale Musa applied for the reinstatement of his accreditation. This request has now been granted. Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity), explained that the previous government under Goodluck Jonathan had “wrongly withdrawn” Mr. Musa’s accreditation. A State House press release confirmed that Musa can now “continue his work without hindrance”, and report in a manner that is “objective, professional and with due regard for the ethics of journalism”.