all images reproduced by permission of Victor Ekpuk, except where otherwise noted
While working as an illustrator at the government-controlled Daily Times of Nigeria Limited (DTN) during the country's second military era (1983–1998), artist Victor Ekpuk (b. 1964, Eket, Nigeria) traversed the delicate political terrain in the country. Shortly after the 1983 coup d'état, the head of the new military government, General Muhammadu Buhari (1983–1985), announced his intent to curtail the media and, over the next fifteen years, press freedoms waxed and waned under three consecutive military dictatorships.1 Buhari's successor, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (1985–1993), initially advocated for a free press, even appointing the liberal-minded Yemi Ogunbiyi as managing director of DTN, only to rescind his support a few years later. And between 1992 and 1998, Babangida and General Sani Abacha (1993–1998) engaged in what can be described as a systematic attack on the press, expanding their oversight of...