The role of the media in Nigeria’s development has been remarkable. First, no other group played a more crucial role than the media in the struggle for the country’s independence. The great leaders of the nationalist movements such as Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ernest Ikoli, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro and Ibrahim Imman recognized the immense power of the media and relied on it to oust colonialism and liberate Nigerians from bondage. Surprisingly, Nigerian leaders who formed government at independence from October 1, 1960 did not show real interest in democracy. Once in power, they discouraged opposition by criminalizing dissent while striving to retain political domination. The situation is yet to change till today.
What has changed however is the strategy for attaining and holding on to power. For a while, all that was done was to utilize the services of the law enforcement agencies to silence any media professional who attempted to publish any story capable of embarrassing our excellencies or their family members. Using the hurriedly enacted Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc) Act of 2015, political leaders virtually stopped Nigerian journalists from meeting the clear mandate given to them by the constitution to hold government accountable to the people. Although the Act had in mind serious crimes concerning digital electronic messaging that could undermine national security, political leaders especially at state level domesticated the Act to make it impossible for them to become the subject of media investigation.
The most irritating aspect of the law was that those arrested were not given an opportunity to open up on the grave allegations concerning corrupt practices by officials of government especially governors and their relations. In Cross River state, a journalist was detained for accusing a former governor of diverting N500 million from the state treasury. Rather than give the journalist an opportunity to prove his allegation for the good of society, he was charged with treasonable felony, terrorism, cultism and disturbance of public peace. Last year, a social critic was hastily sent to jail in Sokoto for among other things allegedly posting a viral video featuring a lavish birthday party hosted by the wife of the state governor.
The latest now is that the entire nation has joined the train of daily preachers whose sermons are essentially designed to enjoin critics, media professionals, activists and writers to stop destabilizing Nigeria. The message is always that critics of government are agents of opposition political parties who are unable to accept the verdict of elections. The sermons have become so many that no one can these days recognize who is a journalist as everyone is teaching the media professionals ‘best practices in the coverage of events.’ But then, while it is true that the world has since entered into the age of citizen journalism, the ordinary citizen only uploads stories devoid of journalistic treatment.
The process of teaching the media how to operate probably got to its peak last week when officials of government and some opinion moulders in Kaduna state arrived at the despicable angle of event suppression. The episode opened with a claim by a local official in Kurmin Wali that gunmen had kidnapped dozens of people attending church services in the area. The local official spoke to the BBC. This was followed by two critical denials. First was the Chairman of the Kajuru Local Government Area, Dauda Madaki who asserted that after speaking with officials as well as community leaders and residents it was certain that there were no signs of an attack as alleged.
The Nigerian police in the state also rejected reports that worshippers were abducted from churches in Kaduna state last Sunday, insisting that no such attack took place. In a statement issued after meeting with local government officials, the police commissioner, Muhammad Rabiu, described the reports as false and accused unnamed actors of spreading misinformation to incite unrest. The commissioner also challenged those making the allegations to provide the names and details of any alleged victims. On his part, the commissioner for internal security and home affairs, Sule Shu’aibu laid the controversy to rest by quoting religious leaders who visited the area to have confirmed that the information circulating publicly was inaccurate.
People who knew the truth were however disturbed because accounts from within the community and on social media clearly contradicted the official version. A community leader, Ishaku Dan’azumi Sarkin, was reported to have insisted that armed men attacked Kurmin Wali and abducted 177 people from three churches last Sunday. He also reportedly added that while some worshippers escaped, others were injured, but that no deaths were recorded. Some content creators had used the social media to display the encounter and accused state officials of deliberately downplaying the incident. They alleged that several residents and concerned citizens were prevented from accessing the community to verify the conflicting claims.
State officials were to later alter their strategy by accepting that the attacks occurred but that they had to downplay them so as to prevent public panic. The immediate error however remains the decision to concentrate on misleading the public rather than spending such valuable time in pursuing the attackers. It is hoped that those who always support the policy of ‘silence is golden’ would learn from the gravity of dissuading the law enforcement agencies from doing their job. The more fundamental adverse effect of the posture is the level of increase it may have added to the lack of faith of the public in government officials across the board. Nigeria must learn to appreciate the dangers of a convoluted information system.
Those who think that what can keep Nigeria’s image intact is either complete silence or a one-sided information framework are the country’s worst enemies. Now that the world has become a global village, it is impossible to stop information on events in one part of the country from getting to other parts or even outside the country. The foreign media in our midst are not here to help us comprehend the nuances of public relations. Accordingly, the best way to protect Nigeria is to encourage its officials to perform well. As the legendary Jerry Gana severally pleaded many years ago, Nigeria can only be clean if her cleaners clean well; not if her privileged citizens are supposedly patriotic amidst an unclean environment.
In these days of economic hardships, many people are understandably searching for government patronage and are therefore well disposed to those in authority. It is probably a profitable venture, but we must warn that some of the old tunes have lost their flavours and need to be reworked. For example, there is so much talk of how government alone, cannot do everything. Having heard it so often, my inquisitive mind is now desperately looking for what government can do alone in our clime. What function or assignment is that? I know for instance that security is not just a job for government; it is in the words of our constitution her primary purpose – one that she must do if per chance she fails with others.
During the immediate past government of President Muhammadu Buhari, the government did not stop at telling us that she alone cannot do it, her top officials even called us cowards for running away from criminals. The then Minister of Defence said our cowardly attitude was what was energizing the courage of the criminals. In other words, it is the citizens that must stop insecurity. If so, how come security votes are given to only presidents, governors and now local government chairmen? If because government cannot do the job alone, we are all mandated to be part of it why then is the security fund not shared to us all? Those who cannot answer this question should stop telling us that those paid to do the job cannot do it alone. Why are they the only ones who get paid for the job?
Anyone who has a function assigned to him by the constitution should be allowed to do it. Considering that Section 22 of our constitution mandates the media to hold government accountable to the people, media professionals should be allowed to do it. Those in government that are to be held accountable should not be allowed to design strategies for criminalizing those mandated to hold them accountable. The role of the media is to let people know about events around them and elsewhere, the media should not be pressured into hiding facts or downplaying events under the guise of avoiding public panic. We are in trouble if those who constantly tell us to verify stories before reporting them can affirm that no one was abducted in Kaduna last Sunday without verifying their imagination.
The post Nigeria: A country of media instructors, by Tonnie Iredia appeared first on Vanguard News.
