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The Nigerian Media As Scapegoats
By Uche Nworah
Why do I think that this is
the season of profession bashing, or better still media bashing? Even from members and non-members of the media constituency.
Have things really degenerated to such alarming proportions to
warrant the sweeping comments of concerned observers, most
especially Seyi Oduyela in his media bashing article The
Media in Nigeria 11?
Mr. Oduyela’s essays
reminded me of Reuben Abati’s once sweeping condemnation of the
teaching profession in his ‘now,
now’ syndrome article, a profession that Mr Abati left for
journalism which has this time come under Seyi Oduyela’s heavy
hammer. In my
rejoinder to Mr. Abati’s article, I had argued that teachers
are no angels and so should not be expected to carry the heavy
burden of salvaging the rot and decay which now characterises the
Nigerian nation, especially when the Nigerian society has refused
to enable and empower the teachers to do their work and fulfil
these societal expectations.
Mr Oduyela seemed pained by
his experiences at nigeriaworld.com,
and has therefore not minced words in his tirade. But I think that
he may have wielded the big stick too heavily, especially when we
learnt from our elders that we should ‘never bite the finger
that fed/feeds us’. I am sure that in the course of his x number
of years relationship with the owners of nigeriaworld.com, there
must have been merry and good times, such memories should have
tampered his anger and rage. I would wish to recall here Martha
Stewart’s plea to the jury during her trial in America, she had
told the jury to also remember the good that she had done for
America in the past and not just the crime that she was being
tried for.
I submit that media and
journalism practice in Nigeria is actually alive and well. I was
bowled over during my recent visit to Nigeria by the number of
titles at the newsstands, the increasing number of FM and TV
stations jostling for licences at Ernest Ndukwe’s NCC offices.
Considering the prevailing economic environment in Nigeria which
is still harsh and hostile, one can only encourage those media
houses that are still managing to keep their heads above the
waters. To be able to this, they must be doing something nice to
keep the interests of the readers who flock the newsstands daily
to purchase the titles, the ability to maintain the interests of
the readers, viewers or listeners are of course the only reason
why advertisers will patronise the media houses.
Things cannot be as bad as
Mr Oduyela claims, media owners always know that the moment they
lose the interests of their audience, they also lose the interest
of advertisers and the next natural occurrence will be the natural
demise of such titles, the graveyard of Nigerian media is still
littered with lots of newspapers and magazines who couldn’t stay
the course, most notable is Lawrence Akapa’s Top News, a
classic example of how not to take the audience for granted.
The history of the media in
Nigeria has always been characterised by two major forms of
ownership, those owned by the government (e.g. NTA, OGTV, ABS,
Statesman newspaper, etc.) and those owned by private individuals
(The News, Silverbird Television, AIT, The
Sun, This Day, biafranigeriaworld,
etc.). These two forms of media ownership are all driven by
separate agendas.
The government media houses
are used mainly as instruments of propaganda for the government
while the private media owners are driven by different motives,
which could be profit making, agenda setting, to win influence
which can later be translated into political and business gains,
etc. Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu in setting up Champion
newspapers must have been motivated by the latter, just like
the late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola and his Concord group of
newspapers. Therefore contrary to Seyi Oduyela’s arguments,
there is nothing wrong with James Ibori and Orji Kalu setting up
newspaper houses, as long as such enterprises are funded from
government treasury.
Not only do their newspapers
contribute to the enlivening of the socio-political debate and
providing alternative view points, they also provide jobs to
journalists and all other service providers such as vendors,
printers, and other sundry staff such as cleaners and security
staff, etc. As a matter of fact, Orji kalu’s The
Sun newspaper is being run by media veterans such as Mike
Awoyinfa, Dimgba Igwe of Weekend Concord fame. The duo and their
team which include Amanze Obi, Femi Adesina, Louis Odion, etc,
have successfully and in so short a time positioned the paper to
be the best selling soft-sell/tabloid newspaper in Nigeria,
modelled after The Sun newspaper in the UK, the paper which
operates in a niche market has a specialised readership who
normally will prefer soft news and human interest stories, to the
hard news including government criticisms, which can be found in The
Daily Independent, The
Guardian, This day
and other such broadsheet papers.
Having said this, it becomes
a tall order to expect the editors of such privately owned
newspapers to turn around and criticise their owners. The late
Dele Giwa tried to pull off such a stunt in his days at Concord
newspapers when he published a poll of best dressed Nigerians. In
the poll his name appeared before that of his boss (late Bashorun
M.K.O Abiola). Abiola did not find this funny and obviously this
must have been one of the reasons for Dele Giwa’s eventual
‘disengagement’ from Concord newspapers.
If anything, the Nigerian
media is getting more vibrant by the day, Dele Olojede recently
proved that Nigerian trained journalists are not rubbish after
all; else the Pulitzer Prize committee wouldn’t have so
deservedly rewarded him. Baring the lack of adequate resources as
expressed by some journalists in the article How
the internet is affecting journalism practice in Nigeria, I am
proud to say that Nigerian journalists can hold their ground and
compete with the best anywhere in the world.
Unfortunately, poor
remuneration has led to a situation where journalists look
elsewhere for supplementary incomes. Some have resorted to
demanding for the famous ‘brown envelope’, or according to
Seyi Oduyela, ‘jostling for appointments, contracts and
advertisements’. In the Nigerian environment, there is really
nothing wrong with these, except when a conflict of interest
arises. As Mr Oduyela rightly points out, some Nigerian
journalists earn on the average about N20, 000 – N30, 000
monthly.
One would normally expect
the media owners to do better than that but sometimes, there is
really not a lot the media owners can do, this is as a result of
many factors, according to Dan Akpovwa, the publisher of Abuja
Inquirer, ‘cover prices alone are not enough to cover costs,
the advertisers owe media houses and the advertising agencies drag
their foot in settling invoices, we can not chase our staff away,
the system somehow has to be kept alive, it is better to carry an
advertisement and be owed than not to carry at all, it is indeed a
tough call on publishers to match the salaries paid in the banking
or telecommunication sectors ’.
During a recent visit to the
Abuja offices of the Abuja Inquirer to interview the publisher and
also to get a feel of the problems regional newspapers face, I got
to see first hand the challenges that both newspaper publishers
and their staff confront everyday, I came away with the impression
that both the publishers and their hard working staff are nothing
but miracle workers, for their ability to roll out fresh copies of
newspapers daily despite the difficulties they face ranging from
scarce or expensive newsprints, power outages, mounting
advertisement debts, rising distribution costs, etc.
At
the Abuja Inquirer offices in August 2005. L-R Uche Nworah, Dan
Akpovwa (publisher), Joseph Inokotong (Editor) in orange shirt.
I also think that it is
wrong to condemn Nigerian journalists for their aspirations or job
offers in government as government spokespersons. Mr Oduyela
mentioned a few journalists most notably Nduka Irabor, who at some
point was Chief Press Secretary to Admiral Augustus Aikhomu. One
would think that such journalists were committing a mortal sin by
such acts or career moves, rather than simply seeking to fulfill a
basic human need, one of which is self actualisation, according to
Abraham Maslow.
In the Nigerian media
landscape, the natural career progression route for journalists
apart from setting up their own media houses is to wander into
corporate affairs departments of private corporations such as
banks, telecom companies, etc. The other option which Mr Oduyela
doesn’t like so much is that of accepting positions in
government as press secretaries or media spokespersons of
government officials. There is still nothing wrong with
journalists accepting job offers, especially ones that may improve
their living standards, life is too short, also life is not all
about criticising and attacking the government of the day. If one
gets offered the opportunity to come and contribute to the process
of nation building by working for the government, it should not be
regarded as a sign of selling out.
However, some of these
journalists who have the opportunity to do brief stints as press
secretaries almost always come back to the profession that gave
them fame, even if not fortune. There are the likes of Greg
Obong-Oshotse, former press secretary to Mrs Miriam Babangida who
is now the Europe and North America editor of the independent
Newspaper, Tony Momoh former editor of the Daily Times and
Babangida’s Minister of Information is now a private media
consultant. Ruth Benemaisa – Opia went from NTA 9 O’clock news
to serve as a Commissioner in Bayelsa, her home state. She is now
back at NTA doing what she knows how to do best. Chris Anyanwu also left NTA 9 O’clock news to serve as
Commissioner for Information in Imo state, when she left the job
she set up The Sunday magazine (TSM); it was her exploits at the
TSM that landed her in jail during the Abacha junta.
There is also Sola Omole,
another popular NTA 9 O’clock newscaster in the 80s; Mr. Omole
now heads the corporate affairs division at Chevron Nigeria.
Another member of the pack, John Momoh now runs his own television
company, Channels. Dan Akpovwa, erstwhile Quality magazine
and This Day reporter and later press secretary to the
Minister of Aviation also did stints as the corporate affairs
manager of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) before
returning to what he describes as his first choice profession as
the publisher of the Abuja Inquirer.
On the lighter mood, there
are also others, especially women whose media careers have earned
them second careers as wives of the rich, famous and the mighty,
most notably Jennifer Iwenjuora, Yes, the Jennifer Abubakar, one
of Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s
many wives. There is also Ronke Ayuba, the wife of General
Tanko Ayuba (Rtd.), former military governor of Kaduna state and
minister of communications during the Babangida regime and also
Folake Doherty, who is now famously married to Wole Soyinka as
wife number 3. Chief Segun Osoba, former governor of Ogun state
and also former managing director of the Daily Times group
rode on the back of his journalism career all the way to the Ogun
state government house, and so did Honourable Abike Dabiri, the ex
– NTA presenter who is now an honourable member of the federal
House of Representatives.
There are others whom space
won’t permit me to mention, who have done the migration from a
career in journalism to careers in government or in the private
sector, people should be allowed to make their individual career
choices without having to feel guilty or be made to think that
they sold out.
It is a natural expectation
and occurrence in every profession to trade favours. Of
course these journalists build up friendships over the years such
that sometimes they are expected to suppress or ‘kill’ certain
stories especially if such stories will affect the publisher’s
advertisers or their friends in government who indirectly pay the
bills. Such demands though unfortunate are nothing but a basic
reality in life. It is the kind of challenge that face working
professionals daily. There is usually no textbook answer or
solution to it. It is every man to his own conscience.
There have been cases of
journalists who will not bulge and have chosen the honourable way
out by resigning from their jobs. This phenomena is universal. In
the UK, newspapers are known to be either pro labour or pro
conservatives. Also, in America, newspapers and media houses are
known to either be
sympathetic to the Democrats or to the Republicans.
Hence their liberal
or conservative
classifications. They will therefore tend to publish news stories
that will only reinforce their political ideologies or those of
their owners and their friends/stakeholders. Again, this is a
basic expectation in life, for one to know where one’s bread is
buttered.
At journalism school at the
University of Uyo, I remember Professor Desmond Wilson recounting
all the known media theories to us, and how starry eyed we were
hoping to come out and change the world, armed with our knowledge
of the theories such as the social responsibility theory,
development theory, the agenda setting theory, etc. However no one
ever bothered teaching us the most realistic and practical media
theory ever, the one you learn in the field, which is the ‘He
who pays the piper, dictates the tune theory’.
This unfortunately seems to
be theory that the media houses abide by. Likewise it is the
theory that govern most professions. You can not be eating a
man’s dinner and at the same time be insulting him. Like they
say; those that can not take the heat are best advised to leave
the kitchen
Back to Mr Oduyela’s beef
with nigeriaworld.com, who ever they may be, the owners of the
website definitely have their own agenda, and if they don’t want
to publish the people he mentioned in his article including
himself anymore, that is their business and choice. I have always
believed that a mutual relationship exists between the owners of
some of these websites and their many freelance writers. Anytime
the relationship begins to tilt more in the favour of one party,
then it is the time for the party less favoured to move on. I see
it as a no-strings-attached affair, since there was no contract
signed, either of the parties could take a walk anytime.
Mr Oduyela mentioned in his
article that the mentioned writers helped build the
nigeriaworld.com website, but he failed to mention the
‘gratifications’ the writers were receiving, gratification
doesn’t only have to be financial, it could just be the
opportunity or platform for one to showcase his or her writings. I
have always likened writers to artists and exhibitionists. What is
the point of a work of art if there is no platform to exhibit it?
This is a two way street for me: the website owner gains, the
writers gains, if the website owner gets advertising support in
the process, fine. That should compensate him for his time, and
investment in technology and other resources. If further down the
line something trickles in for the writers financially, better
still.
Personally my articles used
to appear on nigeriaworld.com and kwenu.com
but at some point, the website owners called in time and stopped
publishing my articles, I quietly moved on. I don’t think that
anybody suffers by nigeriaworld.com no longer publishing his and
the articles of the mentioned writers. These Nigerian oriented
websites are not really many. It is easy to carry your ardent
readers with you, if they want to read you. Google is only a click
away. Wherever you may have berthed next they will find you.
I agree with Mr Oduyela that
freelance writers commit time and resources in putting together
their stories and articles. But then, no one has put a gun to our
heads to do that. Some of us do it for the love of it, as a hobby
or just because we may have been journalists in our past careers
but still don’t want to completely lose touch with the
profession. Some of us enjoy the freedom and independence to write
what we like and publish when we like, there is no newsroom
pressure or deadlines to meet, as would have been the case if we
were contracted writers.
Alternatively, if one feels
so aggrieved, there is always the option of setting up one’s own
website or media house, just like many journalists have done in
the past, but then with that option comes its own problems. But no
matter what happens and the options Mr Oduyela decides to
consider, the reality is that the show must go on.
Not surprisingly, Taslim
Anibaba was the first to rubber stamp Seyi Oduyela’s essay; this
is to be expected because Mr Anibaba himself had in the past
called the Nigerian
press a disaster in an article. I remember commenting on his
article that as a chartered accountant, and fellow of the
accounting profession for that matter, he should first take off
the log in his profession’s eyes before attempting to take off
the speck in the eyes of journalists. He may have his issues with
the Nigerian press but I still believe in the saying that ‘monkey
no fine but him mama still like am’
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* * * *
Uche Nworah is a
freelance writer and lives in London. uchenworah@yahoo.com
posted 2 September 2005 |
