Sir: By the statute establishing the press as the Fourth Estate of Realm, the press has a joint role with the government to build a peaceful, virile and responsive citizenry. It is in the interest of both the government and the press to collaborate to secure good governance.
The watchdog role of the press on behalf of the people is neither to discredit the government nor expose its inadequacies; rather the oversight role of the press is to keep the government on its toes to be responsive to its duties and responsibilities to the electorate that voted it to power.
Edmund Burke, the 19th century British parliamentarian and astute politician, was so satisfied with the role of the press that he advocated for the enactment of a law making the press the Fourth Estate of the Realm. Today, the British press in addition to performing its traditional role of watchdog and oversight, also sees itself as a veritable part of the government. The institution of good governance in any worthwhile democracy requires the unwavering collaboration of both the press and the government.
Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the world’s greatest war strategists, described the pen as mightier than the sword. And this is real truth because quite many governments have fallen to the heroic power of the pen than the booming of the guns.
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Since 1859, when the first Newspaper “Iwe Irohin for the people of Egbaland and its environs” was established by the staunch Anglican cleric, Rev Henry Townsend, the Nigerian press has been in the vanguard of building a virile and sustainable Nigerian estate. Like any other industry or enterprise, the press is also feeling the current excruciating rising prices of raw materials and other items required for the printing of newspaper. Both the cost of production and delivery of newspapers to appropriate areas of the country have also escalated as a result of removal of fuel subsidy by the government.
With the death of all the newsprint industries, the press, especially the print media, now relies on imported newsprint with rising foreign exchange. All of these have hiked the price of newspapers beyond the reach of ordinary Nigerians. This is coupled with rising unpaid salaries by newspaper houses owing to paucity of funds arising from poor sales. The problem is further compounded by the recent minimum wage which newspaper staff are also entitled as a matter of right.
The government must come to the aid of Nigerian press by revitalizing the various newsprint industries that now lie comatose. Newsprint forms the major raw material of the newspaper and their availability locally will go a long way to reduce the cost of production. In fact, but for advertorials which many papers are relying on to cushion the effects of high input costs, it is clear that only very few and negligible members of the educated public can afford to purchase a newspaper based on current cover prices.
Newspapers are sources of information about government and about society; now people increasingly cannot afford to buy them due to high production costs. It is a reason for the preponderant rate of fake news that litters our domains and this should be of great concern to the government.
Finally, government should also patronise the press like in the past when government departments subscribe to buying copies of newspapers daily as source of information.