The world has drastically changed from what it used to be. And, it continues to change rapidly, especially, with dynamic advancement in technology. Incidentally, what most people do not seem to notice, with deserved consciousness in the changing features of the world, is the effective role which the media plays in that trend of change. As a matter of fact, one of the principal agents of distinction, between the primordial and the contemporary world, is the function of the media. Without the media, no coded causes of war or disguised factors of peace could have been effectively deciphered by today’s mankind, as every sensitive action or insensitive reaction within the society would have been influenced by baseless rumours and unfounded speculations. And, today’s world would have been like George Orwell’s Animal Farm’ in which all animals are presumed to be generally equal when, actually, some of them are more equal than the others.
The case of Israel
Today, there is a country called Israel, the mere mention of which instantly engenders an impactful feeling. Until 73 years ago (1948), that country was neither in existence nor even known to the world with any recognition.
Its making as a country, through a clandestine establishment in the heart of the Arab land, and, its subsequent colossal existence, with a master stroke of audacity, could not have occurred in the absence of the media. How many people knew, except through the media, that Israel is rather a Zionist than a Jewish State? And, besides going through the media, how could the informed elites, around the world, have been able to distinguish between Judaism as a religious notion and Zionism as a political movement?
In retrospect
For well over a millennium, the Caucasian Jewish tribe was not known to the world more than a group of wonderers and marauders, just like the Egyptian gypsies of yore. It took only one foresighted man, in the late 19th century, to change the course of history for that tribe at the least expected time. The name of the man was Theodore Herzl. He was an Austria-based Journalist/Lawyer, who initiated a militant political movement that was formed in 1879 and named Zionism. Being the founder of that movement, Theodore Herzl, was then made its leader. The main focus of that movement’s agitation was to seek a permanent home for the Jews anywhere in the world. And, the instrument used for that vociferous agitation was the media.
As a Journalist, Theodore Herzl’s had recognized the effective power of the media, and he had acknowledged it as the most effective weapon with which to make his dream of getting a permanent home for the Zionist movement a reality. And, in truth, that was the magic that fetched his founded Zionist movement a permanent home, in the name of Israel, in Palestine, at the expense of the then ‘sleeping Arabs’ called Palestinians.
The balfour declaration
At the climax of the Zionists’ agitation for a permanent home, Theodore Herzl publicly made an historic demand that turned out to be the changer of the Jewish destiny. The demand was voiced out in the following words:
“Let sovereignty be granted us (Jews) over a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation. The rest, we shall manage by ourselves…”
The follow up to that demand was then left to the media which fleshed it up with unimaginable propaganda that caught a magnetic attention of the British Colonial government of that time. And, then, the response which greeted that demand was unprecedentedly electric. That response strangely came in form of a policy that was officially adopted by the British Parliament and named after its formulator, Arthur Balfour, in 1917. It was therefore called ‘Balfour Declaration’. Apart from the eagerness which propelled the implementation of that declaration, there was also a hidden feeling that it could also serve as an incentive for the Zionist Movement to establish a government of its own, as well as to connive with the imperialist West to police the excessive wealth of the Middle East and checkmate the Arabs’ effective access to that wealth.
And, within three decades (1917-1948), the Zionists’ dream for a permanent home became a reality.
Today, there can be no world map without Israel as a country.
Demographic stragety
Despite Israel’s claim of an exaggerated population of about 8.655 million inhabitants, the remaining Palestinian Muslims within that demography is still about 17% of that figure. And that does not include the demography of West Bank and Gaza Strip. After settling down and became patially recognized as a State, the first step taken by Israel was to ensure the manipulation of the mentioned demography of that land by evicting most of the real Arab dwellers from the land and replace them with Zionist settlers. Thus, relying heavily on media propaganda, the immigrant Zionist minority forcefully displaced the Arab majority and replaced the latter while still leaving the rest to the media propaganda which began to sing-praise the courage of the aggressors vilify the timidity of the oppressed owners of the land. In a nutshell, it was the media that championed the yeoman’s job which fetched the Zionists a permanent home on Palestinian land. That is the power of the media for you. And, unless that power is strategically managed to one’s advantage, there may be no alternative to it in the foreseeable future.
The media as a weapon
Even in this 21st century, when it is obvious that the most prominent instrument of change is the media, most Muslim individuals and corporate bodies still do not see the need to give the media the priority it deserves. If the Machiavellian theory of using attack as a form of defence is anything to tacitly agree with, the media must be seen as its practical example. But ironically, any good observer can vividly see a manifest apathy to the media in Northern Nigeria. And, the cost of such a lackadaisical attitude towards a weapon like the media, in this age, cannot be quantified psychologically and spiritually. Whether we realize it or not, it is a fact, universally acknowledged, today, that a world without the media is like the carcass of a mobile corpse waiting to be interned.
Genesis of the media in Nigeria
When the print media first arrived in Nigeria in 1859, its first point of call was Abeokuta, in the South-West of Nigeria. And, that was because the part of this country, adopt literacy in Roman letters, at that time, was the South-West. For several decades after the arrival of the media in Nigeria, newspaper publication and readership became solidly domiciled in the South-West. Anybody who wanted to read newspaper or express an opinion in it, at that time, was to get in touch with Lagos/Ibadan axis of the media, directly or indirectly. And, with Lagos being the seat of the colonial master at the time, that situation was considered a further impetus, for the people of the South-West, to advance, ahead of other regions, in literacy and education. However, with time, the people of some other sections of the country, especially from the South-East and the South-South, began to key into the media scheme after realizing its covert and avowed power. That was the situation that made the Southern Nigeria generally, the foremost custodian of information and education in the country.
Electronic media
With the coming of electronic media (Radio and Television) to Nigeria in the early/mid 20th century, it became evident that the Southern part of Nigeria was the main habitat of the media in the federation called Nigeria.
It therefore took the people of the South-South to study he instrument used by Nigeria’s freedom fighters in their struggle for independence, as well as that of the tortuous efforts of Jews to get a permanent home for themselves at the heart of the Arab world. The combination of both studies then became a template for them to copy in order to get their own voices heard around the world for the purpose of sympathy and assistance. It can, therefore, be concluded that without the media, a Goodluck Jonathan would never have emerged from the South-South as a Nigerian President. It was also the media that helped the agitation of the Southern oil-producing States to change the formula of income derivation from oil in their favour and to demand federal character in the process of federal appointments. Today, those oil producing States are enjoying 13% derivation against the hitherto pittance that they were getting even as the adoption of federal character in appointments has now become a political norm, courtesy of the media. Thus, as a result of the tremendous success achieved by using the media for agitation, the South-South has become a model for other minority groups to speak up in demand for their needs and wants, as a matter of right, in Nigerian federation.
Today, whether in the print or electronic sector of the media, no one can brush aside the prominent role that the people of the South-South are playing for the benefit of their tribal kiths and kin. As a matter of fact, the Nigerian media, today, is incontrovertibly dominated by the South-South.
Northern Nigeria apathy to the media
From all indications, the people of Northern Nigeria are grossly apathetic to media function in the country. And, this is adversely affecting, not only the geographical North but also Islam and the Muslims, socially, economically, politically and psychologically. Yet, our Northern brothers do not seem to be ready to alter that posture. If the oil producing States in the South can use the media to agitate for increased derivation on oil, what prevents the Northerners, also, from using the media to demand huge derivation on the solid minerals that are abundantly available in various parts of the North. Besides, are there no big dams like Kainji Shiroro and others, in the North, that are being used by the federal government to generate electricity for the entire country? Why can’t those economic features be used as causes of demand for bigger derivation? One other serious issue that our Northern brothers do not seem to notice with agility is the use of the Southern media to categorize the the entire North as a unit in Nigerian federation while the South is being strategically positioned as different separate regions economically.
Religionisation of Nigerian politics
Usually, the reference to the Middle Belt, North-West and North-East, by the Southern media, is a mere political strategy to stratify the North psychologically, in readiness for an incoming demand that could warrant the support of the Northern Christians.
That strategy, which began during the first tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, was politically instructive. It should be recalled that Alhaji Bubakar Atiku was the elected Governor of Adamawa State in 1999. But when Obsanjo became the President, the same Atiku was his choice as Vice-President just to pave way for a Christian, Boni Haruna, to become the Governor of a Muslim- dominated state and aid the well-planned tacit strategy of Christianizing some parts of Northern Nigeria. A similar scenario later played out in Kaduna, when, after becoming President, Goodluck Jonathan chose the then Governor of that State, Architect Namadi Sambo, as Vice President to pave way for Sambo’s Deputy, Patrick Yakowa, to become the Governor of the State. It looked like a normal political design. But the motive was to use such strategy as a means of empowering the Christian minority of that State politically to strength in the Christian minorities of those States to the detriment of Islam. And, it worked very well in giving those Christian minorities in the North a strong voice of agitation as well as a technical tunnel of incursion of stronger Christianity into the North. But, contrarily, in the South, all the States in the South-East and the South-South often invariably have gubernatorial Christian/Christian tickets without any media brouhaha coming from the North. Is there any State in Nigeria without Muslims who can serve as Deputy-Governor? These are some of the fundamental issues in Nigeria that the media can be used to exhume if the North is strong media-wise. There are many more examples which can be used to checkmate the reckless incessant noise of ‘Islamization’ in the Southern media.
The BBC and Al-Jazeera
The similitude of the current apathy of Northern Nigeria to the media is like that of the Arabs to the media in the past. Today, most television viewers around the world, including the Westerners, are delighted to find a better alternative to BCC and CNN in Al-Jazeera, in terms of qualitative news dissemination, news analyses and prompt exposition of facts and figures around the world. But what most of those viewers do not know is how Al-Jazeera came into existence. Before the establishment of Al-Jazeera, the entire Arab world was heavily dependent on the Western media for publicity which they never got without paying for it heavily in coins and in kind. It took the BBC which was established in 1926, to take a fundamentally erroneous and regrettable decision, to pave way for the establishment of Al-Jazeera.
If the BBC had not taken its Arab viewers for granted by closing down its Arabic section and by sacking the Arab Journalists that were working in that section, perhaps a qualitative cable network TV station called Al-Jazeera would not have come into existence to the psychological relief of Muslims worldwide. It was the fortuitous reaction to that obnoxious BBC action that brought Al-Jazeera into existence. Thanks to foresighted moneybags in Qatar. What the rich Qataris did at that time, in establishing Al-Jazeera to challenge the BBC can also be done effectively by some rich Northern Nigerian Muslims as a master strategy for the defence and promotion of Islam. After all, there had once been an example of such in Nigeria’s print media, when the Northern government established New Nigeria newspaper as a counter force to the scores of Southern newspapers then led by the ‘almighty’ Daily Times. And, the excesses of those Southern newspapers were effectively checkmated by New Nigeria newspaper alone.
Electronic media in Nigeria
Today, the situation of the media, generally, in Nigeria, is such that the North is not reckoned with at all, on matters of media function. And, the complacency of our Northern brothers which is seen as an encouragement for the Southern media to constantly ride roughshod over the North does not help the matter. If only the New Nigerian newspaper could stand up vertically to checkmate
the scores of Southern Christian newspapers in the past, why can’t the same be done through electronic media now that the Muslim North needs very strong media mouth piece most?
Media ownership in Northern Nigeria
One major concern about the media that often amazes most Southern Nigerian Muslim Journalists is the seeming permanent complacency of the Northern elite about the functions of the media in the country. While there are scores of privately owned electronic and print media in virtually all parts of the South, the Northerners seem unperturbed by the incessant bashing coming out of those Southern media houses against the North. This has become so embarrassingly disturbing that some of us, Muslim veteran Journalists are left with no choice other than to remain aloof.
Whenever we come to the North and lodge in hotels, we are always given the privilege of switching from one 24 hour cable network television station to another. But most, of those stations, such as The Channels, TVC, AIT, Silverbird, Kaftan, Calaxy and a number of others are based in the South and owned by Southerners who are mostly Christians. Wcable network television stations here is equally true of
Radio Stations. Now, why is this so, is a vital question which requires a vital answer as to be provided by the North, as a matter of urgency. One fact that must be seriously noted is that most of the media outfits in Southern Nigeria are taken as political, tribal and religious arsenals with which to fight the North from all conceivable angles. This situation is one of the breeders of inter-tribal and inter-religious hatred in Nigeria, which makes the country look like an impossibility.
Conclusion
Based on the above media analysis in Nigeria, the North must wake up from its slumber in terms of consciousness about the media if only to avoid the Palestinian experience. God bless you sirs!
