Category: Life – The Midweek Magazine

The gripping collection of 10 short stories, Blood Will Call by Sola Osofisan, aptly depicts a committed soul laden with the call of writing by blood.

Sola showed early promise while living in Nigeria with the unprecedented double-barreled winning of twin Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) prizes in the same year. He achieved the feats through the manuscripts he submitted which beat published books to the coveted awards.

The books were eventually published by Heinemann Nigeria in 1991 as The Living and the Dead and Darksongs. The publishing outfit Malthouse also released another  of Osofisan’s book Darkvisions. It is noteworthy that Sola now resides in New Jersey, United States after his family won the American Visa Lottery.

Sola’s vision as can be gleaned from the titles of his books is dark. In the new short story collection, Blood Will Call, darkness still rules the roost. The first story, “A Mother Screaming” is a heart-rending tale of a mother going into labour in the forest with her five-year-old daughter Ebitimi totally helpless. The stricken woman asks her poor daughter to flee with her new blood brother before the advent of the evil men of the wild who ensure that “she was dragged upright and added to the end of the jangling chain link” of the slave traders. Ebitimi bears witness to a reality that can unman the strongest of men thus: “Only the patch of drying blood on the ground was left of her mother.”

The title story, Blood Will Call props attention from the oral to the scribal and even to the audio-visual. The story starts ominously at a time that “was not a Storyteller’s night” because the moon “clung desperately to the night, seemingly fearful it would lose its grip and plummet in shame like a fallen god …” Itanpadeola, the acclaimed Storyteller of storytellers, comes to the village of Ifeoloju to tell his stories only to end up in bitter disappointment. His lament rings true: “Time has moved on…” He opens up to his brother Ogunbodede that the modern times have overtaken them, stressing: “How can one out-talk the radio, out-dance their television, out-run their motor car and in the same breath out-electrify electricity? If you know the secret, pray share. Tell me, how?” It is in accepting the book of stories, Tales My Father Gave Wings, authored by his son Itangbemi who had gone to the city that he learns that “more people may be reading it and hearing his son’s words than he had performed before his entire lifetime on the road.” Crucially the one message the son sent to the father is just a word: Forever. For the celebrated storyteller of yore, the city beckons.

Violence and desolation are twice-told stories of the oil-rich Niger Delta as limned by  Osofisan in “Shifting Sand”. Kalada is the tragic prop of a terrain besieged on all fronts as he bears the heavy burden of post-imprisonment: “Kalada pushed himself to his feet, still reeling from the ailments that had gnawed away at his flesh in prison. Each bone in his body cracked reluctantly awake to feel the half-blind sun. It had been a while since he had witnessed the morning a free man. He swallowed two pills from the small stained envelope the prison nurse had shoved indifferently into his hand as he was released the previous day.”

The celebration of the so-called American Dream is never within the hemisphere of the characters that dominate Osofisan’s stories set in the United States. The American Nightmare suits their bill as in the story “Fallen” in which a Nigerian immigrant who speaks in “my carefully cultivated African American accent” is promptly laid low by the shady racist David Marone with the note: “You are not black American.”

The longest story in the collection “Don’t Come To America, Emeka” is hip and contemporary, starting out with the exchange of text messages between two medical doctor friends, Dr Emeka Asike in Nigeria and Dr Uche Ofoegbu in the United States. Uche’s advice to Emeka goes to the heart of the matter: “Don’t come to America, Emeka. If you must come, follow the example of the Northerners; they fly in for a brief spell to study, negotiate a big deal or purchase equipment for their factories and before the temptation to remain here germinates, they are back home in Nigeria. I can’t say I have encountered a single Hausa man in the African markets or on a bus in the time I’ve been here. Not one. It may be that my current psychological state keeps me from the circle within which they thrive, considering they tend to have deep pockets and I don’t. Nevertheless, stay in Nigeria where your wife treats you like a king and looks to you to provide for the family.” He of course defies the warning and comes to America, but fails for a fourth time to pass the America medical license exam, thus becoming a woe to his wife Martha who is a rich qualified Nurse and family breadwinner. He hits the wife in frustration but the wife does not call the police. The poor soul cannot wait long enough to quit America and his wife and kids for trouble-strewn Nigeria, only he has no money to buy the return ticket…

Osofisan has a gift for the demanding art of the short story. He can do arresting dialogue and delineates his diverse characters adroitly. Blood Will Call deserves celebration.

Doctoral students of Mass Communication, University of Lagos (UNILAG) are out with a report chronicling factors that influence media organisations’ commitment to keeping the fabrics of the society together by promoting national interest.

THE obligation to keep the fabrics of the society together by promoting national interest of the country has been identified as the major factor of information dissemination mass media organisations, according to a study by this year’s doctoral students of Mass Communication, University of Lagos (UNILAG).

“National interest and other factors, such as ownership, commercial and political interests, have also influenced the media organisations commitment to these philosophies,” the report says.

Other factors are pressure to survive especially during periods of economic downturn; corporate and personal security of the staff; regulatory agencies; public relations consultants; and legal matters.

The study by the doctoral students was carried out under the supervision of communication scholar, Prof Ralph Akinfeleye and a senior lecturer, who is also acting Head of the Department of Mass Communication, UNILAG, Dr Oloruntola Sunday.

The philosophy of a media house is the collective vision that a media organisation brings to bear in its operations. Such a vision represents the standard and critical elements of a company’s organisational strategy and it is what drives the daily operations of the media organisations. Similarly, it constructs in advance the terms of any discussion that will take place about the organisation or any issue arising from the corporate life or purpose of the organisation.

Twenty-one media establishments, from both print and electronic, were covered in the study. They were purposively selected by the researchers for the study that was designed primarily to identify the philosophies of selected media organisations; determine the extent to which the selected media organisations adhere to their stated philosophies; and ascertain the factors that affect their adherence to these philosophies.

Although the operations of media organisations are guided by the stated philosophies, oftentimes enshrined in their mission statements, the observation that sometimes some of them have had cause to bend the rules in favour of certain interests, motivated the study. The researchers are Afoke Hope Orivri, Daniel Kunde, David Olaluwoye, Emmanuel Ojila, Husseini Hassan Shaibu, Kabir Alabi Garba, and Musa Sule.

Others are Olalekan Sote, Dayo Duyile, Peter Kehinde Akodu, Solomon Ntukekpo, and Vincent Nwanma.

Specifically, the study, which ran between April and August, this year, sampled the views of 21 senior media practitioners comprising correspondents, news and line editors, assistant and deputy editors-in-chief, managing editors and editors-in-chief who have at least five years of professional experience, using both survey design and structured interview methods.

While all these media houses possessed philosophies as expected, the terms accuracy, fairness, truthfulness, balance, objectivity, factuality, and safeguarding public interest were common key terms in their philosophies. While national interests easily passed for public interests in usage in all the philosophies, the usage seemed particularly emphatic in federal government-owned media. The covert commercial interest symbolism embedded the philosophies of privately owned media. Seventy percent of media organisations, especially the print media, attached greater value to news while 16 percent of them laid emphasis on entertainment and sports. However, the study revealed that organisational deviation from the stated philosophies diminished whatever values and beauties shown in the analysis of the findings.

Respondents pointed out constraints responsible for this deviation: vested interests and factors beyond the media practitioners’ control. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents maintained that their organisations’ adherence to corporate philosophies is low while 28 percent stated that their organisations moderately adhere to their philosophies. Only 10 percent of respondents thought the degree of adherence to the corporate philosophies is very high.

Also, the study sought a value-based answer in the area of organisational pressure of media practitioners to drop news item(s) when the news item does not in any way violate the corporate philosophy of the media organisation. Ninety percent of respondents admitted they have been under pressure to drop such news item(s), which they viewed as a violation of the philosophies of their organisations. However, 10 percent of respondents said they never experienced any pressure for dropping news items.

Ninety-five percent of respondents who were under pressure to drop some news items actually obliged, though unwillingly, while one respondent said he did not oblige. From the data, however, it would appear killing news in media organisations seldom occurs. The study appraised other variables like modulation of news item(s) to suit certain interests instead of outright killing of the news. Ninety percent of respondents have come under pressure to modify some stories to pacify some vested interests or fit into some contexts. Ten percent of respondents, however, never came under pressure to modify their news content. Twisting or scaling down news items appears not to be a frequent practice in the media organisations.

All the respondents agreed that national interest, one of the factors, impinge on their adherence to corporate philosophies of media houses as there is always the struggle to balance national and organisational interests. Eighty-six percent of respondents saw ownership interest as another dominant factor that negatively influences adherence to corporate philosophies by media organisations. Sixty-seven percent of respondents maintained that advertisers bear a lot of influence on their operational philosophy while 43 percent said political interests impinge on their adherence to their philosophies.

Twenty-four percent of respondents said threat to their corporate existence and security of staff are responsible for not upholding their philosophies while 14 percent of respondents said public relations practitioners did influence sometimes. Twenty-four percent of respondents said regulatory agencies are responsible for not adhering to their philosophies while one respondent said fear of legal matters makes his organisation to deviate from its philosophy.

From the context of this study, it is instructive to note that media organisations have philosophies, but the manner of professional practice does not sync with this confirmation. However, the knowledge of the factors that impinge on adherence to those philosophies such as national interest, ownership interest, economic downturn, threat to life, political influence, advertisers’ interest, public relations, and regulatory agencies will assist media managers to begin to fashion out strategies to mitigate the side effects of these factors.

Indeed, one issue raised by the study, which has continued to defy consensus among communication scholars and public policy formulators, is the definition of what constitutes ‘national interest’. The study asserts thus, “Unfortunately, there is no precise conceptualisation of what is national interest until date. To this extent, the constitutive and nuances of national interest are still ambiguous. The determination of what constitutes national interest still resides within the purview of the national security agencies and sometimes the instrument is used as ambush tactics by overzealous security operatives.  The implication here is that journalists often find it difficult to determine when they are crossing the borders and stepping on the landmines called national interest.”

Based on the findings, the study therefore tasks media organisations to ensure that they adhere to their corporate philosophy because it is their identity and the social bond between them and the public.

Also, it emphasises the need for media owners (government and private) allowing their organisations to operate freely to promote best professional practice, in addition to ensuring prompt payment of staff salaries “so that the staff can avoid unethical practices and protect the corporate integrity of the organisations.”

The study has special admonition for the security operatives: “They must respect the rights of media practitioners. In fact, they must realise that issues regarding fundamental human rights, freedom of information, expression, and rule of law are the bedrock of operation in a democratic system of government.”

If Nigeria’s desire to attain democratic maturity with all its nuances is genuine, both government and media operatives should pay attention to the findings of this study. It anchors this attainment on a free, responsible, self-regulated media, which is always in dialogue with itself and the reading/viewing/listening public.

The study’s argument is that “when the media regulates itself through constant dialogue with the public, such media will earn public trust and confidence, which are the ingredients needed to discharge its constitutionally recognized obligation of holding government accountable to the people, thereby stimulating good governance.”

Penultimate Sunday at the Yoruba Tennis Club in Onikan, Lagos Island, members of the Rotary Club, Gbagada, installed Olanrewaju Akintilo as their 33rd president. JOSEPH ESHANOKPE reports.

THE Greetings Hall of Yoruba Tennis Club in Onikan, Lagos, was a beehive of activities two Sundays ago when members of the Rotary Club of Gbagada inducted Olanrewaju Akintilo as their 33rd president.

Outgoing president of the club Otunba Olusola Adenuga-Taiwo was glad that he had completed his one year tenure. Presenting his scorecard, he noted that he completed at least one project in each of the six core areas of the Rotary Foundation.

He said the club also completed a project started by his predecessor Prof Olukayode Taiwo in Cotonou, Benin Republic, and chartered a new Rotary club in Ago Iwoye. It inducted four members, contributed immensely to the Rotary Foundation and PolioPlus Fund, and supported small scale businesses with N1.5million in Ososa, Ijebu, Ogun State.

Specifically, Adenuga-Taiwo praised Hon Isola Ogunsola for his support; adding that without him, he would not have achieved much. He gave him and some Board members of the club awards.

After his speech, Akintilo was called to the podium. He shone in his white dress, with office insignia dangling around his neck. After his citation, at 3.50pm, Akintilo was ‘sworn-in as the 33rd president amid a song titled: ‘It’s a small world. It is a small world. It is a small, small world.’’

At that moment, the District Governor (DG) Pat Ikheloa arrived in the hall. The MC, while welcoming the DG, said the DG came ‘’at the right time when the mantle of leadership is being passed to Akintilo’’.

Akintilo paid tribute to his grandmother Madam Segilola Adeagbo (Iya Ibeji) for his upbringing, and more importantly, for inculcating in him the virtue of doing good. He decried the resurgence of polio virus, two years after Nigeria was cleared of the epidemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Akintilo sought  support to tackle the disease and ensure that it is eradicated.

On his card for the year are the provision of two dialysis machines at the General Hospital, Gbagada and renovation of Ifako Primary School. So far, he has presented some materials to children suffering from clinic feet at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

Launching a special fund to prosecute his projects and programmes, Akintilo urged his friends and family members to assist his administration. The response was impressive as there was ‘naira and dollar  rain’ thereafter.

The President-elect Adefowoke Williams described Akintilo as a seasoned PR practitioner.  She reminded him that he was ‘taking over a winning club, noting: ‘’It is the leading club in District 9110, having won the ‘coveted best club award’ for 13 years, seven of which were back-to-back and produced three DGs since it was carted in 1984’’.

Lagos State University (LASU) Vice Chancellor Prof Lanre Fagbohun, who was guest speaker, sought support for youth empowerment, saying that the success of a nation depended on its youths. Education, he noted, could galvanise the youth for national development. With the right education, he submitted, the youth, would be prepared for national assignments.

Fagbohun , who spoke for about 15 minutes, praised Rotary and similar organisations for living up to their objectives and that they always look for ways to make lives better.

Reeling off statistics, he painted a gloomy picture of daily living and that ‘our world is falling apart’’. To solve the problem, he called on everyone to contribute to make life batter, lamenting that some people pass through this world without giving a helping hand.