By Lekan Otufodunrin

I try hard not to get involved in arguments with people who dismiss the reality of COVID-19 or claim it’s not a big deal to warrant the various measures taken by governments worldwide.

I wish I could ignore their many conspiracy theories, but I get worried that they are misleading those who don’t have necessary information and endangering the lives innocent persons.

Despite the daily updates of people who have tested positive and died globally and in the country, some of whom are top personalities, some persons, for whatever reason still claim that there is no need to be worried about the deadly disease now in its second wave of infection.

As at last Thursday, COVID-19 cases in Nigeria was 95,934 with 77,982 survivors discharged and 1,330 deaths recorded.

It’s shocking to hear some people claim that among others, COVID-19 is a scam, that it is a ploy by the government to divert money, get grants and get people vaccinated against their will.

Some religious leaders who should be very careful of their utterances are endangering the lives of their followers by encouraging them to disobey government directives.

Even some supposedly knowledgeable persons who should know how deadly the virus is have chosen to promote false narratives on the matter at the expense of those who trust their claims and not that of the government.

What better proof is needed than the number of persons lost to the disease already? Why would anyone think those who recovered from the infection are making up the accounts of what they went through and are still experiencing after recovering.

Read Also: Abia expresses worry over rise of COVID-19 cases

Perhaps it will take members of their families getting infected before those still in denial accept that COVID-19 is real and should be responded to with the seriousness that it deserves to reduce the devastating impacts.

The government has the responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of its citizens and should therefore not hesitate to go to any extent to curb the spread of the disease.

The unbudgeted expenses which the government has incurred in responding to the virus is so much that its crippling effects is already being felt in meeting other crucial responsibilities of the government.

We can save our country from further complicating the poor state of our economy by simply abiding with the guidelines for protecting ourselves and others around us.

The inconvenience the protocols would cost us and whatever individual or organizational loss we may incur cannot be compared with what we stand to lose when we don’t take necessary precautions.

There should be no need to convince anyone that what we have on our hands is a pandemic which if not properly managed will cost us more than we can imagine. It should not require the use of force to get anyone, irrespective of his or her status to comply with directives issued by the federal and state governments, but for those choose to disobey the guidelines, they should be penalised accordingly to serve as a deterrent to others.

If only many have abided by the guidelines, we would not be having the high figures of those testing positive being recorded now after the decrease that necessitated the relaxation of the restrictions.

With over 807 cases last Thursday, Lagos recorded the highest figure in a day in the country in recent weeks.

We should count ourselves lucky in Africa that we are not recording the projected high figures of deaths in our continent, but we must not take it for granted that the situation may not become worse if we continue to carry on as if we are immune from what other countries are experiencing.

By Lekan Otufodunrin

 

In case you missed it, below is what Elfredah Kelvin, a journalist based in Port Harcourt, River State shared online on December 31 titled “ OVERVIEW OF INCREDIBLE 20203  about what she accomplished in 2020.

• Over 11 grants from different organizations (within &Outside Nigeria)

“Multiple fully funded events (online&Offline) * 4-Fellowship ( within &Outside Nigeria)

• While enjoying Freelancing; Got 3 full-time job offers. Rejected two. Very proud of the job I accepted.
• Eight months deal in Dakar, Senegal on issues concerning Niger Delta region.
• Invited and got paid as a facilitator for a 2-day program.

In the year 2020 when Coronavirus disrupted our lives and work in many ways than we envisaged, it’s incredible that Elfredah accomplished so much in her career.

Rather than giving up on 2020 and leaving her career to chances, if any ever comes, she must have been more than ever be determined to succeed and maximize every opportunity she got.

I knew Elfredah who is a now a Reporter @GazetteNGR  since her fellowship year in the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Female Leadership Reporters programme.

She was hungry to learn. She was determined to overcome her limitations. She refused to be discouraged by the lack of commensurate pay for her work and hustles. She refused to see herself as a local reporter and dared to seek opportunities where many, with even better qualifications and experience, would not attempt.

If she had listened to discouraging comments of some colleagues who must have thought she was unnecessarily ambitious, she wouldn’t have come anyway near how far she has come from being a local reporter to being a journalist reckoned with nationally and globally.

Despite the challenges in our industry, there are many opportunities waiting for those who don’t easily give up. What is important is to strategically try hard and smart enough and be satisfied you have done your best even if you don’t get what you want.

In 2021, let it not be that you believe that you can’t make better career progress beyond the level you are now. Don’t get too worried about the second wave of COVID-19 and be expecting the worst in your career.

Among other steps, you must take, redefine your career goals in the light of the rapidly changing media landscape and have a work plan on how to achieve your aspirations.

Be honest about your limitations, including relevant skills and qualifications you don’t have and plan how to acquire them. If your progress will depend on the skills and qualifications, stop wishing about getting them, get them now.

Apart from enrolling for regular courses, there are free online courses and training you can participate in.

There are numerous free online resources for anyone hungry for knowledge.

You will also need to widen your horizon and networks. The circle within which you operate and your mentality is crucial to how much progress you can make in the profession. Be inquisitive, seek relevant information and belong to networks that can advance your career online and offline.

In whatever you do, be innovative and think about new and better ways of doing your assignments and projects. Keep tab of global best practices and don’t be contented with how things have always been done. Use new technology to improve your output.

Audit your areas of coverage and be sure you are not covering only a part of what you should be reporting or writing about. Find new experts to quote and let your audience get a sense of new perspectives in your content.

One last point, ensure maximum visibility for your work and accomplishments. Don’t be too modest to deny yourself necessary acknowledgement for what you deserved to be known and rewarded for. Work on your online presence and be searchable for your expertise.

 

By Lekan Otufodunrin

Despite my aversion for gory scenes, including accident situations, I couldn’t avoid imagining how the Book Haram terrorists recently slaughtered over seventy rice farmers in Zabarmari village on the outskirt Maiduguri the Borno State capital.

I know killing human beings is a game for them based on how they have killed some abducted persons in the past and recorded the scene which they shared online and bragged about it, the number of persons involved this time was mind bugling.

I tried to imagine how they subdued the crowd of farmers and slaughtered them one after the other with some of the victims watching before it was their turn. I momentarily saw a picture of some of the victims with their hands tied behind them and their severed heads put on their bodies.

I wished I didn’t see the picture as it has been hard to erase it from my memory and avoid being traumatised by the savage killings the terrorists subjected the farmers to.

Reading the account of one of the survivors gave some insights about how the terrorists for several days, lived peaceably with their victims, sharing their dormitories and eating their food and pretending to be labourers that came for seasonal work.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, according to the survivor, they took out their guns, rounded up the people like cattle and slaughtered them one by one.

For the avoidance of doubt, the main group loyal to Abubakar Shekau, not only owned up in a video that they were responsible for the killings, they justified their action and accused the government of not declaring the right figures of the persons they killed.

This dastardly round of killing is yet another confirmation that despite federal government’s claim that the terrorists have been ‘technically defeated’, they still have a stronghold on parts of Borno state and states in the North East particularly.

If they could easily kill the number of persons they killed in Zabarmari said not to be far from the state capital, safety cannot be guaranteed anywhere in the state. The same way they easily mixed with the farmers is how they can infiltrate other parts on the state and wreck a lot of havoc.

Although Governor Babagana Zulum and the joint military forces have done a lot to check attacks by the terrorists, every indication, like this mass slaughter, is indicative of how formidable the various factions of Book Haram are still in the state.

Instead of trying to play down how serious the security situation in the state is, the military and federal government officials should own up to having a hard but to crack and explore every possible option.

There is no point giving the people the false hope that the security agents have the situation under control when they don’t.

What does Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed mean when he claims that “ Boko Haram is today badly degraded and can only carry out cowardly attacks like the one against defenceless farmers over the weekend”

If in their degraded state, they can still kill as many people as they did at the rice farm and own up claiming it was in retaliation for the handing over of their men to the military, the government should not be claiming to be making significant progress in the anti-terrorist battle.

Beyond Borno, many parts of the north have become dangerous to live as the Sultan of Sokoto Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar declared recently and asked that something urgent is done by the government to arrest the situation.

”People think North is safe but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country because bandits go around in the villages, households, and markets with their AK 47 and nobody is challenging them,” he stated.

With even the Northern Elders Forum joining in raising alarm about banditry, rustling and kidnapping in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari should not allow the situation to continue to degenerate.

For once we need to know that we have a President who has the political will and a capable Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces who can stop the free reign of the terrorists, bandits and kidnappers.

By Lekan Otufodunrin

Why do Nigerian politicians take the electorates for granted so much?

It’s bad enough that many of them are not as honourable as they claim, but they insult our intelligence when they offer unjustifiable excuses for their dishonorable acts.

For long, speculations have been rife about the Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) on  which platform he was elected for the first and second term.

Despite earlier denials, he eventually did and claimed that it was due to the marginalisation of the Igbos in the PDP regarding allocation of political offices. He also described his Rivers State counterpart, Nyesom Wike, as a dictator whose actions are ‘destroying’ the PDP, adding that APC does more consultation unlike the ‘remote-controlled’ PDP National working committee.

Apparently due to its desperation to have a foothold in the South East, APC has been full of praise for Umahi justifying the kind of moves it had condemned in the past when its members decamped to PDP.

President Muhammadu Buhari described the defection “as a bold move driven purely by principle rather than opportunistic motives or coercion.”

I’m not sure what kind of principle the president was referring to. What kind of principle makes a sitting governor abandon his party on the excuse of alleged marginalisation and dictatorship by another governor who is his contemporary?

Instead of staying back and insisting on the right thing to be done in the party if indeed it is true that his people are being marginalised, Umahi has opted for the easy opportunistic way out like some have done before.

He is not the first top political officeholder to decamp and give whatever reason they want to use to rationalise their decision. We are used to desperate politicians who cannot stay back in their party to allow democratic process of resolving whatever disagreement occurs jumping ship and abandoning the electorates who voted for them.

As shameless as our politicians are, we have had instances where some decamped from one party to the other and later returned to their former party.

When they first leave, usually due to not having their ways in terms of getting the positions they desire, they call their party all kinds of bad names. When they fail to get what they want in the party they decamped to, they return to their vomit and tell us another story.

While it is within the rights of any Nigerian to decide whichever party he or she wants to belong to, the situation where political officeholders decamp at the slightest excuse is not good enough. By their actions, they have confirmed that there is really no difference in the parties beyond the names they are called.

Ideally, when one party loses an election, what should happen is that the members should remain loyal to their parties and work on winning the next elections. They should hold the party in power accountable to whatever promise won them the election.

There is definitely more to Governor Umahi’s defection and at the right time he will be exposed like others before him for their selfish desires at the expense of those who voted against the party he has now opted for.

By Lekan Otufodunrin

Since the stoppage of the looting and destruction that followed the #ENDSARS protests, many policemen and women seem to have stayed away from their duty posts. Despite appeals by the Police authorities and reassurances by the state governors, the presence of officers and men in public on duty have not been as it used to be.

There have been concerns that many major traffic points across the country have been abandoned by policemen who normally ensure order, resulting in gridlock that keeps motorists on the road for hours. Some roads and crime spots usually patrolled by policemen to check criminal elements have also not been getting the necessary attention of the security agents.

Undoubtedly, the attack the Police suffered when hoodlums hijacked the peaceful protest that led to the killing of some men and destruction of stations  must have left many officers and men traumatized and afraid of exposing themselves to any further possible danger.

The “we don’t need Police” attitude of some members of the public has also been somehow intimidating for policemen,  leaving them confused as to how to go about their jobs.

While the demand for #ENDSARS and reformation of the police is understandable against the background of the lawlessness of some policemen, its unfortunate that some criminal elements took advantage of the situation.

What was demanded was the scrapping of the notorious SARS unit which the government agreed to and reformation of police operations already being worked on, not the unwarranted attacks on policemen and women.

No matter how bad the police has been, we cannot do without them if we are to ensure safety of lives and property. Like a Yoruba saying, even the bad guy has his day.

As the Police authorities commence taking steps to reform , there is urgent need to have the officers  and men back at their duty posts. Grievances against the police has been expressed in civil and violent ways and its time they are given a chance to perform their very life-saving  duties without any form of intimidation or threat.

The beneficiaries of the police being off their duty posts are criminals who are are having a field day at the expanse of the citizens.

On the government side, its in bad faith that there has been a clampdown on some of the activists who coordinated the protests. Some have been held for weeks despite the agreement to release them. The bank accounts of some persons have been reported frozen and the International Passport of one leader seized.

It has taken an outcry for some detained leaders to be released, while the sitting of the Lagos Judicial Panel on the protest had to be suspended due to the freezing of the accounts of representatives of the protesters. What is required now if the government is truly hearing the complaints of the youths “loud and clear” as President Muhammadu Buhari stated in his broadcast is for necessary measures to be taken to prevent similar protests, which may have more devastating consequences in future.

We didn’t have to get to  the situation where youths have to take to the streets to protest police brutality if the government has been responsive to previous public outcry.

If only the response of the government to the #ENDSARS had been prompt enough, it would not have lasted long for hoodlums to hijack it.

However, having found ourselves at this present crossroads, our collective desires should be to put the issue behind us and ensure good governance at all levels and mutual trust.

By Lekan Otufodunrin

Two of the major issues that bothered during the #ENDSARS protests and the looting that followed was the lack of understanding of the professional role of journalists and the implications of disinformation.

Left to many of the protesters and their supporters, the media should, without restraints, republish and broadcast claims and actions in support of their agitations.

They are quick to accuse traditional media of being timid and supporting government, which is not the case but the need to abide with the ethics of the profession.

I shared my views on this matter in a recent television interview and will like to reproduce them here for emphasis.

Maintaining truth and sanity for individuals and the journalists

I think the first point to make is that for the journalists, there is the ethics that guides what we are supposed to do. One of the things that have come out of this present crisis is that the ordinary man on the streets, the protesters or people that are leading the campaign think that the journalists are supposed to just take everything they see on the social media and just publish.

Journalists however are guided by the ethics that says truth should be the guiding principles for our reporting. There must be fairness. There must be balance and if in doubt, you leave out; that is what guides our work. The public needs to understand that information sharing is very critical. You don’t just receive anything and share. They need to verify what people are sending across to them so that they can make informed decision and that is why media literacy is very important.

We live in a time where we have information overload and too many things are being thrown at us.  So, it’s important that we maintain our sanity. It is important to know that information is very empowering. We must know the truth before we take our positions on any matter.

Between mainstream media and social media

For the avoidance of doubt, a journalist is not a social media influencer. A journalist is guided by professional ethics. There are things we can do and there are things we cannot do. In broadcast media for example, there is a code that guides them. They must ensure that what we put out is true and we don’t also inflame passion.

We have a sense of responsibility to be sure that what we put out there is the truth. What we are saying is that even for the ordinary person he or she has the responsibility to establish the fact about everything before sharing.

People have been accusing the traditional media that we are not publishing the things they are seeing online and as it has turned out, there is a lot of debate about what is true and what is not true.

The Lekki shooting took place, we all saw it. The question is who died, who did not die. The number of fatality has not been established. Some people that have been reported dead have denied the reports. This is the dilemma we face where there is too much information that you can’t verify.

We need to verify our information whether we are professionals or individuals and that is why we must not receive something and just forward. A journalist is bound to keep to the rule of information dissemination and the public should not expect us to just disseminate information; we need to verify the information, we need to get all sides.

Disinformation is when you know that this is falsehood and you are sharing. Some people don’t know it is falsehood, but some people deliberately sit down and concoct information that is false and cause disaffection, which is part of what is happening now.