The League of Nigerian Columnists (LNC) has been unveiled in Lagos. At its birth, the group revisited the reading culture and the media’s role in reconstructing Nigeria by checking bad governance, reports EVELYN OSAGIE.
The value of a columnist to an editor or newspaper cannot be understated,” began “The Oracle”, Akogun Tola Adeniyi. “Controversy moves newsprint like no other. This challenging wordsmith gets away with expressing opinions the editor daren’t utter; it is the columnist, not the newspaper that attracts the flak.
“The column is a space accounted for and so is someone else’s problem. Most important of all, there is neither news nor sport feature that can draw and keep as many readers as can the columnist.” Welcome to the world of the “Columnist” as an “agenda-setter” and “change agent”.
A league is born
The occasion was no media symposium, but the unveiling of the League of Nigerian Columnists (LNC) held in Lagos, where Adeniyi, the league’s National President, stressed the importance of the columnist to media and the nation at large, especially in checking bad governance and corrupt practices.
The event brought together leading columnists from across the country. The league’s foundational members at the event were Mr Yakubu Mohammed (the National Vice President); Ray Ekpu (the chairman of the league’s editorial board); Henry Boyo; Ben Lawrence; Dele Sobowale; Dan Agbese; Director for the Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies (CIASP), Prof Anthony Kila (LNC National Secretary),Chief Jimanze Ego-Alowes; Editorial Board Chairman of The Nation, Sam Omatseye; Dare Babarinsa; former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Reuben Abati (Vice Chair, LNC editorial board); Martins Oloja; Director of Media and Public Communications, Coalition for Nigeria Movement, Akin Osuntokun; Ikechukwu Amaechi; Managing Director of ARISE News Channel Africa, Ijeoma Nwogwugwu and Gabriel Akinadewo.
The columnist as nation’s conscience
Like men and women on a mission, the group said it was set to serve the public good, as its members have been doing in their individual columns and shall do as collectives.
And so at critical and crucial moments in the nation’s history, the league is out to make history as it serves Nigerians by checking bad governance and more, it said.
“It is our strongly held view that the Nigerian columnists that have made their mark must come together and carve a respectable identity for themselves and jealously protect that identity to ward off quacks and pretenders,” Adeniyi, said.
According to him, the league would “continue to drum to the ears of leaders that their powers are held in trust for the people to whom we are mandatorily responsible”.
He said: “Our objectives include, among other things, to contribute to the attainment of the goal of holding governments accountable to the people as enshrined in the Constitution and provide coordinated intervention on important national issues through press releases and or press conferences or policy intervention as the need may arise.
“It would be recalled that because of the array of columnists assembled by the great Babatunde Jose of the old Daily Times in the late 60s and 70s, the then Head of State General Yakubu Gowon made it a duty to call Dr Jose on daily basis!”
And although some may write columnists off as “people who scribble on the backs of advertisements, Adeniyi insisted that there are very few that carry as “much influence as the challenging publish–and-be-damned columnist.”
Change agent
While charging the league to be a voice for change and for the voiceless majority, the Chairman of the Police Equipment Trust Fund (PETF), Chief Kenny Martins, described the establishment of the league as timely. “Disseminate, influence, educate people and take a positive stand on national and global issues until Nigeria becomes the Nigeria of our dream,” he urged.
On his part, Babarinsa said the onus of reconstructing Nigeria does not lie with the columnists alone. According to him, the requirements of having a proper democracy is not just about what Nigerians expects of the league, but having a reading mass and a participatory democracy.
While recalling the reading culture of the days of the seasoned columnist, Chief Joseph Kaka, he argued that to reclaim Nigeria from the claws of bad governance and corruption, its citizenry must also recover its appetite for reading. “If we don’t recover our appetite for reading, then we may lose our country. And you lose your country when you don’t have a say in it and the columnists have done a lot over the years, but you must participate by buying and reading newspaper.
“The people should participate in the thinking process of taking decision. They should participate in the consciousness of holding the leaders accountable. In the old days, employers/organisation buy at least one newspaper per day for staff, and people bought and read the papers. But, today, all those things are gone and the circulation of newspaper has dropped. The destiny of our country is in our hands, we must work for it,” Babarinsa said.
For veteran journalist, Lawrence, the reason the country is where it is because it had not been sufficiently covered by the media. He called on the media to step up its game as watchdog and maintain the highest professional standard as of old.
He said: “I remember we reported the war very well that the soldiers couldn’t do anything to us because we were professionals. There is a decline in professional reporting; that is why the country is suffering. People stealing and loading dollars into vehicles, burying them in houses and in the ground, and the press didn’t see it? We would have known in those days. Many people would know. What has happened… were you participating with them?”
The columnist as the news breaker
Reiterating Babarinsa and Lawrence’s words, Oloja charged columnists to go beyond opinion writing to breaking stories just like any seasoned reporter would, while urging the media to use as quotes some of the informed writings of columnists in their articles and reports. “When they are reporting CNN and other digital platforms, great reporters quote extensively from great columns to illustrate their stories. This is because columnists can break stories. Reporters should read stories by great columnists,” he said.
The columnist abreast with the times
While observing that contemporary knowledge, and most of the readership are now on the Internet, Omatseye urged the league to take advantage of the vast influence the virtual world weighs in today’s world by creating an online presence for members in its bid to reconstruct Nigeria.
As part of its response to the times, the league is also set to give members online presence even as it moves to reconstruct Nigeria through constructive articles, according to Kila. He stated that articles by members of the league published in the papers on different days would be on the websites, adding that a spot has been allotted in the website to celebrate late columnists who have made their marks. These are among other online initiatives, the league would be unfolding as time goes on. “We would be publishing an official newsletter, a book of Best Columns, an encyclopaedia of Nigerian columnists living or dead, any other book, magazine or pamphlet as the League thinks fit; hold yearly lectures, workshops, seminars and colloquiums to enhance the practice of column writing, and promote and sustain a high standard in the practice of column writing, and so on,” Kila said.
Taiwo Adenekan of Canada University Press praised the efforts of columnists over the years in serving as watchdog and voices for the voiceless in Nigeria. He called for government recognition for their efforts and posthumous recognition for those who have passed on. Hence, a one-minute silence was held in their honour at the event.