Apart from the usual hazards of the profession which all journalists face, Faith Yahaya highlights peculiar challenges, especially sexual harassment, which female journalists cope with on the job.
Until she got married and later pregnant, Josephine Ella-Ejeh, formerly a staff of an Abuja-based newspaper had no problem with her bosses at work. No one doubted her capacity to discharge her editorial assignments.
Even though she remained as productive as she was despite her new condition, she suddenly got reassigned without being told why.
“They just woke up one day and asked me to leave my beat for someone else and that I would now be assisting an editor on the weekend desk, ” Ella-Ejeh recalled in an Interview with The Nation.
“This new ‘responsibility’ was without official letter or anything. It was not clearly stated and when I tried to ask questions, I was told to either proceed on the new assignment or resign. From the look of things, I felt they were just looking for a soft way to let me go without the fingers pointing directly at them.”
She eventually had to resign because according to her, “I felt I was being witch-hunted for getting married and pregnant.”
Apart from the circumstance that led to her resignation, the beats she covered, which included the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other security-related beats exposed her to sexual harassment. Some of her sources withheld information and were unwilling to give it to her until she gives them her body in return.
Although her case may not be typical, Ella-Ejeh’s plight represents some of the major challenges female journalists have to contend with in the newsrooms and on the beats the cover.
Ifeyinwa Omowale, President, National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ)
Interviews with Female journalists, including young and experienced professionals revealed that more than the usual hazards every journalists face at work, there are some gender related ones, including sexual harassment, lack of prospects like their male colleagues and unfriendly maternity conditions of service.
Some of those interviewed for this story declined to be named to avoid being targeted by senior male journalists who may not like their views on the issue.
A female journalist, who didn’t want to be mentioned for fear of being sacked in her present place of work, was also forced to resign her job in her former work place when she got demoted for daring to ask for equal pay and conditions of service with male counterparts who were earning more than her.
“I was demoted to a Senior Correspondent from the rank of Assistant Editor. I had to leave because my male counterparts, who were supposed to be my junior at the workplace, were getting higher pay.
“The environment was just not conducive for me as a woman. When I was pregnant; the management probed and tried to get me to disclose my Expected Date of Delivery (EDD) which was my private information before giving me maternity leave. I just had to leave,” she explained.
Even when she joined another media outfit and she was offered the position of a Deputy Editor, her male boss didn’t want her; he wanted a man because he had the mindset that women are incompetent for the job.
“When ministerial screening was on, as a deputy editor, he made me monitor the televised screening. He was not giving me the job I was supposed to do. Even as a reporter I didn’t monitor news, but I was made to do that and I felt he thought I was incompetent because I am a woman.”
For Juliana Francis who started her journalism career in 2001 and is presently a Crime Editor with New Telegraph Newspapers, she had more than her own ‘fair’ share of sexual harassments and stigmatization that almost forced her to quit the beat she was covering.
“I was single when I started working, so I had a lot of sexual challenges and harassment and I could not take it because I am a rape survivor,” Francis who is now married with kids recalled.
“I met sexual harassment in journalism. Crime beat is actually a beat where you would find very few women. Then, we were not more than four on the beat and everybody was making advances. You are being sexually harassed in the office, you are being sexually harassed on the beat and an average uniform man is amorous.
Juliana Francis
“Some of them want to give you information and they want you to pay with sex. In the office, you get to hear made-up stories that you have slept with virtually everybody. In fact, the story I got was that I had slept with nine men. I don’t understand why it should be like that.
“Sometimes, the senior people you are looking up to would take you out and the next thing is to take you to hotel. It is on record that I was the only junior reporter that went to a very senior person and I told the person to stop it because I was single and he was spoiling my chances of getting married and he was shocked.
“On the police beat they would try to touch you inappropriately but I never allowed it. At a point, people even said I was sleeping with a former Inspector-General of Police. But we were not and in all honesty the man never talked to me in that way to show that he was interested in me. That gave me problem and at a point I thought of quitting the beat.
“I made move towards it but my boss said I was going to meet it on every beat because I am a woman journalist which means he knew what I was talking about because he has been there for decades before I came in. For him to say that, I decided to toughen up and I started covering the beat.”
Based on her experience, Bunmi Yekini of Radio One, Lagos also said female journalists are also stigmatized by male colleagues and the public as loose women.
“They feel it is a male dominated area and when they see women come into it, the first thing that comes to their mind is that they are prostitutes, especially if you are already at the top. They feel you have sold your body in exchange for the promotion or position. They forget that female journalists have brains too just like the male counterparts.”
Beyond sexual harassment, Francis noted that marriage is also a challenge for female journalists.
Most female journalists according to her are single mothers not because they don’t want to keep their marriage, but lack of understanding of what journalism entails by the men they married.
“You are likely to find out that some female journalists who have successful marriages are married to male journalists because they understand better. Sometimes, my husband asks why men call me more but that is what the job entails. There are more men in the newsroom and even on crime beat, your sources and the people we meet most are men.”
Another female journalist in the print media who claimed to have passion for the job said the profession has denied her some things she would have loved to do as lady and caused her emotional trauma.
“I can’t count the number of outings and dates I have cancelled because of impromptu assignments. Journalism is the kind of job that you wake up sometimes and you cannot ascertain where you would be or what you would do because the job itself is unpredictable. I don’t attend church services the way I want to, no thanks to this job.
“The most painful challenge I have faced as a woman journalist is menstrual pain. Most media managers are men and they don’t understand what it means to be in such pain. All they are bothered or concerned about is the job.
Another thing that I have observed in the media is the fact that most women don’t get to the top, this makes a female journalist to lose her morale because she thinks that at the end of the day, she is not so likely to be given the top position.”
A female journalist in the broadcast media who covers the National Assembly complained that her organisation sent her there as a way to bring in advert which would generate revenue for the company.
“They feel I should use what I have to get what they want,” she said.
Another female journalist who struggled to open up to The Nation said she was tired of the job but cannot leave because of the alarming rate of unemployment and little job opportunities.
“I am really tired of this job because the rate of sexual harassment in the newsroom is too much. You would be shocked to find out that my boss has sexually harassed most of the females who were and who are in the organization as IT student, Corp members and even the female staff.
This is what I live with daily but I cannot leave because leaving would mean me joining thousands in the labour market seeking employment. It is painful that he does whatever he likes and gets away with it because he is the boss. ”
Lara Owoeye-Wise
Lara Owoeye-Wise of Africa Independent Television (AIT) who has been on the job for over 25 years said her major challenge was the work environment. “I had to grapple with the challenges of what I call the tools of trade because it is already a daunting challenge being a female and married with children and combining all that with professional job. It is more daunting that the things that should make your job easier for you, you don’t have them and that becomes double ‘wahala’.”
She said she had always clamored for crèche in media houses because according to her “there is no way a nursing-mother would give her best knowing that her child is miles away and at the mercy of the house help.”
While acknowledging the special challenges women have to cope with on the job, Moji Makanjuola, a celebrated TV journalist and President of Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mrs. Funke Egbemode offered suggestions on how overcome them and excel.
“Women need to assert themselves and those coming must know that it is hard work. It has to do with your brains and tenacity. It is not administrative or filing job. As a journalist you have to be versatile. Read and learn. Seek your knowledge. You must broaden your horizon and you must report from a point of knowledge because that way, you would make your own name” Makanjola said.
Egbemode who is Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, New Telegraph said female journalists are special and must marry special partners, noting that their divine assignment hinders them from carrying out their professional role as expected.
Egbemode
“A woman is a woman and she has duties that are assigned to her by God. So, she takes time off to make babies, she takes time off to nurse her marriage and ensure that things don’t go wrong. Because a woman has to do all of that, she doesn’t have the luxury of time to pay quality attention as men pay to their career,” she said.
Although other female professional may face similar situation on their jobs, Egbemode noted that journalism is a bit more tasking mentally and physically.
“We have no working hours; a woman has to contend with that to rise in the newsroom. There is also the issue of the kind-of partner she ends up with. I always say that a journalist is a special kind of woman, she is a special kind of professional, and she needs a special kind of man.
“Ordinary men can’t marry journalist. So in choosing a partner, you must acknowledge yourself as a woman that you are special because your needs are special, so you must find a man who can help you grow, who can nurture you and who is very comfortable in his own skin. He does not have complex issues, and does not think that you taking a photograph with a minister mean that you know the minister.
“You need a man who would know that whatever you become, whoever you are and whatever you do, you are part of him and that your achievements are his achievements, your failure and strength are his. If you want to rise to be Editor in Chief, you cannot marry a man a man who sees you as a business woman who should open a chain of restaurants because that is not what you want to be but that is what he wants you to be and there will be friction, tension and stress, ” Egbemode advised.
On sexual harassment, Egbemode said it is not peculiar to journalism and urged female journalists to take necessary precautions in the newsroom and on the beat. “You do not have to do what you don’t want to do and an Editor will use a good story. If you are faced with sexual harassment, you should use your feminism and smartness to your advantage.”
While the newsroom and the job is not generally gender sensitive, Egbemode’s counsel is that female journalists should be ready to prove to that they are indeed capable ‘gentlemen’ like their male colleagues.
“The job just has to be done. So you can’t come into the newsroom, wanting to feel like a woman and expecting that certain things would be handed to you as a woman. You just need to prove yourself that you can hold down the job. You need to plan. The job is tough but if you stay focused you will make it.
“That is why a lot of women can’t continue and you can’t blame them because it is very difficult. For women who are just coming into the newsroom, you should just know that the men are not going to hand you anything on a platter of gold. They are not going to give you special concession. In fact, when you ask for concessions, they begin to look down on you. You need to find a way to get your own job done.”
To curb the high rate of sexual harassments in the newsrooms, participants in the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship organized by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism called for anti- sexual harassments policies in media houses.
The National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) was urged to take up the challenge of demanding for this policy and others that will make the media environment more conducive for female journalists.
“We need to speak out because the more we keep quiet, the more the harassment will thrive,” a participant stated.
This minute, the fable persists of Nigeria’s ‘crooked’ press. The incumbent government conceals the true nature of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ailment ‘to prevent the press from twisting the truth into lies’ and sensational news, it claims. In turn, a disenchanted public accuses the press of unpardonable rot and indolence.
On radio, TV, social media and the newspapers, ‘critics of note’ berate the nation’s press. At the backdrop of this entitled rage, the public bemoans the descent of the press. Neighbourhood pubs pulsate with howls of liquor-smashed folk bemoaning the dearth of ‘investigative journalism.’ Pastors, Imams, labour leaders and self-styled activists mount the soapbox to bewail and flay the press. Political, corporate, intellectual and spiritual hoodlums weave a discordant melody of scorn and syndicated hatred.
This gory imagery of the press however, reveals the core of the Nigerian persona. The press is crooked because it serves and hails from an infinitely corrupt, dishonourable and uncivilised society.
The press afflicts Nigeria so because it is peopled by men and women sired by debauched tribes, degenerate communes and lineages. Show me a corrupt reporter and I will tell you captivating stories of ancestral filth and decadence, communal muck and insolence, institutionalized greed and selfishness.
Were our families, communities, religious temples and other social institutions untainted by filth, the nation’s press would be free of unscrupulous characters – after all, they are every journalist’s bastions of socialisation.
By its press, Nigeria suffers rebirth of degenerate image, an explosion of tarnished persona. The incumbent press fulfills our institutionalised tendencies, glorifying the rough edges of primordial vice and giving it a trendy tone.
The Nigerian press painstakingly redefines journalism in society’s besmirched image because failure to do so is tantamount to career suicide or economic hara-kiri. Those who attempt to be ‘professional’ or ‘ethically different’ become unbidden martyrs on the nation’s altar of smut.
Remember Dele Olojede, the Pulitzer-prized journalist. Having earned international acclaim for doing good journalism, he ventured into the nation’s amoral swamp with the swagger of an idealist. Olojede sought to create a professional medium as fabled Peter Pan sought purpose in mythic Neverland. NEXT, his brainchild was certainly imperfect, but it was a welcome alternative in a swamp of caged, commercialised media.
Olojede’s dream suffered stillbirth; NEXT, for all its cheek and vaunted splendour, espoused the tenets of fragile fiction. Little wonder Nigeria flipped to ‘Epilogue’ one sheet after NEXT’s preface. Forget Olojede and his defunct NEXT, several ambitious professionals and ethical journalism have been interred on the famished paths, where tall dreams fade to snide realism.
Yet Nigeria craves Renaissance Press. Government and the governed bemoan the dearth and death of good journalism even as they plot and effect the murder of the journalist in the street. Need I recall the willful murder by society, of brilliant men and women by whose spark, journalism attained honour and a pride of place among most honorable callings?
Society thwarts good, ethical journalism wherever it finds its random sprouts. Driven by varied, selfish interests, politicians, so-called ‘corporate titans,’ activists, NGO-entrepreneurs, clerics and several other classes of refined thieves and criminal masterminds, bemoan the death of a vibrant press at the backdrop of their frantic, coordinated struggle to tame and enslave the press.
You must know that companies’ expend a large fortune via their Corporate Affairs Departments to ‘kill negative stories’ and ‘befriend the press.’ In the mix, big business endow the academia with massive funding to create and implement academic theories and experiments geared to tame and emasculate the press.
And if you would look beneath the smokescreen of Public Relations’ ridiculous, dandy theories, you would find a devious, criminal and contemptible plot to hinder socially responsible, public service journalism.
But while businesses exert sinful influence on the press, politicians own the press. Government departments, functionaries and agencies ply the press with intimidating advertisements; governors, senators, council chairmen, the presidency among others, keep the press on a leash of ‘carrots’ and intimidating largesse, in desperate bid to ‘own the editors’ and ‘determine the news.’
Lest we forget the journalists playing dumb to degenerate, vainglorious, overbearing Mullahs and ‘General Overseers (G.Os)’ or ‘Spiritual Daddies’ if you like. Nigeria should never forget how the nation’s Christian leadership goaded former President Goodluck Jonathan with deceptive, currency-activated prophecies to fulfill their decadent lust for mammon and hatred for Buhari, who they claimed would ‘Islamise Nigeria.’
And marching in virtual lockstep with these shades of despicable characters is the country’s amoral, impoverished citizenry. Driven by greed and inexplicable malice, large sections of the citizenry foster and fulfill the savage lusts of the nation’s leadership. Hence their inclinations to serve as duplicitous pawns and cannon fodder to the ruling class’ firestorms.
The humiliation of the journalist persists in the hands of his employer. Salaries still range from N15, 000 per month at entry level to N70, 000 per month at managerial level across most media. Just three media houses may claim exceptionality in this respect and this reality is known to the government, big business, advertisers and general public that the Nigerian journalist is an endangered species, haunted by his employer and tormented by the public he serves.
These sad realities lead to daily exodus of skilled and promising hands from journalism and hourly influx of quacks, fortune hunters and blackmailers into the profession.
Yet Nigeria demands a free and effervescent press, peopled by flawless professionals, inured to the ethics of investigative, public service journalism. Even as such admirable traits and unimpeachable character are rarely attributable to every segment of society.
Nigeria’s critical mob, like the fabled treacherous rabble, seeks fulfillment of tyrant fantasies: the fantasies often vary between the destruction of an unpopular government, despot or worn-out civilization by the press. Reality however, affirms the duplicity of Nigeria’s critical mob.
The latter is continually tamed and kept on a leash by a ruling class that capitalizes on its obvious handicaps: its impulsiveness, insensibility to reason and judgment, poverty of soul and intellect, its irritability and overt sentimentality – which are undeniably characteristic of beings belonging to inferior forms of evolution, like savages and carnivores.
I stand corrected given the penchant of the citizenry to flout traffic rules, moot imprudent plots and decapitate one another driven by religious, ethnic bigotry.
The Nigerian press won’t fulfill the society’s utopian fantasies. No. The press will continue to subvert Nigerians’ noble expectations of it in perfect understanding the society’s cultural shift from uncompromising morality to unbridled amorality and hedonism. The press won’t give society honest, developmental news because every segment of the society strives to unmoor the journalist from his role as a crucial appendage of the nation’s conscience.
This minute, the press feeds society biased definitions of reality as determined by big business, government, looters, lobbyists and other civil society. Contemporary Nigeria embraces the emotional pageant that has turned news into paid publicity and mindless entertainment. The journalist in response, kowtows to lusts and vanities of modern society. The press understands that the call for good journalism is mere spectacle and display, a fulfillment of Nigeria’s lust for pagan ostentation. The press is you get is the press you deserve.
Nigeria is a signatory to the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The two bodies’ declaration states that: “Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference; ii. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”
However, as noble and commendable as this provision is, it is important that social media must be used within the ambit of the law. No doubt, some have used the online media to the extreme by violating people’s rights in one way or the other. This is the reason why professional media organizations and other relevant groups must rise to the occasion by ensuring that the sanctity of the media profession and information sharing process is maintained and honoured by all and sundry.
It is possible to use the social media platforms to create social disorder with false and insensitive posts. It is necessary that these tools are ethically and rightly used. It is unfortunate that some of online, citizen journalists and out rightly mischievous persons have assumed the levity to disseminate information with impunity without giving consideration to the authenticity of the information or the consequences of their actions. While Article II of the French Declaration states categorically that:”The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom” it goes on to warn that citizens “shall be responsible for such abuses of the freedom as shall be defined by law.”
Alfred Denning, L J, an English lawyer and judge, puts it this way: “Freedom of expression is not freedom of the press or users of the social media to destroy other fundamental rights of individuals like the right to family life and privacy or the national interest of the nation at large. Whilst the press and the users of the social media go about expressing themselves freely, they must be cautious and exercise great restraint not to abuse or violate the rights of other citizens or the laws of the land.”
Some of the tremendous positive impacts of social media in recent times are that of the #OccupyNigeria in late 2011 and 2012 over the fuel subsidy scandal and the recent #BringBackourGirls (#BBOG) campaign, even the former First Lady of the U.S, Mitchell Obama, played a tremendous support in the campaign. Likewise, the platform was used for raising funds for expensive medical bills via the #SaveCitizen initiatives in 2013. So, various social media platforms were used to educate enlighten and galvanise support in the immediate past 2015 General Election. So, it is undisputable that the online media has somehow impacted positively on the social life and democratised access to information.
As much as no undue steps should be taken to limit the use of the social media and other media outlets, users should be aware that they will be made to face requisite laws when they misuse the platforms.
Some of our domestic laws and clauses in the Constitution that put certain restraints on the press freedom should be reviewed with a view to harmonising all the provisions that relate to freedom of expression and a free-press society. Concern bodies and agencies should organise periodical workshop, seminars and symposiums that would enhance the efficiency and transparency of the social media platforms.
Excerpts from a paper presented on Online Press Freedom in the age of Social Media at a summit on Enhancing Press Freedom organised by Centre for Constitutional Governance.
The Federal Government has banned the collection of development levies by Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) in the 104 unity colleges across the country, the Federal Ministry of Education says.
The ministry in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday said the ban, aimed at alleviating the sufferings of parents, would take effect immediately.
The statement was signed by Mr Bem Goong, Deputy Director, Press, in the ministry.
“No PTA of any unity college is allowed to initiate any development project in any of the unity colleges without the express or written authorisation of the Federal Ministry of Education.
“The new measures are aimed at arresting the shocking trend where development levies imposed on parents by PTAs are becoming higher than the school fees charged by government which established the unity schools,’’ the ministry said.
The ministry said that the Minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, had noted excessive PTA levies in Kings College, Lagos, and Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos.
It said that in the two schools, fees charged for JSS1 in the first term was N69, 400 while the PTA collection was N70, 000 at Kings and N74, 000 at Yaba.
“This brings the total paid by parents in these two schools to N139, 400 and N143, 400 respectively.
“With the reduction on development levies and ban on charges for new projects as well as pegging of the development levy to a maximum of N5, 000, parents of JSS1 in these two schools will now pay N88, 000.
“I acknowledge the complementary roles played by parents and the support provided by the PTA to the colleges but I will not allow the PTAs to constitute themselves into a government within a government at the level of unity schools and at the expense of parents,’’ the ministry quoted Adamu as saying.
It said that Adamu expressed concern that PTAs in unity colleges had formed themselves into national associations and said that running additional organisations, such as National Parents and Teachers Association of Federal Government Colleges (NAPTAFEGC), increased the burden on parents.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that NAPTAFEGC recently rejected an alleged 300 per cent increase in school fees of unity schools.
Dr Gabriel Nnaji, National President of NAPTAFEGC, had told newsmen that the alleged increase from N20, 000 to N75, 000, was unacceptable to parents.
He said that an average parent with more than a child in unity schools would not be able to afford the cost.
However, Adamu on Tuesday denied knowledge of the increment in fees.
Proprietress of Oasis Montessori School, Adalemo in Ado/Odo-Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Deaconess Olapeju Adeitan, has urged parents, guardians and school owners to help children to identify their talents early in life.
She made the call at the fourth anniversary of the school’s Press Club.
She said the school does not only focus on curriculum activities, but considers activities that the pupils could do outside the classroom that could help them discover and develop their talents. She said the Press Club was instituted to encourage the pupils to be creative.
“The school has four major clubs – Press, Jet, Home Makers and Road Safety Clubs. The children were allowed to choose, after which they are directed to the coordinator for an interview, who records their performance to fully detect the child’s ability to join the club,” Mrs Adeitan said.
A member of the club, Esther Adeitan, a JSS 1 pupil, said she joined the club because she hopes to become a journalist and publisher. She said she likes writing, sourcing and passing information, and has written several story books.
David Oyewo, a JSS 3 pupil, also wishes to become journalist.
“Most people won’t be alive if not for information. They would be ignorant of what is going on within their environment,” he said.
The one-week programme featured talent shows, drama presentations, quiz competition, singing and dancing including talent shows. Each group performed excellently to the admiration of the audience.
The Nigeria press played an important role in the socio-economic and political emancipation of our nation. It was not an accident that our foremost nationalists as well as our founding fathers were newspaper publishers or practising journalists. Unfortunately the press, like most state institutions the military touched, has been brought to disrepute. Its independence and vibrancy were first undermined by the takeover of the Daily Times and New Nigeria by Murtala Mohammed/Obasanjo regime in 1975. The emergence of Babangida in 1995 with his liberalisation of the ownership of broadcast media heralded new breed publishers and broadcasting media owners who depended on government support to establish their outfits or its patronage to survive in a competitive business environment. Thus the post-Babangida’s emergent press became not just friend of those in government whose activities it was constitutionally empowered to monitor, but an instrument with which the ‘chop I chop’ ideology of the ruling clique was imposed on the nation. They aggressively sold Babangida’s economic policy that allowed for the sharing of our national assets by a few privileged members of the ruling clique claiming there was no alternative to SAP and for his fraudulent eight years of ‘transition without end’, crowned him the ‘Prince of the Lower Niger’.
And when PDP finally hijacked power from Babangida and Abacha’s ‘Nigerian army of anything is possible’ in 1999, a section of the press ceased being ‘an impartial and objective free market place of ideas’ as it was in the pre- and post-independence years to become an instrument for spreading PDP’s warped views to legitimize its holds on power. Sadly, in the months leading to the 2015 election, it degenerated into an instrument for the subjugation of helpless and oppressed Nigerians yearning for change.
Long before the last haul of N2.1billion by Raymond Dokpesi purportedly for publicity and promotional services rendered to Jonathan by his AIT that is often in arrears in payment of salaries to workers, AIT had been close to all past successive governments. And long before Obaigbena’s haul of N670m (N120 reserved for NPAN), he had always been available for use by past successive governments. Shortly after the 1993 election, it was daring Nduka Obaigbena that was first sent out by Babangida to test the waters by appearing on CNN to canvass for the cancellation of the election on the ground that MKO Abiola voted wearing a dress with SDP logo. The editorial policy of his paper and his marketing strategies since 1999 seem geared towards the exploitation and promotion of the greed of the Nigerian ruling class. Towards this, he pioneered printing in colour to celebrate beauty and splendour. This influenced the consumption pattern of the masses while promoting the greed of those who control the material resources. His NPAN members soon joined him in the scramble for a share of the colour advertising media campaign appropriations.
And to promote the views of those in power, Obaigbena did the unthinkable. He traded off the back page, a traditional major news page, with opinion write ups reflective of the prevailing ideology, first of Babangida and his Aso Rock professors and later of PDP. And in what many of his critics described as contempt for readers, he traded off pages two and three, major news pages for advertisements. And finally as if to validate Karl Marx’s thesis that those who own material resources also control our thoughts, Obaaigbena sold off his mast head for what he creatively called ‘wrap around’ . Thus both the front and back pages of the his paper are occasionally taken over by banks, politicians and others who are ready to part with millions in order to impose their views no matter how warped on the helpless readers. Obaigbena’s initial objectionable creative innovations soon became a fad even among serious newspapers that lay claim to setting agenda for society,
Then business savvy Obaigbena graduated into giving of ‘awards of excellence’ to dubious bankers willing to pay for them. Obaigbena was smiling to the banks as banks chief executives were falling over each other to receive his media awards. It was not long when other NPAN member envious of his good fortunes joined him. Two of his most decorated awardees, Erasmus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank and Cecelia Ibru’s of Oceanic soon ran into troubled waters with the banking regulatory agencies. The former was found guilty of mismanagement of depositors funds and ordered to pay about 600 pounds sterling to the new owners of his former bank while the later was similarly found guilty and jailed for similar offence by a Nigerian court.
From the banking sector, Obaigbena carried his award crusade to serving governors. But as it also turned out, many of the governors who received his awards were later found to be men with feet of clay with some of them serving jail terms in Nigeria and abroad for financial malfeasances.
Then Obaigbena came up with what is at best described as the ‘father’ of all awards titled ‘Life Time Achievement Award. Covered in this category were all who grumbled in private about being outwitted in their business transactions with Obaigbena, bankers who accepted his ingenious business proposal of stationing banks staff on his premises to directly collect advertisement revenue to defray ‘serviceable loans’. Even some of his respected NPAN senior colleagues who had been critical of his unorthodox approaches were listed as awardees. Also on the list were captains of industries without industries, fuel subsidy fraudsters and prosperity prophets specialising in sales of grace. Obaigbena did not forget to fly in Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Britain who has credibility deficit back home to preside over the presentation of Life Achievement awards to his chosen Nigerian achievers.
AS NPAN president, the ‘Obaigbenisation’ of the Nigerian Press is complete. This has been reinforced by his personal negotiation of N670m of ‘Dasuikigate’s slush fund which he channelled through his Hydrocarbons energy Consulting firm. To ensure everyone is tarred with the same brush, he even collected on behalf of protesting NPAN members such as The Punch and The Guardian that insisted they never filed demand claims.
I believe the place of Obaigbena in the development of the Nigeria press between 1995 and 2015 is assured. It is not threatened by virtue of being a recipient N670m of Dazukigate’s $2.2m slush fund. For betraying the trust of the people, it is ex President Jonathan, his Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the CBN which ferried $47m cash in 11 boxes to Dasuki’s office in one night and Sambo Dasuki the ‘piggy bank’ who will face harsh judgment of history.
If media practitioners are protected from censorship and victimisation, the nation’s quest to become a major economic hub would be achieved, Mr Ndama Abubakar, a publisher, has said.
He said there was a linkage between free press and socio-economic growth attained by the developed nations, noting that journalists could only contribute their quota to societal development if they were allowed to discharge their responsibilities with limited restrictions and in accordance to the development media theory as propounded by Dennis McQuail.
Abubakar, who is the Managing Director of Niger Printing and Publishing Company Limited, spoke at the internship orientation for Mass Communication students of Fati Lami Abubakar College for Legal and General Studies (FLACLGS) in Minna, Niger State.
He said gone were the days when Nigerian journalists discharged their duty without interference from any quarter, noting that media practitioners gallantly played twin roles of being the society’s watchdog and keeping the masses abreast of the goings-on in the country. Today’s journalism practice, he said, leaves much to be desired.
While bemoaning the decadence in the profession, Abubakar said many journalists now collect bribe brazenly to slant their stories according to the dictate of their paymaster. In the process, he said, they undermine the ethics of the profession and distort information being passed to the public.
According to Abubakar, journalists who make effort to get useful information are assaulted despite the existence of Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
He advised the students to be focused, while urging them to use print and social media to advocate for press freedom through articles, features and open letters.
Actor Akin Lewis, who recently celebrated his 40th year in the Nigerian film and drama industry has revealed why he has not had bad press since he started his acting career.
He said; “The press is scared of me. It took a lot of hard work to build the name, which has become a brand today. I will sue them big if they try to mess with me.”
The actor also claimed that, he has not been given any other role to play aside the big boss which he portrays in the advert for a career website.
“I don’t think I can be given any other role, aside the rich man, maybe because of my status,” he added.
The actor has appeared in many drama performances on stage as well as featuring in quite a number of movies on the big screen, with Madam Dearest, as the biggest with a large viewership.
Others films by the actor include: Were Alaso, Apere, and Alantakun, Footprints, Spider, The Benjamins, Two Sides of a Coin and the widely acclaimed Tinsel.
This year, our practiced clasp may gather into a punch, if we let it. This is the year in which we accord our leaders their rights to everlasting madness – that they may see the bite of the frost against their naked butts, as much as they feel it.
This year, we birth the truth, or learn to silence it, as usual. I could plead that we summon our will to defend the interests of our people and State but that would be tantamount to imploring the pirate to pilfer riotous raindrops from the Pacific, wouldn’t it?
This year, our practice lumps together, two crucial yet haunting questions into some tiresome rhetoric: (a) As the polls approach, what should our values be? (b) Who should be the beneficiaries of such values? Predictably, we pervert the first to foster an even more insidious perversion of the second, as usual.
Thus we evade the task of evolving and defining a rigid code of moral values that we could be led by. Hence the appalling immorality, chronic injustice, gross double standards and the insoluble conflicts and contradictions that plague journalism practice in the 21st century as it does the Nigerian society, under all questionable variants of leadership and altruist ethics.
Observe the indecency of what characteristically, passes for our moral judgement and the consequences today: self-acclaimed democrats and looters who rigged their way to power, political thug-fathers and gangsters who shot their way to power and then, out of it – having amassed their fortune by looting state coffers, are enabled and patronised by us as the next best elements to happen to the Nigerian state. Even so, we ignore the promising aspirant who gives up the pursuit of peace and fulfilment in order to support our dreams of bliss and realisation of it. Such an aspirant is regarded by many of us as a hopeless radical; a tiresome irritant to our democratic process.
Ultimately, we label wearisome tyrants and desperadoes, beacons of hope, while explaining unspeakable atrocities they commit as their altruistic contributions for the love of the good and the benefit of all. Observe what this leadership and beneficiary criterion does to the life of the average man on the street. The first thing he learns is that morality is his enemy. He has nothing to gain from it as he can only lose in his pursuit of it. And were he to challenge the system by seeking to pursue such ideal or propagating it, self-inflicted loss, agony and the gray, debilitating pall of an incomprehensible citizenship is all that he gets.
Were he to hope for that proverbial leadership that might occasionally sacrifice itself for his benefit as he endeavours, grudgingly, to attempt likewise in the interest of others, the shortfall will foster ceaseless agony and resentment instead of pleasure and gain.
If we could endeavour to rise to fulfil the duties characteristic of natives of the Fourth Estate, we could among other things, assure our poor and helpless compatriots that even though citizenship they endure hardly provides them with benefits of nationality and an automatic form of survival, we – that is, natives of the Fourth Estate – could serve as the means to the attainment of our proverbial vista of progress and abundance.
If we could rise to truly observe our role in Nigeria’s democratic process, we could teach the citizenry to discover among other things, the fraudulence implicit in such politics as our redefinition of President Goodluck Jonathan as a true democrat; an impractical sloth as a brilliant Statesman.
It’s about time we taught the citizenry to identify the fundamental moral differences between leadership that seeks its effluorescence in rampant corruption, treasury looting, politics of death and institutionalised violence vis-à-vis leadership that has the interests of the poor hapless masses at heart.
We could teach Nigeria to understand that the evil of such soulless leadership hardly subsists totally, in its bid to perpetuate itself in power eternally but also in what it considers as its interests for doing so; it lies not in its tenacious cling to the reigns of power but in its practice of the science and art of leadership at a sub-human level.
In the flurry of currency-activated campaigns and shallow-talk, we could shun the envelopes that bind to pay good mind to the issues that matter. We could acknowledge our premises and inclinations for or against every aspirant as the products of our inherent values and evasions and thus understand that the electorate in turn chooses its values by both a conscious and probably more hyper-active subconscious process of thought and acceptance by default.
This is oft predicated on some form of social osmosis or blind imitation thus the urgent need to educate the electorate to fashion the measures by which the patriot-leader we seek shall emerge. It is the simplest measures that get to count, like the institution of the primacy of rule of law and frank talk.
Shall we now institute a worthy flagship with platform upon which we would challenge our self-appointed Messiahs, drill them, analyse them and beam as much of their adroitness as their incapacities through the country, across the continent, to the whole wide world.
So doing, we could teach the nation to support our dreams of bliss and its realisation by no other means but dint of our heartfelt efforts. We could help natives of our failing state to understand that the politics that leadership we loathe and endure seek to perpetuate permits no view of us except as clueless bums and sacrificial lambs, hapless victims and parasites; that it permits no concept of beneficent co-existence with us.
We could educate the electorate to understand that among other things, the reasons for our dumb acquiescence to cynicism and despair and rebel against them: cynicism, because we neither practice nor accept the incumbent leadership’s debilitating inhumanness and despair, because we lack the courage and will to reject it.
We could inspire Nigeria to rebel against such devastating evil by urging the citizenry not to be deceived by promises of unblemished altruism for if anything, the advocates of such altruism are often times and right now, still unable to base their ethics and projections on any dependable philosophy of human existence and politics. For instance, President Jonathan still offers “life-boat” solutions as lifelines from which to derive his philosophy of governance and moral conduct even as he pays lip-service to his much-publicised bid to actualise our most unrealistic fantasies.
For all our vaunted ability to challenge the worst of tyrants and speak truth to power, we are yet to get the hang of it, although we love to beat our chests that we do. If we do really, then we would have enlightened the electorate to identify the candidate whose politics deserve our mandate and patronage. If we do, we would have alerted the electorate to those expectations and demands we are meant to enshrine and perpetuate in the flurry of political campaigns primed wholly to befuddle and entertain.
It is time we affect such dauntless courage, professionalism and understanding of our socio-politics, that we may in good time teach the nation to explore the politics and soul of at least one candidate in order to trust him.
AshleyCole is looking forward to shaking off his “money-grabber” image after moving to Roma from Chelsea.
Cole moved the Serie A runners-up on a two-year deal a fortnight ago, after a trophy-laden eight seasons at Stamford Bridge.
The left-back’s supreme talent has seen him win three Premier League titles and the 2012 UEFA Champions Leagues, as well as seven FA Cup medals – more than any other player.
Cole also made headlines off the pitch in a celebrity marriage to pop star Cheryl Tweedy, while accidentally shooting a work experience student with an air rifle at Chelsea’s training ground and admitting his disgust at being offered £50,000 a week by previous club Arsenal did little to enhance his reputation.
And having grown tired of the negative press in his homeland, Cole is looking forward to a fresh start in Italy.
He told Roma Channel: “I’m not the guy that people think. If you ask my friends and my family they know me as a kind, caring and considerate guy.
“I’ve made mistakes like anyone else but I’m kind of shy and try to keep myself to myself.
“In England it’s kind of hard with the press, it’s different to here but this was another reason why I came here – to get away from that.
“It was kind of jarring in the end that everyone thought of me as a money grabber, cheat or not a nice guy overall which is totally the opposite of what I am.”
Cole rejected offers from MLS in order to join Roma, who finished 17 points behind champions Juventus last term.
