The Nation Newspaper

Tag: stories

  • Sexual abuse victims tell their stories

    Sexual abuse victims tell their stories

    Facilitator of Ornaments of Grace and Virtue, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to promoting the welfare of young girls, Mrs Kehinde Omojola, speaks to OLUWATOYIN ADELEYE on how they can prevent sexual harassment.

    THE rape scandal rocking the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has, once again, thrown up questions on why undergraduates fail to seek redress through  the channels provided by their institutions when sexually harassed by their lecturers.

    Dr. Akin Baruwa, a part-time lecturer of UNILAG, on Thursday, July 23, this year raped a teenager, one Cecilia (not real name), who was seeking admission into the university in an office in the Faculty of Business Administration.

    The victim’s father and Baruwa are said to belong to the same landlord association in Abesan, Ipaja area of Lagos.

    On the fateful day, Cecilia’s father had asked her to follow Baruwa to UNILAG to sort out her admission issue.  But the journey ended in jeopardy.

    Though Baruwa, upon arrest, owned up to the act, he insisted that it was by mutual consent.

    The university has set up a committee to investigate the scandal and promised to address the press on the outcome soon. The Dean, Faculty of Business Administration, Prof Rasheed Ojikutu claims that Baruwa is not among the about 120 lecturers in his faculty.  However, there are indications that he lectures in the Distance Learning Institute.

    Cecilia’s case is one of the few to get public attention because she reported to her parents. Many more students have been harassed, who for fear, failed to speak up. As a result, the lecturers were not punished. Though the procedure for seeking redress is spelt out, The Nation learnt that students hardly exploit them for fear of being victimised.

    Most of the female students interviewed about the matter refused to give their names to avoid getting into trouble. Even those who have already graduated pleaded anonymity to avoid the social stigma.

    A female student of Mass Communication at UNILAG has been harassed.  But she did not report the incident which she described as “an abuse of power.”

    “It was during my days as a postgraduate diploma student in the Department of Mass Communication in UNILAG. During one of my papers, my lecturer – I can’t mention his name, because he would probably know if he reads this story – announced in the exam hall that ‘if you are not writing well or you know you do not know the questions, don’t cheat, just see me after the paper.’

    “I was not sure of myself, so I decided to see him, just to confirm if he would use my Continuous Assessments and attendance to give me extra marks or something. So, I went to his office and he told me to write down my name and I did. Then, he asked me a funny question: ‘Cash or kind?’ I was confused at first, but he said I should better stop behaving like a child.

    “I decided to push my luck, just to see if he meant it. So, I offered N20, 000. He got angry and told me to get out that I am not ready to pass. He said my mates are offering him N100,000 and above. After a lot of begging, he accepted the money. I also bought him some expensive wines and gifts, though. In the end, he still did nothing, because I had a D in the course. I am just grateful he did not decide to fail me.”

    Explaining why she did not report, she said: “Who would I report to? I was even a bit guilty that I paid in the first place, so my mouth is shut. That is why this must be written as anonymous. Thank you.”

    Miss Yetunde (surname withheld) recalled a horrid sexual harassment story as a part-time undergraduate of UNILAG.  She lacked the courage to report. But another lecturer helped her out.

    Her account:  “I was sexually harassed when I was pursuing a Bachelors programme in Education as a part-time student of University of Lagos.  A lecturer was hitting on me, but I refused to answer him. He continued to disturb me to no avail. He failed me in my core course.  I, then, went to his office to ask how I failed because I was very sure of what I wrote in the exam. He said I should give him an answer to his proposal if I wanted to pass his course. I later found out that he got other teachers to fail me just because I turned down his advances.

    “Fortunately, for me, a lecturer who knew I was very intelligent noticed that I was failing some of my major courses. He came to my rescue by investigating the case and found out that the said lecturer had conspired with his other colleagues to fail me. This kind lecturer then reported the case to the Head of Department. The erring lecturer was sanctioned and later lost his job.”

    Modupe’s experience while seeking admission into the Lagos State University (LASU) was similar to Cecilia’s.

    Hear her: “It happened in 2008, when I was still seeking admission into LASU. Though I did well in my UTME, yet my father felt a connection from the university had to be involved to make my admission sail through

    “My father suddenly remembered he had a female colleague whose immediate younger brother was a lecturer in the Department of English in the school.  I later called the lecturer who asked me to come on a Saturday, which was the day I was to sit for the post- UTME.

    “I called him (lecturer) and he directed me to his office. As I made to enter, I noticed the quietness of the one storey, including the offices most of which were locked up.

    “I was 16 and a virgin, but had known and read a lot about sex. Unfortunately, sex was an abominable subject in our house. I prepared my mind for whatever would happen because I had been taught not to trust any man at all.

    “I entered the sparsely-furnished office and sat down. He stood up from his seat, made for the door and locked it with a key and my heart skidded. He sat down again and asked me for my credentials.  He then became more serious and started asking me personal questions. ‘Are you a virgin?’ ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ ‘How do you feel about your big breasts?’ (I have very big boobs and my flat tummy made it more obvious)?

    “I was immediately looking for a way to leave the room before things degenerated, so I dashed for the door. He came after me and pinned me to the door fondling my breasts and moaning loudly. I got very angry and tried to push him away but I could not because he was very strong, despite his frail physique. I removed his spectacles and threatened to pluck out his eyeballs if he did not allow me to leave the room. Reluctantly, he opened the door and I bolted down the stairs. I felt humiliated, used and angry, but I knew I was not going to tell anybody at home because sex has never been spoken of in my family.”

    Another alumnus of LASU, who simply identified herself as Harriet, recounted how she almost fell into the trap of her project supervisor during her final year.

    “I was sexually harassed by my lecturer while I was in the first semester of my 400-Level,” Harriet said. “It is an unfortunate scenario that I will not forget in a hurry.  It took place in one of the faculties at the Lagos State University.

    “I was assigned to one of our lecturers who was widely rumoured to have a liking for young girls.

    “During our first meeting, I noticed that he kept staring at my breasts and I was very uncomfortable.

    “Anytime I went into his office to seek clarification over my project, he would always engage me in sexual talks. He is either complimenting me about my straight legs which would be easy to spread out on the bed or other things which I would pretend not to pay attention to.

    “I was at the concluding part of my project on that fateful day. I’d gone to see him. I entered his office and he started rectifying all he needed to do in my project. Then, he started glancing at me in an unusual way and told me point blank that he wanted me to hold the table and him ‘doing it’ from behind. I thought he was joking and stood up immediately to leave, but he blocked the exit and forcefully dragged my hand to hold his already turgid manhood. I started begging him to let me go but he would not yield. I made to shout but he quickly blocked my mouth. He said I could go on only one condition- that I must not report to anybody, otherwise I would never graduate. He reminded me that he was an executive member of ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) and he is well connected.

    “I never reported to the school authority and he never tried it with me again. I only told my friends I graduated without any issue.”

    However, contrary to the students’ claims of fear of victimization, authorities in various tertiary institutions insist that the formal procedure for redress works.

    Ojikutu, for instance, said UNILAG, where he has worked for nearly 30 years, does not joke with allegations by students, especially those relating to sexual harassment.

    He said the channels provided by the institution for students to seek redress when their rights are being trampled upon function well.

    “There is a process. You can write to your counsellor or course adviser. If he or she is not attending to your prayer, you approach your Head of Department. If your HOD does not attend to you, you approach the Dean. If the Dean is not attending to you, then you approach the VC.

    “Students are not idiots. Once they feel short-changed, they should complain. And once we receive a complaint, we will act. If you write to me and say you are being sexually harassed, the first thing I will do is to query the person concerned. And I must get a response within 24 hours and the student will be protected. You people just believe that the only crime in the university is sexual harassment. But there are lots of other issues that we address. Offences are not only committed between lecturers and students, sometimes it is between students. So, you think that the students are orphans and that there is nobody to protect them? No!”

    The Public Relations Officer of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Mr Charles Oni, also told our reporter that abused students could seek redress.

    He said: “In a school environment like YABATECH, we have a process for addressing such issue (sexual harassment). We have the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee, which deals with misconduct from erring lecturers. They listen to complaints by students and the lecturer will be tried based on evidences supplied.  If found guilty, he is either demoted or dismissed depending on the gravity of the offence.”

    Oni added that sexual harassment was not rampant in the institution. “As much as I know, I have not witnessed any case of sexual harassment. It is not common here,” Oni said.

     

  • Gambia revokes Al-Jazeera permits

    Gambia revokes Al-Jazeera permits

    The Gambia’s Ministry of Information and Communication have revoked the permits issued to some Al-Jazeera journalists to report human interest stories in the country, official sources at the ministry, said.

    “The team of Al-Jazeera journalists were in Banjul to film and report on human interest stories but were later turned down by the authorities.

    “They were asked to stop filming or risk being arrested after the government annulled their credentials,’’ the sources said.

    Gambia’s Ministry of Information, which issued the permits to the journalists, said the team could not film until further authorisation was given from the West African country’s President Yahya Jammeh.

    Jammeh was, however, on vacation in his hometown, Kanilai, at the time.

    Al-Jazeera correspondent Catherine Wambuo-Soi was going to interview Jammeh on the topic of migration of Gambian youths and other human interest issues for his HIV treatment programme.

    “We have got approval from the government to travel to Banjul to do some human interest stories.

    “Unfortunately, a day after our arrival, we were told by our fixer that the government through the ministry of information has asked us not to film anything or else risk being arrested,’’ she said.

    Gambia’s government did not give any particular reason for the revocation of the permits.

    The team has left Banjul via Dakar and is now in Nairobi, Kenya

     

  • Buhari won’t ask for stories to be ‘killed’, says Adesina

    Buhari won’t ask for stories to be ‘killed’, says Adesina

    The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has said his principal will not request any journalist to “kill” stories for him.

    Adesina said instead of doing that, the administration would rather encourage reporters to run stories that would critically examine the workings of government and provide it with the way forward.

    A statement yesterday by the President of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), Malachy Agbo, said Adesina spoke on Thursday at a dinner held for him and other presidential spokesmen by the online publishers.

    Also hosted by the GOCOP were the Senior Special Assistant on Media to President Buhari, Malam Garba Shehu, and the Senior Special Assistant in the Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande.

    Adesina said the first thing the President told him when he assumed office was: “Always tell me the truth.”

    He said Buhari was emphatic when he told him that as a general he loved to argue, but would always bow to superior argument.

    “The President told me: ‘Please do not fail to argue with me.’”

    Adesina is one of the trustees of GOCOP.

    Adesina said Buhari vowed to run an open and transparent government so much that he would have nothing to hide and would have no cause to want to ask for any story to be “killed”.

    He said the only thing he asked was that for any news item, the Presidency should be allowed the opportunity to state its side before being put in the public domain.

    Adesina commended the online publishers for coming together to form a group, even as he advised them to look out for spoilers, gate crashers and those who might hide under the canopy of online publishing to damage the reputation of innocent public officers.

    He said: “There is a saying that one bad coin can spoil hundreds of coins.

    “My advice is that you should not allow any of your members to use the platform to malign innocent people.

    “You should also find a way of sanitising the social media practitioners who just sit in their bedrooms to churn out news without professional touch.”

    Also speaking, Shehu thanked members of the Guild for the support they gave him when he handled the media and publicity department of All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council as director.

    According to him, the APCPPC was the poorest in terms of resources, “but the richest in terms of people’s goodwill.

    “And the online publishers were the greater part of that process.”

    Akande acknowledged the contribution of the online media and the social media in the actualisation of the Buhari Presidency.

    He advised Nigerians to adopt the government as their own because “this is the change we have been talking about”.

    Earlier, Agbo assured the presidential spokesmen of the support and cooperation of the members, even as he appealed to them to always make themselves available for any news item that requires clarification.

    He assured them that members of the Guild, who are veterans in the profession, would continue to support them with prayers to achieve success in their assignments.

    Several other GOCOP members, who spoke on the occasion, commended the presidential media team for recognising the important role of the online media in modern information dissemination and appealed to them to keep it up.

  • Book projects and other stories

    Last Thursday took me to Whitesands School in Lekki, Lagos State, to witness the launch of a book, The Sail, written by some secondary school boys.  It was an impressive exercise.  It was one that challenged the boys to come up with something that they are proud of today.  They have their name in print as contributors to a publication.

    Though new in Nigeria, Principal of the School, Dr Lorenzo David, noted that it was a regular tradition in schools in his home country, Philippines, to collect the works of the students into a book.  The school has set off the process of producing another edition.  This time, I am sure more pupils would be interested in putting in works and the competition would be stiffer.

    The project is a highly commendable one. Apart from expanding our pool of local literary work, it would more importantly challenge young ones to develop themselves early in life.  It is one of those exercises capable of helping these children to discover themselves and decide on time where they would focus their energies.

    It is an initiative I think every school should embrace.  I hope the practice develops to the extent that schools would submit the best literary works to feature in an anthology for young writers.  I cannot think of a better way to catch them young.

    Another story that impressed me that happened of recent is the drama programme by ChildVille School, Ogudu, which held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, recently.  The pupils staged a play titled: Agho Obaseki, written by Don Pedro Obaseki.  I guess what trilled me about the programme was what the school administrator, Mrs. Ajijola Alokolaro, said about how vital it was in helping the children learn  about history.  Indeed, through the drama, the pupils learnt about what transpired in 1897 after the old Benin Kingdom fell to the British, leading to the exile of Oba Ovonramwen N’ogbaisi.

    Mrs Alokolaro was right in saying that many of the pupils knew so much of western history at the expense of Nigerian history.  Last year, in writing a story about the study of History in Nigerian schools, we found out that many secondary school pupils did not know who Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa were.  They know more about what is happening in other parts of the world, and about happening in sports, music, and entertainment – thanks to the Internet and the social media.  It is a shame that many times we are forced to depend on insufficient and skewed information we download from the Internet about our own stories in Nigeria.

    If schools stage plays around historical events in Nigeria and Africa, the pupils who participate in the dramas and those who watch would learn about the events and be stimulated to research more into the issues discussed.  Then we would not have to depend on Google or Wikepedia or Yahoo for our own stories.

    The third issue that impressed me in the past week was a practical demonstration of how science works in everyday life.  It was done by Mrs Chinyere Nnabugwe of the Science Ambassadors Foundation during a briefing to announce this year’s edition of the HEN Nigeria Science Festival.

    Mrs Nnabugwe shared some interesting facts about science that wowed the audience and made us think about how we would have loved the sciences if we had been taught that way in secondary school.  She used toothpick soaked in water to demonstrate how wood expands, and used food colouring and bleach to demonstrate changes in colour.

    The foundation is going to train teachers next month as part of the programme and I hope that the participants would take away vital lessons they would use in teaching their pupils to love sciences.

    I think a similar project is needed for Mathematics.  I hated Mathematics back then because I did not like the teacher.  But now I have come to realise that Mathematics is a vital part of my life and I feel bad when I cannot do some analysis because of my limited knowledge of mathematical concepts.  However, I am determined to overcome that disadvantage – even if it means going back to the elementary level to learn again.

  • ‘Our Coca-Cola stories’

    ‘Our Coca-Cola stories’

    Past participants at the CAMPUSLIFE Correspondents’ Workshop were the cynosure of all eyes as they shared their experiences with others at the 13th edition held last weekend in Lagos. The panel discussion, moderated by a public relations consultant, Mr Agbo Agbo, involved Jumoke Awe, Femi Asu, Gilbert Alasa and Francis Egwuatu. OLUWAFEMI OGUNJOBI (Language Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University) reports.

    After spending five years for her law degree at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, and one year at the Nigerian Law School (NLS) in Abuja, the only certificate that has taken Jumoke Awe to places is the one given to her by The Nation and Coca-Cola System in Nigeria.

    This is one of the testimonies shared last weekend at the 13th CAMPUSLIFE Correspondents’ Workshop held at CitiLodge Hotel in Lekki, Lagos.

    Jumoke, now a brand strategist, said she would forever be grateful to Coca-Cola Nigeria and Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Limited for giving her a platform that opened doors for her.

    “I have never put a curriculum vitae (CV) together to look for job after I left school,” Jumoke, Managing Director of Octo Consult, told the participants, adding that she is an employer of labour.

    This, she said, was made possible by the CAMPUSLIFE platform.

    After leaving Law School, Jumoke said she only practised law for four months during which she registered a media consultancy firm. “I never had any background in journalism except writing for The Nation as a student-writer. The certificates given to me at all the CAMPUSLIFE workshops I attended are the ones I am using to carve a niche for myself in the world of brand communication,” she said.

    Jumoke, the co-ordinator of Street2School, a Feminine Care Development Foundation, said the CAMPUSLIFE certificates and her stories in The Nation gave her the opportunity to consult for Osun, Ekiti and Ogun states on communication strategy.

    She urged the participants to use the CAMPUSLIFE platform to prepare themselves for life after school, saying opportunities abound in campus journalism.

    Jumoke, who referred to herself as a “proud product” of CAMPUSLIFE school, praised the management of The Nation for giving undergraduates an opportunity to express their views weekly. She added that her articles in the 10-page pull-out got her connections, praising the late CAMPUSLIFE editor, Mrs Ngozi Agbo, for nurturing her and others.

    Another CAMPUSLIFE product, Femi Asu, an Accounting graduate got a job with an accounting firm, two years after graduation. But he resigned to pursue his dream in journalism. “My stories on CAMPUSLIFE pages stood me out. Two weeks after I submitted my application at Business Day, the Editor called me himself after he read my articles  on CAMPUSLIFE pages, which I attached to my CV,” he said. He is now an Energy reporters with business journal.

    Femi described CAMPUSLIFE as a “life-changing” platform, which must be explored by undergraduates. He said without the opportunities offered him through CAMPUSLIFE, he would not have pursued his dream to do what he had always loved to do.

    “I will enjoin the participants to stay connected to CAMPUSLIFE, because this is a family you will never regret to be part of,” he said.

    For Gilbert Alasa, a graduate of Foreign Languages from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), the platform has elevated him to a height he never dreamt of. Gilbert, who is serving in Ekiti State, said CAMPUSLIFE made it possible for him to get mouth-watering remuneration for his writing skills. Through his award-winning stories, Gilbert was selected as a trainee in an International Investigative Reporting Training in Abuja last June.

    Francis Egwuatu has just won the 2014 edition of Mr Universe Nigeria held in Lagos last month. He is an engineering student of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO). He narrated how Coca-Cola System and The Nation contributed to his success.

    Francis won the Anambra edition of the contest last year, qualifying him for the national challenge, which he won last month.

    He said the spirit of friendship among CAMPUSLIFE students was key to his success at the pageant, because he learnt how to live with people of different culture.

    The foursome hailed Coca-Coca Nigeria and NBC for the sponsorship, adding that their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is significant.

     

  • ‘Writing conflict stories to promote peace’

    ‘Writing conflict stories to promote peace’

    With 2015 elections around the corner, and campaign tensions imminent, media professionals from both print and broadcast in Lagos State were, at a two-day workshop last week, psyched on the need to be sensitive in presenting conflict-sensitive reports professionally without fuelling undue flames by publishing reliable and unbiased information to their reading public, while also being conscious of hints that could engender violence, when relaying issues affecting children and women, Joke Kujenya reports.

    When reporting conflicts, journalists are often faced with the challenge of de-escalating misconceptions that could lead to tensions. As such, reporters, based on the ethics of their profession to uphold national interests, are cautioned over time to self-censor. By so doing, conflicts inciting subject matter that could lead to hostilities in society would be doused.

    To forestall such occurrence, an average journalist, trainers caution, must see conflict as first, a battle and then, conflates it with violence, and later views it as a zero, a no-go area. Thus, “when in doubt, leave out”, “cause no harm” were slogans that played out prominently at a two-day workshop on:

    Given this concept, Ms Olutoyin Falade, Executive Director, Innovative Strategy for Human Development (ISHD), hammered it firmly on the consciousness of participants to always do reporting in a way that will resolve existing problems, rather than making issues worse than they met it, noting that, if journalists are conflict and gender-sensitive in their reporting, “your family will love you.”

    Falade, using an interactive approach with the participants to deliver her treatise, shared the theme: ‘Reporting Conflict in Nigeria and Child Sensitive Reporting’, respectively. She recalled, among others, that between 1980 and 2009, over a hundred violent conflicts left in their wake socio-political, economic and psychological losses and pains, while over 150, 000 people got killed and properties worth billions in naira were destroyed due to ethno-religious feud in some parts of Northern Nigeria. Scenarios as these then behove on the media to examine critically the indices that ignite conflict and, with every ounce of professionalism, avoid it in their reports.

    She defined conflict as a setting that involves disagreement, clash, collision or a struggle or contest between two or more parties. Using Laue’s 2002 explanation of conflict, Falade said “it can degenerate to violence as an escalated competition at any system level between groups whose aim is to gain advantage in the area of power, resources, interest, and needs and at least one of the groups believes that this dimension of the relationship is mutually incompatible. It is also a manifestation of fear from inability of individuals or groups to accommodate their differences.”

    She said if journalists do not take such multi-faceted definition of conflict into consideration in their reportage, conflicts can assume various dimensions and degenerate into intricate situations that can be difficult to manage.

    Media professionals, therefore, need to understand that conflict has two classifications namely: functional and dysfunctional.

    Functional conflict improves the quality of decisions, stimulates creativity and innovations for positive change, while dysfunctional conflict leads to retarded communication, reduced group cohesiveness and a subordination of goals to in-fighting and explosive violence, she said.

    She also said that the media should understand their aim of reporting conflict, one of which is that it is a threat to societal survival, peaceful coexistence and system endurance.

    “Conflict reporting is beyond the media’s traditional role of informing, educating and entertaining the society. It is more about translating into their surveillance function in the society if well handled. This is because people depend largely on the media to create images, form opinions and quite often provide guidance on issues of conflict. Media readers also provide early warning signs for authorities to take proactive measures, informed explanations on topical issues to check spiralling but to generate ideas on resolving or, as well, reducing conflicts while publicising plights of victims.

    Falade also enumerated why the media often falls for ‘temptation’ during periods of conflicts. She said, “conflict is an ‘attractive’ source of news that is ‘the bread and butter’ of journalism. It sells as ready raw materials that reflect the country’s socio-cultural diversities, among others. Hence, the media, through its selective reporting process, tries to determine what the public see and think and thereby inadvertently contributes to the escalation of conflict based on how they say what they say.

    As a result of this, the media ought to be sensitive in reporting conflict-related stories. To do this, the media has to be conscious of its duty in promoting, by selective reporting, prejudicial stereotypes about groups and individuals, inter-group conflicts out of their fundamental socio-economical, political and other contexts. They mustn’t make generalised statements not supported by facts and figures and ensure they attribute statements by individuals to collectives, not publishing of rumours as facts and many others.

    Also, in a seemingly variance of perspectives, many of which are critical, the trainer, Falade, said that the media need to use multi-level sampling in trying to capture the variance in the heterogeneous scenario, thereby safeguarding their respective safety and understanding of pattern of a conflict.

    “This then,” she said, “takes me to the duty of the media in reporting as it affects the underage children.”

    She began this expose by defining who a child is. She said, “a child, as defined in Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary, is a young human being who is not yet an adult. A son or daughter of any adult or for the purposes of the BBC Editorial Guidelines, someone aged under 15; while young people are aged 15, 16 and 17. Noting that these are not legal definitions and so, they differ from the UN Convention on the rights of the child as someone under 18, she said, the age difference might point to a possible tension between child rights advocates and some journalists, and so, it becomes an issue worth discussing in the context of news coverage.”

    Against this backdrop, on day two, Falade said children and the media have become a growing concern as children of every age in our societies get a daily dose of television, video games and music lyrics. And while such media can provide education and entertainment, the same can damage children’s psyche. She added that research shows that exposure to violent media can result in aggressive attitudes and violent behaviour in some children and adolescents. Therefore, the dignity and rights of every child must be respected in every circumstance – interviewing and reporting on children which requires that special attention is required to ensure their rights to privacy and confidentiality, have their opinions heard, make them participate in decisions affecting them and be protected from harm and retribution, including the potential of harm and retribution, among others, are the responsibility of the media.

    Adding her voice to Communication and Listening Skills for media professionals in Nigeria, Mrs. Vivian Emesowum, Executive Director, Grassroots People and Gender Development Centre, noted that if journalists listen to the voice of their writings, it will better help them to communicate conflict-sensitive messages with less harm to their reading societies.

    She took the class through the rudiments of communication which include speaking, listening and contexts, which change how people receive what is said and determine their reaction. To, therefore, ameliorate unexpected divergence reactions, media professionals need to be conscious of their listening, observation, attention and questioning skills in relaying their messages to their teeming readers and viewers, as the case may be, and above all to the multi-faceted end receivers, Emesowum said.

  • Fertilising the ground for stories

    Fertilising the ground for stories

    Title: The Taste of the Tale is in the Telling

    Authors (edited): Allwell Onukaogu, Ezechi Onyerionwu, et al

    Publishers: Literaseed, Aba, Abia State

    Year of Publication: 2012

    No of pages: 324

    Reviewer: Edozie Udeze

    When Alice Munroe, the Canadian short story expert won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, a lot of authors heaved a sigh of relieve. In describing her as the master of contemporary storytelling, the judges considered her one of the best in that genre of literature and this immediately became a huge victory for literature, for she is the first writer of short stories to be so honoured and acclaimed.

    Today, the art of short story telling is indeed catching on in the world of literature. There are thousand and one writers who now find time to explore their societies, telling their own stories in such a way that one is never in doubt that the short story genre has come to stay.

    A new anthology of short stories entitled The Taste of the Tale is in the Telling, put together by the Abia State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has just been released. It contains about 41 short stories written by authors from different parts of the country.

    The stories dwell on different aspects of life, telling the good, the bad and the not too pleasant stories of the people and letting them know what the country has been doing in the face of mounting problems in the society.

    The stories vary both in content and style and approach. Each writer is able to find his or her own voice, telling the story from his own perspective and leading the world into the different issues that beset the people. From the bizarre, to the absurd, to the imaginatively and unbelievable experiences of many people in the Nigerian context, they all harp on the people.

    Most of the stories are taction , a combination of facts and fiction. As you go through them, you come across issues that may have, in one way or another, happened to you or to your closest person before.

    These stories grip you; they tear into your heart; they speak to your conscience; they appeal to your sensibility, to your inner-being. This is so because they are stories of people of this clime, told by the people themselves and for people to learn from. Indeed the Nigerian situation is fertile and pregnant for short stories.

    For instance, in Guilty as Charged, Ezechi Onyerionwu tells the story of a young man who raped a woman old enough to be his mother. The woman was once kidnapped by a gang of hoodlums near her house. She was promptly taken to a hide out. There she was subjected to all manner of traumatic experiences. But this young man only chose to rape her when others were not around. To him, this was to prove a point and subject the woman to further disgrace and humiliation.

    However, while in a bank one day to withdraw some money, the boy strolled in and the woman recognised him. A scene was then created. The woman immediately accosted him and in the end, it was proved that he was the one. It is a moving story that painted the sordid story of kidnapping in a way to furnish you with the necessary information in that regard.

    In Smiles Were not Enough, Allwell Onukaogu rehashes the different sides to some con people who go about with tales of pity in order to get financial help from people. It is a story that can never be exhausted because more new ideas and approaches in this regard unfold every day. Nonetheless, his own tale is full of funny characterisations and therefore exposes the Nigerian society as a place where cheating has come to stay.

    About one of the most pathetic of the experiences the author had, he has this to say: “On seeing him, my mind went berserk. I quickly adjourned the meeting I was having and did not need any explanation before swinging into action. Then, I put a call through to our Chief Medical Officer. Sensing what I was about to do, one of the boys said that their near-vegetable of a colleague was already in a hospital, but that they had to risk bringing him here when the doctor said if they did not raise the hefty sum of a hundered and fifty thousand naira, nothing else could be done for him in terms of treatment.”

    In Olopa, a story told to show the other side of the police, Edozie Udeze demonstrates his ability to weave a story around even the smallest issue that takes place around him. In it, Sonnie had to be a good friend to his childhood playmate, Ike, who was attacked by a mob sent by his estranged girl-friend. Promptly, Sonnie used his closeness to the police to help Ike to see if they could nab the perpetrators of the act. Told in a first person format, it is moving and pathetic.

    In all, the stories centre on who we are. However, the printing quality is not only poor, but also some of the pages are not readable. It seems to be a work done in a hurry both in terms of editing and page arrangement. This, in fact, is one of the reasons why most readers often discountenance books published in Nigeria. This attitude of producing bad books should change for the sake of literature.

  • For The Nation, it’s been a year of breaking stories, giving insights

    For The Nation, it’s been a year of breaking stories, giving insights

    in the last 12 months, The Nation has broken stories, provided fresh insights into general stories and shown leadership in the business of news gathering and dissemination

    It was not just about good prose. Of course, good prose makes for good reading. But facts were the oil with which The Nation dazzled its readers in the outgoing year. With prose, sometimes blended with poetry and facts, usually exclusive to the medium, this newspaper has been able to use “truth in defence of freedom”.

    Aesthetics, fantastic layouts and nice blend of pictures also stood the paper out in the outgoing year.

    It all started in January. President Goodluck Jonathan gave Nigerians a curious new year gift: increment of pump price of petrol to N120. It was a stock to Nigerians. Queues surfaced at filling stations. Black markets began to spring up. Labour leaders started talking tough. The Federal Government said there was no going back. And the battleline was drawn.

    For about five days, the country was shut down. From the South to the North, it was total collapse of the economy. Of course, Lagos took the lead with the Gani Fawehinmi Park hosting hundreds of Lagosians, celebrities, human rights activists and so on – venting their anger against the government.

    The Nation followed it all through. But not like others. It made extra efforts to be different. From its page one to the other several pages daily devoted to the debacle, it was vintage The Nation. Its front pages for the days of rage almost went tabloid with one-word headlines. One day, our photographer caught soldiers keeping watch at the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota sleeping. They used their boots as pillows.

    Our knack for exclusives saw us breaking stories throughout the year. We also provided new leads to general stories. We broke stories on Boko Haram suspects in detention. On January 25, we reported that there was going to be a shake-up in the police, with a prediction that Jonathan was out to sack Hafiz Ringim as the Inspector-General of Police and that he was going to replace him with an Assistant Inspector-General of Police. The following day, Jonathan dropped Ringim and Dikko Abubakar, an AIG, was appointed as our report the day earlier indicated.

    Another good example of a knack for breaking stories is “Sokoto gives SSS clues on sect’s leaders”. We were also there to give fresh leads on the Halliburton scandal.

    The burial of the late Biafran warlord, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was another opportunity for the paper to show its class. Throughout the funeral days, the paper did special reports on various aspects of the Ojukwu story.

    The Dana Air plane crash was for this newspaper more than one event. It was an event with several angles to it. It was one story we never quite left. And we got accolades for it.

    Among several stories on the Dana crash, we told that of 35-year-old Ikechukwu Ochonogor, who until he died in the crash, was an employee of FEDEX Courier Services.

    His father, Mr. Ochonogor, 67, paced up and down without speaking when The Nation visited the family home in Akesan-Igando, on the outskirts of Lagos. He only acknowledged greetings from guests. At a point, the sexagenarian, who was blessed with six children (four men and two women) shouted: “Oh, my life is gone…” Ikechukwu was said to be his favourite child.

    His wife of about five years, Tolulope, was extremely sad. Their two-year-old child, Binichukwu, is still young to understand what fate has befallen him.

    The deceased’s mother, simply called ‘Nma’, 67, sat with her siblings but would not attend to media inquiry.

    We went after many others and let the readers into their world of pains.

    On May 21, the newspaper, as it is wont to do, took the Federal Government to task, with a three-page investigative story on Federal projects. Entitled: Federal Government projects: signed, sealed, but undelivered, the report x-rayed projects awarded between 2010 and 2011, it found out many of them were either abandoned or would not be completed on schedule.

    A part of the report reads:”One of the contracts approved by the Federal Government on September 22, 2010 was the supply of 60, 000 units of 240 litres Plastic British Waste Bins to Messrs. Pentagon Group of Companies. The conract sum was N927,600,000. The bins were meant for the streets of Abuja. But about two years after, the bins are nowhere to be found.

    “The Head of Department, Solid Waste Management, Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Mr. Ahmed Rufai Hamis, told The Nation that the contract was stopped when it emerged that the contractor could not execute it.

    “On April 4, last year, FEC awarded a contract for the provision of engineering infrastructure to Maitama Extension District, Abuja, to Messrs Magrovetech (Nig) Ltd for N23, 650 billion. The due date for completion is May 2014.

    “For now, only clearing of the site has begun.

    “Another contract, not likely to be concluded as at when due, is the National Library and Cultural Centre. The government, on March 17, 2010, approved the augmentation of the contract for the construction of the National Library Headquarters Building Complex in Abuja to Messrs. Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Limited at N17,005 billion. The amount was reviewed from the initial sum of N8, 415 billion. The project due for completion in 21 months. It has been over 24 months since the variation was done.

    “Workers at the sight referred the reporter to the Ministry of Education, where The Nation was told to write officially to request for information.

    “At the site of the design and construction of the Nigeria Cultural Centre and Millennium Tower Projects being handled by Messrs. Salini (Nigeria) Limited, building engineers asked the reporter to get information from the FCT ministry. The project awarded for N18.998billion has no specified time for its completion.

    “The Nation found out in Port Harcourt that the Land Reclamation/Shoreline Protection at Amadi-Ama in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State, awarded by the FEC on December 15, 2010, seems non-existent.

    “The Nation’s reporter moved round Amadi-Ama community in a taxi owned by an indigene of the area, without any trace of the project.

    “On the FEC’s contract for consultancy services and work on the establishment of the Centre for Skills Development and Training, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with PTDF as Implementing Agency, the site could also not be located.

    “Officials of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing/Urban Development at the Federal Secretariat, Port Harcourt could not locate the site of the project.

    “Government officials contacted on the location of the centre could not provide information on the exact location.”

    On July 3, this newspaper discovered that the army uniform Jonathan wore at an event was that of a field marshal, a rank no Nigerian military officer has ever attained. We ran a front page story, which reads: “He has said he is neither a General nor a Pharaoh. But yesterday, he looked every inch a Field Marshal, a rank no living or dead Nigerian leader has ever attained.

    “The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, at the inauguration of a production line for arms and ammunition by the Army, frowned like a soldier as he took the salute. Not that he did not smile intermittently, but his countenance, for most of the time he gracefully wore his Field Marshal rank, was soldierly. He shook hands and smiled excitedly when a sharp, brisk salute would have been just okay. But Dr. Jonathan looked good in his customised army camouflage/combat uniform.

    “The President feels at home anywhere he goes. When in the Southeast, he becomes an Igbo man decking the traditional dress with a red cap.

    “The last time he visited Ibadan, Oyo State, he adorned buba and sokoto, with the abeti aja cap to complement it. When in the North, the babariga sits pretty on him as though he were one of them.

    “He has felt at ease in Tiv attires, just like Idoma clothes have seen in him a perfect frame.

    “On Saturday, when he was in Benin to campaign for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he became a Bini man, with red beads dangling on his neck.

    “He has also been momentarily Navy and Air Force officer. But his outing yesterday caused more than a stir in some circles. The President wearing a Field Marshal rank—perhaps the first to do so in recent times— sure takes the icing.”

    The murder of the late Cynthia Osokogu was another opportunity for this newspaper to show that it understands what it means to exhaust a story.

    We did it so well that the father of the deceased singled out the paper for praise for its professionalism in handling the matter.

    This newspaper showed leadership in the coverage of the United States November elections, which President Barack Obama won. Its reports have been hailed as second to none. With a reporter from the medium going from one rally or vote canvassing event to the other in places such as Milwaukee, Janesville, Chicago, Washington and so on, the newspaper was able to feed the readers back home what no other medium gave the Nigerian audience.

    The helicopter crash which killed former Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa, former National Security Adviser (NSA) Owoye Azazi and for others also gave this newspaper yet another chance to show its leaderships in news gathering. We were the first to see the Azazis, felt their pulse and let the world know their pains. We got his children to relive their last moments with him. No other medium but The Nation also met the parents of the co-pilot of the ill-fated helicopter at Iyana-Ipaja, a Lagos suburb. The Sowoles let us into their home and we let the world into the home of these parents whose 32-year old son was consumed by a crash no one is sure of its cause. We were also in Fadan Wagoma, the town which lost the late Yakowa.

  • Plateau State: the hidden stories

    Plateau State: the hidden stories

    The dissonance between an outsider’s perception of Plateau State and the reality can be so striking as to provoke not just amazement at the many positive sides to the state, but also some measure of disgust at being fooled by the relentless media focus on crisis and conflict as the reigning identity of Plateau. Thus, any scholar who is still interested in news flow patterns—after the debacle of the New World Information and Communication Order during the 1980s—should find Plateau a suitable laboratory for documenting and analysing the distortion of reality.

    True, a serving Senator and another lawmaker were killed this year, and villagers are routinely savaged by mercenaries and other warmongers in some parts of the state. True, also, that there have been migrations, as residents flee conflict areas when trouble flares, leading many to believe that Jos and Plateau in general were well within the province of a failed state—deserted and falling back into the dark ages. But Plateau had pleasant surprises for members of the National Good Governance Tour Team who visited the state in late October.

    To me, the source of stunning surprise was as follows: if peace is a predicate to development, how have the state and Federal governments carried on with the many projects that are so visible, when guns are supposed to be booming? A sampler: well-paved inner city roads, sprouting from the dilapidation of yore; dualised arterial roads in Jos complete with a flyover, stretches of road networks in local government areas, resuscitation of water treatment plants in Jos-Bukuru, and an ambitious effort to build the 45,000-seat Zaria Road Ultra Modern Stadium that was first awarded in 1988, then the contract fell into limbo until Dec. 2010, when Gov. Jonah Jang re-awarded it.

    The concept for the stadium is fascinating. It is intended to attract high-profile national and international competitions, and also be available for high-altitude training that will save the country forex, while boosting the state’s coffers. The completed tartan tracks and astro turf pitch wowed the Good Governance Tour Team, with some exuberant frolicking on the turf. The government is looking farther ahead, with a Greater Jos Master Plan, covering six local government areas, to be implemented over a 17-year period. There is also a new Government House under construction, with proposals to make it a revenue-earning tourist attraction. It could have been so easy to proclaim that Gov. Jang is on an ego trip with the new Government House, except that his cogent response that the project won’t be ready until 2015, when he leaves office finally, silences critics.

    With uncommon zeal, Jang has focused on infrastructural renewal and delivery, giving it his trademark quality. Only a man of towering confidence can boast that even when President Goodluck Jonathan came calling, riding in a chopper for two days, he could not finish commissioning the many projects that studded his itinerary. Jang is striving mightily to exorcise ghost workers (some of them infants and school children whose names have been wangled into the payroll by collusive officials) who bilk the state of nearly N1billion monthly. He is also scaling up agriculture through mechanised services, green house technology, training, agro know-how, diary technology, and post-harvest marketing all through the Agricultural Services, Training and Marketing Ltd.

    Jang is driven by a peculiar yet admirable stubborn will. I applauded him when he said during the Citizens’ Forum that the government would not pay for the five or so months that local government employees had been on strike, citing the no work no pay rule. But he provided an exit window for the workers, saying that if they resumed and worked for even only a couple of days in October, he would direct that they receive full pay for the month. The significance was also not lost on many at the Forum when Jang offered what was a public apology for the incursion of the military into politics, which led to the country’s arrested political development. Yet, without doubt, he is guided in his current engagement partly by his experience as a former Military Governor of Benue and later Gongola states, and his well-known frugality that is unpopular among the rent-seeking class.

    But, crucial as health is, it is only now—five years since he first took office in 2007—that the sector is beginning to appear under his radar. He was always subliminally confident perhaps that the Jos University Teaching Hospital, a Federal Government facility, which has now moved to its permanent site and is a magnet for healthcare seekers, was a dependable source of access to healthcare. Gov. Jang is also unfazed by the security challenges in the state, blaming it partly on agents provocateurs, the absence of state police (which he says compromises his role as chief security officer of the state), and a dysfunctional judicial system, whereby arrested suspects never seem to answer for their atrocities.

    Plateau has its pristine aesthetics: rolling hills, balancing rocks, a kaleidoscope of greenfields punctuated by scenic ravines, and an equable climate. But there has been a recent magnificent man-made addition to Plateau’s beauty. The latest beauty enhancement lies somewhere along the 43.2km Vom-Manchok road constructed by the Federal Government. The road provides an alternative route from Jos to Kaduna. The point of attraction lies somewhere in an escarpment, where up to 30 metres of igneous rock was drilled down and blasted, to make way for the road. As you drive down the slope, the allure of the hill top ahead and the greenery below is simply breathtaking. Model agencies, glossy magazine publishers, film makers and advertising agencies would find the site a perfect location for a priceless shoot. Reassuringly, the Vom-Manchok road is not within the range, where mercenaries and herdsmen, clad in fake fatigue and armed with assault weapons, occasionally sweep down the hills to launch hit-and-run attacks on defenceless villagers.

    Paradoxically, beyond the regular conflict stories, which do not represent the greater scope of life and living in the state, Plateau has another bad news, which has not been sustained in the headlines, obviously because its import is far less appreciated. During the courtesy call by the National Good Governance Tour Team on the Governor, and at the subsequent Citizens’ Forum, Gov. Jang announced the prevalence of a silent pestilence that is ravaging Plateau: cancer. According to him, some of the abandoned pits used for mining tin and columbite in the past, have been found to contain radioactive materials. People use the water from the pits for domestic purposes, while dredgers also mine plaster sand for construction. Exposure to the radioactive elements, Jang said, was a worrisome source of cancer among men and women in the state. He provided no statistics, but that is for any diligent reporter to follow up on.

    Jang appealed to the Federal Government, and to the international community, to come to the aid of the state. This would require remediation of the affected sites, massive public enlightenment to reduce further exposure at the sites, and care for those already struck with cancer. A catalogue of issues arises from the cancer scourge. First, considering its alleged source, this is a matter that is fodder for environmental activists to be properly seised of, and then be up in arms over what is perhaps Plateau’s biggest quest for survival and sustenance, over and above the ethno-religious conflict. There are also posers over what the proper role of the Ecological Fund Office should be in such a matter. But there are legal dimensions as well.

    Where are the tin mining companies today? Or, where are their successor companies? Did they follow acceptable practices for the many decades that they operated in Plateau? Even if they did follow acceptable practices, now that there is evidence of instances of cancer arising from the radioactive materials in the abandoned pits, what is the legal remedy, and payable by whom? Or, is the causation too remote in time as to be a valid source of claim against the tin mining companies or their successors? In any event, when will Plateau and Nigeria internationalize the issue?

    • Osadolor is Special Assistant to the Minister of Information