As I sat to write (well, actually, type) this piece, I am torn; and for two reasons. One, my intentions for this blog is to stay apolitical. Not because I am not interested in the subject (which Nigerian isn’t, whether they admit it or not) but because I didn’t want this to be a platform for the expression of my politics. Second, because I am trained to be a media practitioner. Coming out and taking a position against your own is not routine stuff, but then, it needs to be done…so here goes.
The Nigerian media may have been celebrated for its vibrancy in its over 150 years of active service in the country, but on many occasions, I’m afraid to say, the media just plain sucks! I guess that sometimes being free and fair is misconstrued to mean being a nuisance, and in review, that is exactly what the Nigerian media has been at times. Unfortunately, they chose very crucial times in this country’s existence to constitute a nuisance.
You might want to ask: why in the world you I say something of this nature? Have I forgotten that the media was one of the reasons why the Nigerian nationalists were able to achieve independence for Nigeria? Do I know that the media is one of the pillars that helped achieve the return of democracy in the country after more than 2 decades of despotic military rule? Don’t I know…have I forgotten? Blah blah blah! I know, and I have not forgotten, but my point is, the media in this country has committed some sins so monumental that have inadvertently shaped the unfortunate political history that we have now. Maybe it’s not entirely their fault, but the sad thing is, they are doing it again. And here’s how.
Long before Bernstein and co. rattled the world with the discoveries of corruption in the US government in the Watergate scandal, forcing President Nixon to resign from office, much has been said of the power of the media to influence the polity and enforce change and reformation. Much however, has also been experienced of the media’s ability to channel public action into dastardly purposes – the Holocaust is a horrid point to note. All these go to show that if employed according to the noble and altruistic purposes to which it was intended, can achieve the greatest good – or the worst possible imagined evil if the reverse is the case. This ability, also understood, as its agenda setting function, is perhaps the most important role that the media is expected to play in the preservation of democracy, and while the Nigerian media have done well in this department, they also have a huge chunk of the blame for the state of democracy in the country today.
June 12, for Nigerians, is more than just a date. It has come to represent the struggle for the soul of the country, the efforts and sacrifices made by a number of Nigerians to entrench democracy into the country’s political mindset. It brings quick memories to mind of the one stellar period in Nigeria when something actually worked! But it also brings up memories of gore and deaths caused by the many riots and panic-caused road accidents that rocked the country in the coming months – panic that was, in part, a fault of the over-exuberance of the media, who for want of a more sensational title to dub the period, named it the Third Republic (which never was), and worsened the matter by qualifying it – the failed (botched, truncated, etc take your pick) Third Republic. By so doing, they termed as a failure the best (though short-lived) thing that ever happened to the fight for democracy in this country, and now, they use every chance they get to cry foul because of the activities of the unscrupulous elements in the system who have benefited from the ‘failed state’ that they unwittingly created. That was 17 years ago.
Zoom into 2010, and they are at it again. And at the head of the tirade is the same villain who gave the impetus for the turmoil of 1993, and although they think that they are doing a service to the nation by reporting and condemning his purported bid to run for the post of the nation’s head honcho come 2011, the truth of the matter is that at the end of the day, they are helping the bid. They are giving him cheap publicity, setting the agenda inadvertently in his favour and he is riding on it. Whether the report is negative (they seem to forget that bad news is good news) or positive, the truth still remains that they give the man a chance at staying in the eyes and minds of Nigerians, which if I may say, is an anomaly, an aberration, an abomination.
Please, let’s stop writing about him. Stop granting him interviews. Stop attending his press conferences, book launches, political events, etc. Please, just ignore him. An Old English saying goes: What we ignore disappears. We do not need his likes on our political landscape. Ignore him and he’ll disappear.
Solo FG
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