New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

THE high rate at which developments unfold at international, continental and national levels and their absolute topicality is expectedly making the practice of journalism increasingly challenging, yet glamorous. Almost every person is either a gatherer and disseminator of information and therefore a journalist or simply a consumer of it, therefore an audience.

World’s events which are being conceived, moulded and facilitated by individuals and/or groups are newsworthy enough to make everybody very busy either as a reporter, editor or analyst or as a listener, viewer or reader. This means that mass communication or, more strictly, journalism is so wide, liberal and engaging that it has a job for almost everybody thereby looking very much like an all-comers profession.

It is, therefore, the high volume of the events and the liberal nature of the profession that has thrown up more practitioners than probably required or could ever be imagined. Or, at least, one can conveniently argue that even if the number of journalists in Nigeria is less than what is required, then the quality of many of them is terribly more so.

In the name of journalism practice, many people have indulged in blackmail, misrepresentation of facts and poor analysis of events and situations. And most of these misconducts are, most often, being displayed in, evidently, crude ways.

Whatever is the reason for a pharmacist like Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah to elect journalism as his profession, the fact is that the man is behaving in a manner that is quite typical of gate-crashers, that’s if one knows gate-crashers very well. Gate- crashers and mediocres, are the same in terms of attitudes to work as they are mostly over-zealous, baselessly over-confident and immodestly unrepentant.

What is even most disturbing and disappointing about them is that because of their poor understanding of the job, whatever inputs they make hardly, especially in the pure context of professionalism, produce any appreciable results. They continuously err, damn the consequences and stand by their errors.

Well, even among the gate crashers, Nda-Isaiah who is currently a publisher of LEADERSHIP newspapers, is one of the luckiest. When he came out as a columnist of Daily Trust newspaper he created the impression that he was a fearless one who was just out to help the cause of democracy at a time when the immediate past administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was, as far as democratic governance was concerned, leaving much to be desired.

As a columnist who was clearly very desperate to make name, he struggled hard to acquire access to some information and facts, many of which were actually unverifiable which he used to intimidate Obasanjo and the entire government. This means that it was his anti-Obasanjo stance, more than anything else, that generated some recognition for him.

In a something like a testimony to this fact, Malam Adamu Adamu stated in his back page column in the Daily Trust of Friday May 2, 2008 that “it would not be wrong to say that a writer like Sam Nda-Isaiah became blinded by Obasanjo almost to the exclusion of other issues.’’ He further stated that “it was the blindness that readers enjoyed’’ because, according to him, journalists were not doing enough to put the government under check.

Although Adamu attempted to provide some justification for Isaiah’s blindness, the fact remains that most people including those who never liked Obasanjo’s ways became sufficiently disenchanted with Isaiah’s approach. Even when it was believed that the former president deserved what he was getting from the columnist, there was also even a much stronger belief that there were many other issues that required the attention of the ‘writer’ but which he ignored.

Having enjoyed every bit of his actions and even floated a newspaper, Nda Isaiah has now expanded his style to cover many more people and places. Although he has endeavoured to engage the services of some professionals, he has however never allowed the publication to appreciably abide by the ethics of the profession.

For example n its edition of April 27, 2008, the LEADERSHIP SUNDAY on page 4 carried an outcome of a survey it claimed to have conducted on the popularity of the country’s leaders. The outcome contained a list of former President Obasanjo and nine others whom the newspaper labelled as the “Most Hated Nigerians.”

Perhaps, as a way of trying to give some validity to its finding the newspaper came up with some reasons for the public “hatred’ towards the ten people. While Obasanjo, according to the newspaper is being hated because he dragged Nigeria back and Professor Maurice Iwu as chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission committed acts that are “beyond comments,” Governor Danjuma Goje is an object of hatred because he promoted thuggery to a very high level.

Each of the other seven listed persons which include Chief Lamidi Adedibu, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, Chief Edwin Ume Ezeoke, Liyel Imoke, Senator Ibrahim Mantu and Justice Umaru Abdullahi, by the judgment of LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, committed one grievous offence or another for which they are being hated. Apart from the very brief reasons it provided along the names of the people, it never carried the details of the methodology used in conducting the survey.

It is, therefore, the conclusion of many people that the newspaper merely cashed in on both the real and the perceived unfavourable public sentiments against some of the listed people as well as its own questionable grudge against the other ones to arrive at the outcome of the purported survey. On this account, even some of its most passionate and loyal readers have faulted the survey.

What even compelled people to fault the survey is the inclusion of Governor Danujuma Goje and Justice Umaru Abdullahi in the list. It is not enough to just say that the governor “dignified thuggery’’ and stop there in the same way that it amounted to unfairness to condemn Justice Abdullahi simply because he demanded those who accused judges of taking bribery to produce evidences.

In both case, it was expected that the newspaper would hinge its judgment on some empirical experiences, realities or evidences. Even if, for example, there is still incident of political thuggery in Gombe State, it would definitely take the supply of not only established cases of the act but also a comprehensive comparative analysis of the rates of the act in as many states as the newspaper might have considered necessary for it to conclude that the state records the highest number of the cases and the state governor is, therefore, on the basis of such a reality, being widely hated or deserves hatred.

The newspaper’s verdict further falls flat on the basis of the fact that while in so many other states there were reported cases of violence which is about the boldest manifestation of political thuggery during the local government elections that took place in such states, there was no, even in its tiniest form, such an incident when the local government elections took place in the state. How could, therefore, the newspaper carry such a thing?

The case of justice Abddullahi is no less disappointing because many people failed to understand what the newspaper expected the respected judge to say. Did the LEADERSHIP expected him to crucify the judges of the election petition tribunals simply because some parties, individuals and groups churned out unsubstantiated allegations against them?

As a further demonstration of its recklessness the newspaper carried a cartoon tagged ‘Ghana Must Go’ on the back page of its edition of April 28, 2008 depicting a caricature of Governor Goje carrying a bag with the inscriptions “Governor Goje pays himself N20 million pension while still serving as governor – news …… No problem. It shall be recovered as loot when he leaves office.’’ This is a clear reference to the widely-publicized report that the state governor paid to himself the sum of 200 million Naira, not even 20 million Naira as indicated in the cartoon, to himself and other specified amounts of money to his former deputy as well as former Governor Abubakar Hashidu and his deputy as contained in schedules 1 and II of Gombe State Executive Pension Laws 2007 and 2008 as amended.

In such a situation it is not the mere judgment that should worry the newspaper but the appropriateness or otherwise of the act. It should have taken the pain to find out whether or not that payment was in agreement with the provisions of the law before it began to over-beat and sensationalize the matter just because its publisher is bent on antagonizing the governor for yet unknown reasons.

While it is not the job of any journalism practitioner to rise in defence of Governor Goje or any political leader for that matter, it remains perfectly desirable to make an attempt to save the profession which is being turned upside down by some gate-crashers who look only at the juicy part of it and try as much as possible to avoid the pains-taking challenges. And it is the challenges that make the profession noble and rewarding.

Journalism, contrary to the thinking of Sam Nda Isaiah and his likes, is a highly professionalized vocation. By insisting that it can be done anyhow which is why he is always committing one big blunder or another the man is only portraying his ignorance of the job.

It beats the imagination of most people that the LEADERSHIP publisher has preferred journalism to pharmaceutical practice which is no less engaging and rewarding. Isn’t he very sure that he can record the desired success as a pharmacist? Or is he simply trying to belittle journalism by showing that even the most untrained ones like him can make it in the profession.

If his intention is to show that after all journalism is just there for everybody to practise, the man has not succeeded because most of his attitudes are not only unprofessional but also terribly shameful. He would have, depending on how he conducts himself, been more credible and productive as a practising pharmacist.

What Isaiah needs to know and appreciate is the fact it will take more than a dozen pharmacists of his own standard to make a quarter of a fine journalist because it is a profession that requires not only the ability to scribble words on paper without due regard for diction and structural order. Sound senses of judgment, fairness as well as ability to scientifically interpret events and situation with a view to moulding the opinions of the public in the over-riding interests of the society, which he clearly lacks, are some of the hallmarks of responsible journalism which our country is desperately yearning for.

The kind of intervention that is being provided here is quite necessary and is therefore required from those who have a stake in journalism so that the Isaiahs of this country will not continue to mess it. There are tonnes of reputable journalists in Nigeria whose professional competence is recognizable everywhere and who are more deserving of our attention than those who are easily blinded by petty issues to the exclusion of significant ones.

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