We must thank God that there are no local government-owned radio and
TV stations; I guess things would have gotten worse. We must also be
glad that the governments lack the endurance and zeal to sustain the
print media, which is not a lazy man's job. Otherwise, we would have
been made to read only what the people in power wants us to read. We
should in no small measure, be delightful with the fact that online
and social media are easily accessible and extremely difficult to
control or hijack.
The primary functions of a typical media outfit are to tell the truth
and disseminate credible and reliable real-time information to the
public without fear or favour. Any other function is secondary.
However, government-owned media in Nigeria only gives us selective
information, that is, they choose what to tell the people and what not
to tell them as directly or indirectly dictated by their pay masters.
Furthermore, when at their best, they only tell the truth half way or
they tell it in a systematically partisan and one-sided way to favour
the individuals in power and to give people the impression that they
are on the right side. They will only tell you the full and detailed
truth in matters that do not concern the people in government or in
matters which the people in government have no interest whatsoever.
Whereas they will jump at any slight opportunity to exaggerate the
good works of government or to expose the faults of perceived
government enemies. This primarily renders them impotent and
incompetent.
Sometimes, I use to wonder how some Nigerian journalists manage to
work in such media organizations. After thinking hard, I always arrive
at the conclusion that such journalists only need a job and not a
career. Unfortunately in Nigeria we hardly give much emphasis on
career, we are only after jobs, as far as we are been paid for what we
do, then we do not care. I have come to realize through my short
interaction with journalist that the profession is all about passion,
integrity and independent mindedness. Can one really call himself a
journalist if whatever he writes or reports, no matter how well he
sticks to the ethics of the profession, must be censored or even
completely rejected by his superiors to save their seats from the
president, governor, minister or commissioner's axe and then he
doesn't care? Can one really call himself a journalist when he is been
forced to always agree with what the government does or defends the
government irrespective of whether it is right or wrong?
I know of people who stopped patronizing the services of the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA) during the military regimes, only to later
change their minds and find it the same if not worse under the
civilians. The military will oppress everyone, but the politicians
will select those to oppress. I agree with those people who have
boycotted the NTA for so long, as my experience with the station shows
nothing better. A lot of political events happened in the build-up to
2014 towards the tail end of last year which I expected them to have a
fair if not a balanced reportage of those events, but unfortunately
they ended up airing mostly what the presidential spokesmen wanted
them to.
Recently, when I wanted not only to know but to see and have a true
picture of the political crisis in Rivers State, I had to find another
platform that will enable me have access to privately-owned media and
shift away from the one way traffic coverage by the government-owned
media. The Rivers state-owned media will favour the State Government
completely in its reports and the Nigerian-owned media will favour the
Federal Government in its own reports. We are not saying, they
shouldn't be obedient to those in power, but they should be fair by
realizing that they work for the people and if they cannot do that,
they should resign and not accept such responsibilities in the future.
The situation with these government-owned media becomes worse during
electioneering campaigns where they display their partisanship openly.
In the last elections in 2011, I heard the Buhari and Shekarau
Presidential Campaign Organizations complaining that the NTA refused
to air their adverts under the guise that the contents of those
adverts are abusive to the president. Who told them that NTA belongs
to the president? It belongs to the government and the government
belongs to the people. Any way, if what they alleged was true, why
don't they call the attention of the sponsors to make corrections and
then air it? If we may ask, how many times have they given the ruling
party unlimited access to rain abuses on the opposition?
Despite all of these, the Federal Government media is even fair and
decent as compared to their state government-owned counterparts. This
is because, the ones at the federal level do their bias professionally
and systematically. But those in the states do so directly and in
broad day light been fully protected by State Governments and ruling
parties' stalwarts. You wouldn't dare criticize a state governor in a
radio or TV station owned by the state government. They spend half of
the time which they should have used in airing meaningful programs in
singing praises and sycophantic words for state governors and their
wives.
This is highly unfortunate especially at a time when government-owned
media are some of the best across the world. Can't we borrow a leaf
from the likes of British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America
and the rest? Can someone imagine the British Prime Minister trying to
control or determine what the BBC should broadcast? May be the very
first time he does that, it may be the end of his political career.
Despite these problems, we must appreciate the gradual revolution
going on in the Nigerian Radio Industry. This is because from 1999 to
date, we have had a lot of privately-owned radio stations. As at 2002,
there was almost no privately-owned radio station in the whole of
Northern Nigeria, but now we have an average of one per state. In Kano
alone, there are about seven. However, these radio stations are been
occasionally threatened with closure with every slight opportunity and
they are been charged exorbitant licence and renewal fees by the
Nigerian Broadcasting Commission.
Another aspect of the Nigerian media that is doing well is the
newspaper industry. However, the main problem here is the poor reading
culture of Nigerians in particular and Africans in general. You may be
targeting a set of people with vital information, but at the end of
the day, you will find out that they don't even have access to
newspapers or they don't care to read them. A particular saying among
the white men goes like this: "if you don't want Africans to see
something, just write it down."
The online and social media are doing well in Nigeria, but the problem
is that they are a platform for the good, the bad and the ugly. Hardly
can you trust information online these days, as it is often
infiltrated with rumour, unverified sources and sometimes falsehood.
Conclusively, it is time for those in power to leave government-owned
media alone to do their jobs. They must also stop regarding
privately-owned media as enemies just because they are independent of
them. If they don't want criticisms, let them do the right thing, let
them be transparent and let them clean-up the skeletons in their
cupboards. I am even suggesting that the National Assembly should
enact laws to protect government media from those in power by
preventing them from using it as their personal instruments of airing
what they like.
The government-owned media must not be a friend and servant of anybody
in power, but rather the friend and servant of the people and the
champion of the truth and accountability. Failure to do so is
institutional corruption and betrayal of the people.
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