Issues
When ‘Perks’ Dictate Content
Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed
Writing in Freedom
Forum’s best practices series, “The Art of leadership in News Organisation”, two renowned editors, Jack Fuller of the Tribune Pubishing Co., and Norman Pearlstine of Time Inc., made very impressive points about how the interface between journalism and society not only shapes the course of development and democracy but also helps journalists eke a living in the profession. They reckoned that the understanding of reporters, editors and publishers of their public service role, determines how impactful the profession would be to society.
For Fuller, “The fact that you can earn your living writing and writing honestly, is a very attractive thing about journalism”. And Pearlstine argued that, “the best publishers understand the journalists’ mission, and the best editors view their publishers as partners”. They argued that with that understanding, the journalism they unleash inspires development in all spheres, promotes peace, ensures justice and equity for all, and drives corruption to oblivion.
Indeed, journalism really matters to the smooth functioning of society, especially in a democracy. Like many professions, journalism thrives when it epitomizes the fibre of integrity. To justify this means that it must combine the thrill of the hunt with nobility of purpose. Anything aside that denigrates not just the profession but its practitioners, who believe in the age-long guiding principles of honesty, objectivity and neutrality, among other core values.
But the character of journalism today in Nigeria is at cross roads. The fibre of integrity that it embodies is threatened not by the lack of qualified manpower, enabling environment, dearth of media organizations to take in professionals, modern technology to drive innovation and creativity or when the absence of laws that promote press freedom, but by the perks of ‘bad’ practices.
At a time when bribery and corruption have plunged Nigeria into a famished democracy, sucked dry by those who had been entrusted to deliver hope, development and prosperity to the people of Africa’s most populous nation and the world’s largest black country, and the new government of President Muhammadu Buhari is squaring up for an all-out war against the hydra-headed monster to emphasise its policy of zero tolerance for corruption as a means of reversing the ugly trend, journalism is also facing a debilitating challenge. And whether we believe it or not, practitioners need to purge themselves from this social malaise, or crassly allow journalism lose its potency.
Otherwise, how else does one explain to the next generation of journalists that the time-tested values which had shaped journalism as a noble profession and respected as such, now battles to save its face from the shame of having to admit that the perks of ‘bad’ practices dictate editorial content in many media organizations, especially newspapers in Nigeria. Make no mistake about it, it is a fact. And this is daunting challenge to many professional journalists.
Yes! It goes by many names: brown envelope. ‘media-by-media, ‘perks of the practice’, ‘transport refund’, ‘press conference’, ‘press list’, ‘press ID’, meal ticket’, and countless other demeaning names.
In most media houses, the availability of any of these determines the content of the story and the possibility of it being published or used. These are the many sides of the same coin, and there perforate almost every story in the conventional media.
There are three faces to these challenges. The first is understandable: The quacks, which have neither the qualification nor the medium of practice. They are charlatans who parade themselves as journalists, and fraudulently rip unsuspecting members of the public, including corporate citizens of money under the pretext that they would help get their stories out in the media. They operate as a cartel and some have insiders in institutions and organizations. This is the popular syndicate that most journalists, unions and associations have worked with security agencies to systematically crush. But have they succeeded in eliminating these hawks? You might just be waiting for a Crusade in the next generation to do just that!
The second is a cankerworm. One of the most critical challenges to best practices in journalism is the dominant corrupting influence of the ‘perks of the practice’, in editorial content in most media organizations, whether privately-owned or government-driven. The problem is that the endemic corruption in the political firmament, and indeed, the corporate business community has crept into journalism in Nigeria. I t comes in many formats. But the bottom-line is that the content of most news is determined by how much money it generates to the reporter or editor. With this, the objective and neutral character of the news is lost and the positive impact it is supposed to make to societal development is stunted.
The last is a new growing monster: ID Card as Meal Ticket! Of serious concern is the corporate or institutional recognition of the fact that the reporter should use his identity card as a tool to provide mean ticket for his family. In fact, some media houses have institutionalized this practice to the point that some editors boldly ask their reporters to go out there, and use their ID Cards to provide food on their tables and not depend on salaries to survive. Consequently, a litany of these media houses do not bother to pay salaries of journalists working for them. From very popular television and radio stations to widely read, and albeit, ‘respected’ independent newspapers, this trend of salaries owed for eight to nineteen months or more, is becoming the norm. Only recently, the national leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists championed a campaign to picket and or shut down some media houses in parts of Nigeria, especially Lagos, for this callous corporate show of shame. AIT/RayPower, ThisDay, Daily Independent, you name them! They were harassed, hounded and threatened, to pay up or face the wrath of the journalists’ professional cum industrial union.
One thing is clear from all these issues: when the perks of bad practice dictate editorial content in the media, especially print, the very essence of journalism is lost, editorial content is compromised and society suffers great injustice as a result. When the corrupting influence of money determines story slants and indeed, the possibility of a story seeing the light of the day, development and democracy are strangulated and the greedy political class, and the shrewd, mindless corporate business players turn society to miniature empires and colonies. When media-by-media becomes a flourishing norm, journalism losses its very critical fibre of integrity, and succumbs to the overbearing power of corrupt, arrogant and lawless few rich, the hope that we seek to build for posterity, unfortunately, will disappear.
This is why the leaderships of the NUJ, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the Nigeria Press Council (NPC), must synergise and device strategies and new approaches to deal with this growing challenge to best practices in journalism. They should stop pretending that all is well in the profession. This is not a challenge of poor working environment, new technology, dwindling production targets and circulation, or lack of quality manpower. No!
It is a new social force driven by corruption, and this threatens our cherished profession, a calling that necessarily and naturally drives its value from the challenge to fight corruption, deprivation, injustice, inequality and the many unfair practices driving society. It is a new monster that may soon rub journalists in Nigeria of the respect they have worked so hard for, even as an instrument to chase colonialists away from the shores of Africa. Journalism must regain its character as the fibre of integrity. It must reclaim its lost glory as the engine of development, and the building block of social integration, peace and mutual concord. Let journalism of excellence return to our newsrooms, so that posterity will not chastise this generation of journalists.
Nelson Chukwudi
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
