#EndSARS: A wake up call for Nigerian media, fourth estate of the realm
Blaise Udunze l Sunday, October 25, 2020
LAGOS, Nigeria – I woke up this morning after my morning devotion; I dabbled into a mind boggling report on my WhatsApp platform.
I contemplated the role bestowed on the media as watchdog of the society, the role the media must have played in the now well entrenched corruption that has infested the society, giving birth to loss of lives, heinous carnage, wanton destruction of our personal and national wealth over the years in Nigeria?
Reading through this long revealing poetic but mind boggling report on my WhatsApp platform, got me thinking….
I was forced to cull the excerpts below of the old historic but recent report and adaptation of the events that pluck up, and pull down many great African countries today.
“…Nigeria is fast ascending to the very path that Freetown took. The path that ruined Congo and Libya. The expressway to Rwanda, that is the path Nigeria is fast speeding into. Yet, this path is not a new path to us. It’s a familiar terrain that we have taken before. In 1966, long before even the Rwandan path was paved. We wasted over 3 million people as hundreds of innocent souls were slaughtered before even the war started.
Long before the Rwandan path, paved with religious differences and ethnic intolerance as being repeated today, led to a civil war that took our best, took our leaders, took innocent souls and took us backward.
The backwardness is still hunting and hurting us till day. And, it’s the wounds of the war that was not treated in a round table talk, that is leading to another war. Yet, the leader of the nation insists that he’s comfortable exactly the way things are.
So, it’s either history is unfair to us or our leaders are blind to it. Indeed, the death meant to kill a dog does not allow her to smell faeces. And, like the saying goes, those who do not understand history are bound to repeat it.
Even if we hadn’t experienced a civil war before, what happened in Free Town, Monrovia, Abidjan in recent history ought to have taught us a lesson. The way Tripoli was turned from a fast developing city into a slave town where war lords reign should serve as a lesson.
But no, we learnt nothing. Just “over” 50 years after, when those that played major role to the last civil war are still alive, here the snowball of war goes rolling down from the snow mountain of stupid arrogance, gathering with it all the ethnic intolerance and religious divide that paved the path of Rwandan.”
Now, the key QUESTIONS:
1. What roles will the Nigerian MEDIA (the Fourth Estate or Fourth Power of the Realm) play in the history of NIGERIA OF TODAY & NIGERIA OF THE FUTURE?
2. How can the MEDIA contribute greatly and use what it has for unbiased dispersion of information to show the dark side of every human lives and distribute truth?
Posterity will surely catch up with every genuine and qualified professional in this world of journalism, hence whilst, there is urgent need and call to create that sense of balance and transparency in our society, in Nigeria.
I can’t say it all here. We all know the role the Rwandan Media played in the historic 1994 genocide amongst the Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda.
Amongst others, #ENDSAR Protest would pass as a litmus test for the Nigerian Media if they truly stand for the TRUTH and want to be identified for SHAPING PUBLIC OPINIONS/REACTIONS for PEACEFUL and PROGRESSIVE NATION.
Let’s change the narratives, as a force for peace, be the agent of societal change; as the watchdog of our society, our own country!!!
