Emmanuel Ukudolo l Monday, June 28, 2021
LAGOS, Nigeria – The Senior Special Assistant to President Mohammadu Buhari on Media, Alhaji Shehu Garba is no doubt a very senior colleague but he is not a role model based on the way he and other handlers of the President’s media have reacted to national issues in ways that seem to question Journalism and Public Relations, at least the way we were taught in the schools of journalism and departments of Mass Communication in polytechnics and universities.
But he shared a very interesting picture which seemed to revive the article I have natured for so many years. It is this very picture, the picture of the late Chief MKO Abiola, the President Nigeria never had during his political campaign in 1993.
I replicate Garba’s piece here:
“When the late Chief MKO Abiola came to Kano to campaign in 1993, his first stop was my office as General Manager, Triumph Publishing Company. He dropped his Agbada on a chair in my office then refreshed himself.
“He faced reporters in an interview and addressed the staff and other admirers on his mission in our premises as shown in the picture. Dr Faruk Umar, seen in the picture with me listening to the late elected PRESIDENT of Nigeria was himself a beneficiary of MKO’s philanthropic activities. He paid the money needed by Faruk to finish his doctoral studies overseas. Naturally, Faruk who was my own teacher in college offered himself as a frontline campaigner”, the presidential spokesman wrote.
Just ignore the later part of the message, but this picture transcends what Garba Shehu may have intended. It is a strong reminder of the Glory Days of Journalism, when the newsroom was a “Beautiful Bride” to politicians, Corporate Affairs Officers, image makers of Blue chip companies, governors, Vice Presidents and others that matter in the society.
Hardly does a year pass without the governor worth its onions scheduling a media tour that takes him from one media house to the other, selling his programme and trying as much as possible secure good patronage from the media. But the last time I checked, all these have gone down the drain. No governor, VP, politician visits or thinks of visiting the media houses to sell his programmes and be questioned by a battery of reporters.
A number of factors account for this sorry development. The editors and publishers have sold out their conscience to such an extent that editors now make a schedule of visits to governors seeking one favour or the other and even have the effrontery to publish their visit in the media. Where then lies ethics of journalism?
The situation has even gotten worse that editors now visit Chief Press Secretaries(CPS), most of whom were actually their subordinates when they were in active service in the media. Ask yourself when was the last time that a CPS, visited your office, not to talk of governors.
Sometimes ago, I was perplexed when I saw the Chairman, Editorial Board of a national newspaper with a governor moving from one construction site to the other and taking notes like a trainee reporter in one of the South-West states. When has journalism deteriorated to such a level and how do you think such a governor will view such an editor? No wonder, there are hardly any critical comments in the dailies of modern day journalism. It is pure cash and carry journalism hence presidents and governors carry on without any fear in a democracy. Even under the military, the media fought relentlessly.
I recall in 2001, when I joined Daily Independent Newspaper, the first editor of the newspaper, Mr. Greg Obong Oshotse, a first class scholar who had implicit trust in some of us who had demonstrated that we could make a difference under his tutelage told us a story of how a former Prime Minister of England called an editor of a national newspaper and requested him to serve as his CPS, (Equivalent of Senior Special Adviser or Special Adviser).
“PM, I am taken aback”, was the reply of the editor, who insisted that he would be denigrating his office if he accept the PM’s offer as CPS. What that editor did tells you the power of an editor in a national newspaper.
It transcends that of a governor, president and that of a Prime Minister. The editor remains the pulse of the nation, the critical heartbeat. The governor, president or PM must listen when the media coughs. But certainly, this is not the case in present Nigeria.
