Media’s role in developing Nigeria’s democracy; a dons perspective

The event was meant to be for the upper class members of the society and for royalty and the turn out was not disappointing, the attendance list shows that it was not an all comers event.

It was a public lecture, the first in the series by the Oba (Dr) Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance, department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye and the guest lecturer who is also the occupier of the chair, Prof Ayo Olukotun, was not blunt, firing on all cylinders.

The venue was Adeola Odutola Hall, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State and it was filled to capacity with men and women who were gathered to listen to the theme of the lecture, ‘Governance and the Media in an Emergent Democracy: A Study of the Role, Record and Changing Profile of the Nigerian Media 1999 – 2017’.

The event which was part of activities to mark the birthday of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba (Dr) Sikiru Adetona, also witnessed fund raising to solicit funds to keep the sponsorship of the chair worth N500million.

To kick-start the event, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the chair, Olatunji Ayanlaja, urged the people to continue to assist them in making the dreams and desires of the sponsor a reality.

Prof Olukotun, a professor of political communication and former chairman of the Editorial Board of the defunct Nigerian Compass, noted that the Nigerian media constitute an important plank of Nigeria’s democracy.

“Undoubtedly, the Nigerian media, which are the largest and most vibrant in Africa, and regarded as the epicenter of Nigerian civil society, constitute an important plank of our democracy. This is particularly so in the area of accountability of elected officials where they have been in the vanguard of reform causes.”

He was however quick to add that the role of reformer of the society played by the media came at a cost, “needless to say that the advocacy and reform-oriented role of the quality media have been hard-earned.

For example, journalists continue to suffer intimidation from state officials both before and after the signing into law on May 28, 2011 of a Freedom of Information Act after ten years of struggle.

“There are the peremptory arrests, prosecution and persecution of critical journalists, as well as the seizure of copies of independent newspapers such as occurred in June 2014 when the Nigerian army carried out searches leading to confiscation of copies of Leadership, The Nation, Daily Trust and The Punch.

Although justified on security grounds, a typical opinion is that of ‘Reporters without Borders’, which argued that the action obstructs the Nigeria’s public right to information.”

“Such breaches of press freedom were replicated throughout the period under study. This is further illustrated by the forcible closure of Weekly Insider in September 2004 and arrest of its key staff, the shutdown of Freedom Radio in Kano in 2006, Channels Television in September 2008 and detention of its editors for 78 hours.

“There was also, in November 2013, the inability of Premium Times, a prominent online news site to post links to Facebook pages from its website.

This was believed by its editors, to have been engineered by state security using individuals who complained that the links were ‘abusive’.

“We can add to these the arrest in January, 2017 of Dapo Olorunyomi, publisher of Premium Times and one of his editors over a critical report on the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai.”

He noted that despite the efforts of the media to extend the frontiers of democracy, that it is contradicted by factors such as the incorporation of prominent journalists into an elaborate, spoils sharing arrangement through seductive appointments.

“Shining as the role and the record of the media have been, the story contains contradictions and rough patches.

Hence, as mentioned previously, the effort of the media in extending the frontiers of democracy is contradicted by factors such as the incorporation of prominent journalists into an elaborate, spoils sharing arrangement through seductive appointments.

“One of the most prominent examples is Dr. Reuben Abati, a widely respected columnist of The Guardian, who was appointed as President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Communication.

Before Abati, the Late President Umaru Yar’adua appointed Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, former editor of ThisDay to serve in the same capacity under his government; while President Muhammadu Buhari who took office on May 29, 2015, appointed the respected Femi Adesina, former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors to a similar position.

“This pattern is replicated around the states in the country, and is believed by some to be one of the reasons why the media have lost their bite, and for the most part failed to carry out investigative reporting.

“More insidiously is corruption of journalists, which is arguably on the increase because of the practice whereby employers owe their workers several months of salaries, expecting them to fend for themselves.

“A corollary trend which may have heightened corruption in the media is the collapse of several newspapers, usually preceded by prolonged defaults on workers’ salaries.”

While chronicling a list of Nigerian newspapers which have closed shop in the last few years due largely to the harsh economic climate where they operate and also perhaps due to the influx of the online media, Olukotun argued that the harsh economy made it difficult for many newspapers to get involved in investigative journalism without government support.

According to him, having no support from government, most of the media houses are forced to depend on advertisers who in turn try to influence media content because of the advertising money they are bring into the business.

He added that those media houses that tried to do journalism the way it should be done have ended up closing shop, giving example of Next newspaper.

“In this respect, the demise of Next newspaper which excitingly deepened accountability through investigative journalism is typical of the difficulties faced by independent newspapers seeking to make a mark. Adaobi Nwaobani captures this dimension of the problem when she wrote that:

“But revenue soon began to dry up. In Nigeria, established newspapers are paid to keep big stories off the front page. Adverts are supposed to buy silence.

Often, Next would run a story in its popular weekend edition, only for editors to arrive at the office on Monday to meet an aggregated marketing team- certain big advertisers had terminated their business that morning. After one revelation about corruption in the oil trade, scores of advertisers instantly pulled out.

“The point being made here is that advertisers exercise indirect veto on editorial content by sanctioning independent private media, which set out to be fearless and daring. Considering that the state is the biggest advertiser, it has often used this power to skew the media playing field, in favour of state-owned electronic media as well as compliant and complacent, private media.”

While bemoaning the rate newspapers go off newsstand, Prof Olukotun said a varied range of reasons is to blame, including cost of doing business, as he said survival instinct has made many newspapers to thread softly so they could remain afloat. He however added that even electronic media are not left of the struggle for survival.

He quoted Mr. Steve Ojo, President of Galaxy television, an independent medium, who while drawing attention to this problem argued that “Government has not supported the industry; the infrastructural facilities that would ensure that the industry thrives are not there.
For example- we supply our own power, water and every other infrastructure we need. Under any circumstance, anywhere else in the world, the government provides all these facilities. In Nigeria the reverse is the case.”

He went further to point out that the craving to have newspapers or media to fight the cause of a particular region has also not helped the situation, “Noticeable too, is what may be called the return of the North to Nigeria’s discourse map because of the rebirth of the Northern media in the years understudy.

“In an ethnically divided country, and given Adebanwi’s jibe that Nigeria lacks a national media, but instead has an Arewa media, Ngbati media and Nkenga media, this rebirth is crucial.

“As backdrop to this development, it should be noted that the former governor of Nasarawa State, Dr. Abdulihi Adamu, lamented the virtual absence of a Northern media from the nation. Entitled “Where is the Northern Press?” Adamu, in a lecture to the Arewa Media Group elaborated:

“Is there something, I wonder that makes it impossible for newspapers to survive in this part of the country? Perhaps, the answer lies in the stubborn refusal to appreciate the role the news media play in the development of societies and in the contest for power, particularly in a democracy.

The balance of power or the balance of terror is a stabilising factor in every society. I do not argue for a press war. I argue for freedom from other people’s mass media in order that we may be heard.

“At the same time as Adamu made these remarks, the New Nigerian had become comatose; it however, did not suspend publication until February 2012. What is of interest is the recent establishment and relative profitability of a clutch of newspapers based in Abuja such as Leadership, Daily Trust, People’s Daily, and Abuja Inquirer, among others.

In this list, easily the most successful are Leadership, founded in 2004 by Sam Nda Isaiah, most recently, a Presidential candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in the 2015 election; as well as the Trust group of publications which includes, Weekly Trust, Daily Trust, Sunday Trust and the Hausa language Aminiyah.

“These independent newspapers appear to have broken the jinx of frequent collapse of newspapers in that part of the country.

When you add to these, private television stations such as, Desnims, founded by Halifa Baba Ahmed, Gotell TV based in Yola, as well as the Kano based Radio Freedom owned by Bashir Dalbatu among others, one gets a sense of the bounce back of a Northern regional media.

“The consequence of this is that of an increasingly level playing field, with regards to the access of diverse ethnic groups to the media.

In this same connection, the vacuum created by the eclipse of Champion newspapers, has been filled to a large extent by the newspaper chain of former governor of Abia State, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu.

The chain include: the Sun, New Telegraph, and The Spectator. Although these are based in Lagos, they draw a substantial part of sales and advertising revenue from the South-East and the South-South.”

He also pointed out that, a good number of newspapers and electronic media are owned by politicians across the political spectrum, adding that “although to some extent, ownership of media by politicians tends to widen the discourse space, it carries nonetheless, the price tags of partisanship and censorship of journalists who work in these newspapers.”

He went further to point out that, study after study have confirmed the basic division of media in Nigeria into ethnic, regional and religious lines, “although it will be simplifying a complex problem to try to read opinions of newspapers or television stations from the identities of the writers or publishers.

For, obviously, there are cross-cutting lines and cleavages, such as politics, which, for example, mandates presidential candidates to have support across the nation’s geo-polity.”

“That said, there is no running away from the fact that despite the efforts of our media to build trans-ethnic identities and in some cases increase their market share across our federal geography, ethnicity, region and religion remain potent divisive issues.”

Another issue of critical concern in the media’s role in helping to develop democracy in Nigeria is the issue of corruption, adding that as “previously mentioned, as a contradiction to media reformism, is the issue of corruption which although, is a global problem, tends to be uniquely expressed in Nigeria, the media inclusive.”

He also pointed out several incidents of corrupt practices by journalist or even media owners to buttress his argument, but also pointed out “that there are several cases where journalists refused to take bribes, which were offered to stop investigative stories they were doing.

“One example is that of the award-winning journalist and Enterprise Editor of the defunct Next newspaper, who has now moved on to be the Managing Editor of the online Premium Times, Mojeed, who broke several investigative stories of monumental corruption in the oil sector under the Jonathan administration narrated his experience, as follows:
“We were offered bribes.

Some characters who portrayed themselves as agents of the minister and other persons named in the story wanted us to name our price for dropping the story.

I was later told that my publisher was offered a huge sum in foreign currency bribe, which he rejected. Pressures were put on us through close friends, publicists and professional colleagues.

Some officials of the NNPC frequently threatened me. When those didn’t work, the police and other security agents began to harass us.”

The don added that a few newspapers are now in the habit of putting a disclaimer notice to warn people not to offer bribe to their re[porters and to report anyone who demand such from them.

The Nigerian media, he said, mirror the ideological barrenness of the political class without transcending it.

It would have been interesting if the media, as you have it in Western Europe for example, contain a few left leaning publications that focus more on what Oyovbaire described as: “The critical problems of social classes as class formation, increasing poverty and pauperization of the Nigerian social formation, the surge of mass unemployment of even graduates from tertiary institutions.”

“To be sure, it is not that our media do not sometimes raise these issues; it is simply that they do not make them their foci,” he added.

In a few words of exaltation which centers on the ‘Power of Giving’ Pastor Ituah Ighodalo told the audience which included former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, Mr M.A Gbadegesin, who represented the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu,Semiu Okanlawan, who represented the Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Prof Jide Owoeye of the Lead City University, former Senators Olorunimbe Mamora and Gbenag Kaka among others that, some things are difficult in life.

He pointed out those things to include, hard work, discipline, prayer, fearing God, giving, noting that those things are difficult because the average man thinks of himself first.

While congratulating the monarch for his gesture of instituting the professorial chair, Ighodalo said he is doing the right thing and urge the people to emulate him, because no one takes anything out of this world

“But giving is one of the most powerful things on earth.

“When you get to a certain age and level, you should plan for your future, your future here on earth and your future in the great beyond.

“It is what you do now that determines what happens to you tomorrow, what you are today is as a result of what you did yesterday … many wasted yesterday , are spoiling today and will end up destroying tomorrow, unless they change or God is merciful.

“How do you plan for tomorrow?” He asked, “decide where you want to end up and walk towards it. Decide if you want to be remembered at all, and what you want to be remembered for.

“Most people want long life, but what are you living for? All these houses, cars, clothes, who will use them.

“Decide what you need to eat and drink and move around, decide what you want to give the children, sell the rest and give to the poor. No man will live forever, death is sure and giving is powerful. Die empty, give all that you have,” he counseled.

The event ended with a vote of thanks from the acting Vice Chancellor of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, the benefiting institution, Prof Ganiyu Olatunde.