A lesson for the media

We media men are trained to sympathise and take side with the poor, the  weak, the voiceless, the marginalised, the vulnerable and all such  persons or groups that  suffer either a natural or man-made disadvantage  when compared to other persons or group with whom they deal or have a  tango. That is why when students, […]

We media men are trained to sympathise and take side with the poor, the  weak, the voiceless, the marginalised, the vulnerable and all such  persons or groups that  suffer either a natural or man-made disadvantage  when compared to other persons or group with whom they deal or have a  tango. That is why when students, women groups, minority groups, the old  and labour unions who claim they speak for the poor masses have a  misunderstanding with employers, government or any other form of  authority, the media instinctively and uncritically take the side of the  arguments of the weak.
With the rise in the preachment against oppres-sion and respect for human rights, we media men have now been brought up to think that the weak in society can almost do no wrong. If they raise any charges against, or have any dispute with, any symbol of authority, we will instinctively
believe that the other side is guilty. We are very reluctant to even listen to the side of government or employer or those symbols of authority much less give them the benefit of doubt.
Our failure to judge some public actors fairly has, unfortunately, tended to create groups and individuals that have become a menace and monsters to society. It has given rise to what is called the tyranny of the weak. Some people or groups sit down and conceive of and execute
clear acts of impunity and they think they are entitled to automatic public sympathy. They do not try to do anything to earn public goodwill. This explains why some individuals, students and labour unions sometimes engage in clear acts of irrationality in pursuit of what they perceive as wrongs done them and expect that they will enjoy spontaneous public sympathy.
Students will sit down, plan a demonstration and proceed to block major highways which completely paralyse social and economic activities and expect to be treated with kid gloves as if they are kids who cannot make use of their full senses. Some students will burn down their hostels, classrooms and laboratories in pursuit of say a grievance about lack of water! Doctors will hold a kangaroo congress(some of our labour unions  do not even bother to hold any democratic meeting before embarking on a  strike as demanded by law) and resolve to proceed on a strike that will  be ‘’nationwide, total and indefinite’’. And all reasonable people will be left wondering whether this should be the language and thinking of doctors who swore to the Hippocratic Oath to save lives at all cost. And what is their trouble with government? Some allowances, and not even salary, mind you, have not been paid to them.
Having been a living witness and often times victim of some of the atrocities committed by those we have been misled to think are the leaders of the underdogs, I have been voicing my concern to some of my colleagues that the time has come for us to begin to question the uncritical support we give to those who claim they fight the common cause of the underprivileged in society. I have found that some elements in the students’ movement and the labour unions are some of the most despicable human beings you can find in society. That, contrary to their claim that they speak for the voiceless, many are in reality demagogues and rabble-rousers who pursue their narrow group or personal interests at the detriment of the larger society’s good. Many leaders of such groups are smart elements who want to exercise political power through the back door.
I do believe that labour unions, professional associa-tions, student movements and other pressure groups play a very useful role in society but that they have now been hijacked by unscrupulous, unreasonable and totally misguided and therefore destructive elements that have no scruples playing dangerous and murderous politics with human lives and the well being of society. Take the unscrupulous elements in the doctors’ unions who instigate strikes because of unpaid allowances. When they declare such strikes, many poor people die in government hospitals.
They sick rich seek care in private hospitals. These private hospitals are owned and run by the very doctors who are on strike. Therefore when a strike is called, it is doctors who profit from it. The rich are fleeced of some of their money through extortionate charges, the poor die in droves while the doctors smile to their banks. Would you describe such doctors as fighters for the common man and people who are therefore deserving of uncritical support?
What we the media do in the name of being Godly or being socially correct is in actual fact ungodly. To ensure justice and the orderly functioning of society, God wants his children to judge fairly and not to take the side of the weak or the great unfairly. God knows that when you support the perceived weak unfairly you encourage them to do wrong against both the great and the poor. Society will not be conducive for human habitation.
That is why the media should begin to judge fairly actors in the public domain. Each actor must learn to earn public good will and solidarity in its fight for any cause. We helped to create ASUU into the monster to the educational system and the nation it has become today. When they want to go on strike they no longer bother about the opinion of anybody.
They have become so self-opinionated and so self-righteousness that the feelings of the rest of us do not matter anymore. In fact they have become laws unto themselves. For instance, when about a month ago this  newspaper wrote a very measured and patriotic editorial calling on ASUU  to call off their destructive strike, the whole tribe of current and  past ASUU bigwigs descended on the premises of the paper wondering who  had the audacity to write such an ‘’unpatriotic diatribe’’. In other words, they now think that they have a monopoly of both wisdom and patriotism.
The lesson for the media and for all of us is that when you form the  habit of judging unfairly because you want to sound politically correct, you will unwittingly create and perpetuate the tyranny of the weak, or  of the unscrupulous or of the misguided who think they mean well more than anybody else.