Dele Giwa: Not yet uhuru for Nigerian journalists
It is already 31 years since one of the fiery, tenacious, patriotic journalist in Nigeria history Sumonu Oladele Giwa was cut down by a parcel bomb. The death of Mr. Giwa was not only a loss to the profession, but a loss for Nigerians craving for people based investigative journalism. He blazed from all cylinders […]
It is already 31 years since one of the fiery, tenacious, patriotic journalist in Nigeria history Sumonu Oladele Giwa was cut down by a parcel bomb. The death of Mr. Giwa was not only a loss to the profession, but a loss for Nigerians craving for people based investigative journalism. He blazed from all cylinders in an attempt to tame governments of his day. He was relentless even as pioneer editor-in-chief of Newswatch, a paper he founded. In the era of the Giwa’s, journalism was honorable, the institution was impregnable and practitioners were noble in the discharge of their social responsibility to educate, inform and entertain.
It is instructive at this point to recall that pre and post-independence media organizations owned by regions in our geographical entity were largely cleavage based, it is instructive to intimate that they served interests of the regions for the greater good of the country. To illustrate how the early press in Nigeria was based on regional ideology was not meant to last forever, most of them fizzled out after satisfying their relevance, which was largely for agitations. The point I am trying to present is, politicians, bigots, regional warriors have taken over ownership of media organizations in Nigeria, crafting editorials along bias instead of working towards a patriotic agenda. Sadly, the media has become politicized, taking sides along ethno religious underpinnings.
Responsible journalism has faded off, and that is not akin to untrained hands on social media platforms alone. While those who control the media are driving their agenda to suit interests, reporters working the wheel of news production are constantly shackled in slavery. Dele Giwa was killed to satisfy interests, today journalists are destined to suffer psychological deaths to satisfy institutions interested in promoting parochial interests instead of holistic national agenda. With no hope for job anywhere, many journalism graduates hold tenaciously to their jobs, where they are forced to work without salaries and report unprofessionally. It is no longer news to find media organizations who only give reporters identity cards instead of pay slips. It is no longer news several media organizations have stopped payment of salaries to staff for more than two years.
The dearth of professionalism and humanity in media organizations today has promoted hate journalism, ferried along social platforms to fragmented citizen reporters under payrolls of their masters. A look at reports across mainstream media organizations shows how fragmented the media itself is within itself. Front pages are crafted based on underpinnings, hence ridiculing the prestigious profession.
Today, we can identify media organizations along political party interests. Just like the pre and post-independence media organizations, the trend is to protect and promote agenda. While the earlier media worked towards a national freedom from their divergent trenches, politicized media of today only have narrow minded interests.