From Peter Enahoro to Babatunde Jose: the press and the Nigeria Project

The view of the former American president underscores how critical the media is to democracies all over the world. As the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the media constitutes the conscience of society with a moral responsibility to guide and guard social values and national objectives without any ear of censorship beyond professional self-regulation, control […]

The view of the former American president underscores how critical the media is to democracies all over the world. As the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the media constitutes the conscience of society with a moral responsibility to guide and guard social values and national objectives without any ear of censorship beyond professional self-regulation, control of government or any form of physical pressures. When these conditions are in place, it is possible for members of the fourth estate to mobilise responsible and investigative journalism to sensitize political authorities to their roles, inform citizens of their duties to the state, and to effectively communicate and maintain social relations among diverse social formations. It is an interesting conjecture to speculate the extent to which a synergy of the media and civil society activism and organisation can achieve the goals of the national project.
However, the media isn’t always the noble organisation that we would have wished to look up to for national salvation. More often than not, the media and its practices often collude with negative politics to undermine our expectations of what Nigeria can ever hope to be. When Marshall McLuhan proclaims that ‘the medium is the message,’ he reveals that a particular medium—in this case, the news media—possess the possibility of either being used for good or for ill. And between the good and the bad press lies the idea of public interest, or what I should call the national project in Nigeria.    
For Arthur Miller, ‘A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.’ And behind such a newspaper would be socially or nationally conscious minds that are always instigating the newspapers to talk truth to power. Therefore, if public interest is the pivot of the press, maybe the history of our past journalistic experience would be an opportunity to speak to the present in journalistic practice. There was a time in Nigeria when journalism was motivated by patriotism and professionalism; when crass commercialism and the lure of political benefits were far from the exigencies of duties. When we remember the exploits of Babatunde Jose, Dele Giwa and Peter Enahoro, it becomes immediately obvious why we may be lamenting for a glorious age of journalism in Nigeria. That was when the Nigerian press was at the forefront of the history of good governance campaign and the entire socio-political trajectory of post-colonial Nigeria. The danger that these courageous journalists faced when confronting the terrors of politics was great, but for most of them, the possibility of reporting the truth and challenging those political shenanigans that compromise national progress was even a greater motivation. Death was the ultimate price, and some paid it.  
Dele Giwa is the most famous of the trio we are examining here because his story was the most tragic. As the Features Editor of Daily Times, and Editor-in-Chief and Founder of Newswatch Magazine, he was greatly influenced by a profound sense of ethics and patriotism that served as his justification for exposing the ills and travesties of the Nigerian society and of its elites. From a creative viewpoint, Giwa’s writing style was so inventive that it led to a sort of renaissance in the history of print journalism in Nigeria. It was grounded in a bold and investigative approach to news reportage that was so critical, for instance, of the military. The military must have failed in getting him to renounce his reputation for a mess of potage.
When he died from a parcelled bomb, his death reverberated throughout Nigeria and the media space for many years. He is rightly seen as the ‘martyr’ of Nigerian journalism, having been assassinated because of his undying passion for the truth.
At Daily Times, Dele Giwa met a tradition of vociferous journalism laid by the incorrigible and daring Alhaji Ismail Babatunde Jose, the newspaper’s first Nigerian Editor. Jose dominated the journalism scene in Nigeria for three decades, and in the process laid a solid foundation for what the media ought to do with Nigeria as its number one constituency. For him, as for Arthur Miller, the media was supposed to mediate Nigeria’s dialogue with itself, more so because the postcolonial period was fraught with uncertainties and dangers. The articulateness and vibrancy of Jose’s prose have remained seminal touchstones in the history of print media in Nigeria. His many memorable editorials at the Daily Times—especially the historic ‘Darkness Visible’ which foreshadowed the overthrow of the Gowon government—resonated with graphic renditions of the socio-political condition of the nation. In his autobiography, Walking a tightrope, that profiles, among other things, significant details of his courageous work as journalist, Babatunde Jose  explains that he had ‘to balance between the ivory and iron towers, occasionally risking a little spin round one foot and yet remaining firmly balanced on the rope.’ Besides his ebullient works, Babatunde Jose also committed himself to training the next generation of the country’s journalists.
Among the many graduates of Babatunde Jose’s training school was the intrepid Peter Enahoro. As a journalist who learn well from Jose, Enahoro was an irritant; military regimes were severely unnerved. He published commentaries without fear and refused to back down from his role as an advocate of social justice. In addition to the requisite professional and ethical etiquette that were the sine qua non for the radical type of investigative journalism, Peter ‘Pan’ Enahoro also added to his acumen a profound sense of national history that further motivated his perception of how the news ought to be reported. Unfortunately, Enahoro had to flee Nigeria at the height of the military crackdown on those who, ironically loved Nigeria more than the military understood. In his two immensely popular but satirical books—The Complete Nigerian and How to be a Nigerian—Enahoro raised critical commentaries on the nature, indiscretions, and contradictions of the Nigerian personality.
Nigeria does not only frustrate its heroes, it equally hounds and incarcerates her Fourth Estate. Dele Giwa died, Babatunde Jose was betrayed, Peter Enahoro had to flee into exile. Others who dared look into the eye of the storm—Tunde Thompson, Nduka Irabor, Ben Charles Obi, Kunle Ajibade—had to face the terrible wrath of the military. Most of those who remain are either silenced into a puerile practice of reporting dead events or struggling to re-enact what is almost dead in a profession that has a lot to offer Nigeria. First we lose the investigative journalist, and next we lose the free journalist. What more blows can the national project take? In spite of all the constraints of practice, I doff my hat to Nigerian press any day.

Dr Olaopa is Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology <[email protected]>;