The rise, and fall, of ‘pepper-soup’ journalism
The way our so-called intellectuals and opinion leaders, and of course the press have handled the illness of President Yar’adua, is most appalling. From the first day the man was scurried abroad for treatment, they have hounded him to no limits, calling for handover notes and resignation letters. They stated in no unclear terms, that […]
The way our so-called intellectuals and opinion leaders, and of course the press have handled the illness of President Yar’adua, is most appalling. From the first day the man was scurried abroad for treatment, they have hounded him to no limits, calling for handover notes and resignation letters. They stated in no unclear terms, that the man is too weak to govern Nigeria. As days wore into weeks, the cacophony of voices grew louder, and on more than one occasion, supposedly reputable newspapers claimed that they knew the man was dead. NEXT, claimed he was brain dead. The publisher, Dele Olojede it was, who wrote Yar’adua’s acceptance speech, upon being recruited by another born-again democrat, Mr el-Rufai. Is this a case of sour grapes, having lost out in the sharing of the ‘spoils’ of government? Some even said Yar’adua was being cloned in Saudi Arabia!
When the president finally made a speech on BBC, Nigerians claimed it wasn’t his voice. Many still insist the man died several weeks ago, and his ministers are just keeping the lie going just so that they can loot as much as possible. Majority claim that Turai has stolen all the foreign reserves and is just stealing more while keeping the death of her husband under wraps. These arguments are pedestrian at best. When told that the family are Muslims and would bury their dead within a day, they snigger and explain the supremacy of money, in a manner that reveals that they themselves worship money. My ears are full of PEPPERSOUP JOINT stories.
It would seem that pepper soup joints now set the agenda for our journalism in Nigeria. Brainless conspiracy theories that lead to nowhere and betray our retardation as a people, are replete. In a manner, we glorify the stealing that we pretend to condemn. Instead of dismissing many of these claims of stealing and ignore those fools who are reputedly stealing the country blind, we elevate them to cult status, and grant them too much press. Like Madame Farida said the other day, they require psychiatric evaluation. But our analysts, columnists and so-called intellectuals have not risen mentally above such cheap persuasions.
In the matter of Yar’adua, most journalists and commentators were blinded by their disdain and hatred for the man’s personality. Simple! I see nothing wrong with the man as a person and as a president, and so I was clear minded in my analysis from day one. And it would seem that I have been right all along. Truly, the president’s absence and silence became quite a burden to me of late, until he spoke. But for most other Nigerians, from the word go, they had dismissed their president. This is a man who has tried his best to display transparency and honesty of purpose, though he may be physically weak. Obasanjo was strong as an ox, and flew round the world across six continents up to ten times seeking for foreign investments and getting none. He spent $16billion on the energy sector and only managed to generate 1,000Megawatts at the end of his tenure, as against 3,500Megawatts achieved by the current team for now.
When I cautioned that we need to be more introspective, to see what the possibilities are and whether the president could have been a victim of high level subterfuge and sabotage as a result of the success of his unprecedented banking reforms which have forever repositioned the ideological bent of finance in this country, or the petroleum industry bill which will break the spine of colonialist hegemony in that critical sector of this economy, or the Niger-Delta amnesty, which achieved relative peace and reduced the unmerited profits of some powerful people who thrive on the chaos in that region, mine was the ranting of an ant, if I may borrow from the inimitable Chuba Okadigbo. I have read the PIB and am sure powerful forces would rather take Yar’adua out than let it fly. Also a reader informed me that the River Niger dredging is one of the reasons that Tafawa Balewa was killed, and this ‘sickly’ Yar’adua seems to be the first president to get it going in earnest. Who says a sick president cannot achieve?
I am convinced that there is more to the Yar’adua story than meets the eye, and that is why he had to run away from his people. If it is what I think, the options before the man are very few. He cannot quit because we need him there. Yes, this man is taking bullets on behalf of this country and what does he get – calls that he should quit by those who should know better? Also any pragmatic Nigerian knows that the presidency is somehow being held in trust on behalf of one’s tribe, not necessarily for personal reasons. Yorubas supported Obasanjo in 2003, just because ‘he was our son’. Now we want a Hausa/Fulani ‘son’ to throw in the towel early in the game. We should stop being parochial, sadistic, belligerent and heartless!
I really think the president’s silence is also based on his distrust of the Nigerian people. We therefore have, as a result of our approach to this peculiar circumstance, a further breakdown in the relationship between the leader and the led, between Nigeria and their past, present and most importantly, future leaders. Nigerians are ‘clear’ in their minds that all their ‘leaders’ and government officials are ‘thieving bastards’. The leaders too, know how lowly the followers think about them, and most of them then proceed to ‘damage’ the treasury in a mindless orgy of financial violence! Our ‘intellectuals’ need to appreciate this cogent fact and upgrade their thinking to get us out of this vicious cycle of self-inflicted destruction.
The scariest part of the Yar’adua odyssey, for me, is the classification of the problem along religious and ethnic lines. Most of those pining for his resignation, were southern Christians. Some were sponsored by the ‘Christian’ bankers who were recently deposed and therefore harbour great dislike for the president. And then the Jos crisis erupted, further stoking old wounds. But God is on our side – all of us Nigerians. The simple lesson is; if we merely ‘liked’ Yar’adua, and were pragmatic enough to see through some of his efforts, we would have been more tolerant, more patient and honestly prayed for his recovery and continuance in government. NIGERIANS??!!