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As Trust Paper fires Dr Magashi By Janet Bala, Lafiya, Nasarawa State
The article tagged ‘ Collapse of Health Interactive : Our Triumph written by Adalat Yusuf , a Yoruba man living in Abuja and the spirited defense by the Editor of Daily Trust , Mal Ishaq Modibbo Kawu on Monday , 21st March , 2005 provided a worrisome insight as to the reason why Health Interactive , my best column suddenly disappeared from Tuesday edition of the paper , the only reason why my hard earned N 80 goes to the vendor every Tuesday .
While I read with dismay the celebrated write up by Adalat, I was however consternated by the answer provided by Mal Kawu over the stoppage of the column. He attempted to put the blame on Dr Magashi, but however, any body that read his comments knows that there is more to it than meet the eye. Let me digress a bit and flash back my memory. We all know that, Trust Paper is very good in sacking and firing the very people that help the paper to achieve credibility and wide readership. The only problem is that, when ever the paper fires, there would not be any worthwhile replacement. Take for example, Dr Aliyu Tilde who had shared his ordeal with the paper in the Maiden Edition of Leadership (Preview) through a detail interview titled ‘Where Is Tilde. Till today, Weekly Trust has not gotten any replacement; the paper is more or less a trash and does not worth my N100. The same thing happened to Ibrahim Sheme with his frequent misunderstanding with Garbadeen, until he was forced to quietly quit out of frustration. It is the same cynicism and attitude that warranted the debut of Leadership Confidential and the coming off of the best weekly newspaper in Nigeria ‘Leadership by Sam Nda Ishaih
Till today, Weekly Trust does not have a competent replacement of Tilde and Sheme and Daily Trust, does not have a replacement of Sam. Now looking at this unfortunate situation of stopping Health Interactive , while Tilde and Sam were accused of promoting their God father ( Buhari ) and using their column to create a tense atmosphere in the nation , Dr Magashi allege crime was that , he was promoting his NGO ( refer to Adalat write up ) .
I am not holding brief for Dr Magashi, but for us that ardently read the column weekly, we could not find such promotion, beside I know (because I have been to Kano several times) Dr Magashi’s NGO is not the conventional NGO that implement projects, it is a research based NGO, so one hardly could not see how a column that analyze public health issues and respond to readers question is being used to promote a research based NGO. Any way, that was what Adalat gathered from the paper as to the genesis of the crises.
Let me look at the failed excuse provided by Ishaq, he mentioned and I quote ‘We felt that it would be helpful if he concentrated on analysis of various ailments, to enrich the knowledge of our readers----- when this was communicated to Dr Magashi, he chose to stop writing his column. With all due respect to the Editor, I want to believe that Daily Trust does not have a medical doctor in its editorial board membership and of course the editor , to the best of my knowledge is a lay man when it comes to issues of health. So how did he know that, readers would be interested in his purported analysis of ailments, were the readers consulted, were research or Vox Pop done to sample readers’ views. How can Ishaq jumped one day and told a columnist to stop what he has being doing for more than two years and expect that person to take it lightly and I want to believe that , even the language Ishaq used may be sounding like an order ‘ Just do what I propose .
I want to presume, that was the genesis of this crisis, and will Ishaq feel comfortable if I told him that ,while he is writing his column to stop sharing his personal experience in trying to prove a point, which is habitual to him. Let him put himself in Dr Magashi’s shoes and empathize. I will conclude by saying that what Ishaq wanted Dr Magashi to be doing, already his Q and A portion is doing that and of course very well and let me say that I always read other health columns in other Dailies, I cannot compare his expertise with any health writer, he is not only a medical doctor but a good communicator and always coming down to the level of his teeming readers and we have miss him a lot. At the end of it all, the paper lose and the region too and people like Adalat will be laughing by the side , saying look at northerners killing themselves over what is beneficial to their people.
One thing I am certain is that Ishaq can tour the whole of Ilorin and Kwara State and the entire North , I bet him , he will not get a replacement of Dr Magashi in terms of passion , commitment and seriousness being attached to work and I want to believe that this time around the Trust Paper , Ishaq Modibbo and his paymasters will not get away with what they did , because just as I am praying now for the Lord to intervene in this unjustifiable act , I am sure other readers of the page are doing the same thing silently .
The earlier people like Mohammad Haruna and Kabiru Yusuf intervene to broker peace the better, so that our Column can return
Janet Bala writes from Lafiya, Nasarawa State (janetbala2002@yahoo.com )
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