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Media Trust, Kano And The Rest Of Us By Saka Raji Audu
In 1998 when the Media Trust Nigeria Ltd, the now publishers of Daily Trust, Weekly Trust, Sunday Trust and Aminiya made its debut on the streets, most Northerners were glad and proud that a media that would truly stand the test of time and say the truth to protect the Northern interest had arrived. These initial jubilations were occasioned by the sordid experience the Northern region had had with the Lagos-Ibadan axis press as a result of their imbalance in their objective coverage of events in the Northern part of the country.
Honestly speaking, one must admit that in spite of the heterogeneous nature of the Nigerian society, the Media Trust publications have tried to avoid the cynical political propaganda regarding the sectional interest of some irresponsible political elites that fan the embers of disunity, dichotomy and schism in the Country. The Media Trust worked hard to distance itself from the vampirism attitude of some media houses in the Country. It has variously attempted to enlighten the people of the country on the dangers of misinformation, distortion and treacherous political propaganda. The Media Trust Nigeria Limited came out at a period when the ethics of responsible journalism had almost been thrown to the dogs. So, it has the Herculean task of rejuvenating the image of the journalism profession.
It however appears, perhaps, one would say that the above trust the Media Trust has earned for itself over the years is gradually being eroded and fast losing that hard earned credibility in view of the unfortunate option to deliberately or otherwise misinform its readers on issues of national concern and part away with the good ethics of journalism profession. Some instances of unbalanced reportage or outright fabrication of issues will suffice the negative journalism the prestigious Media Trust has chosen for itself in recent time.
On 9th October, 2001, three years after its existence, the most respected and reputable Daily Trust Newspaper in its page 4 reported that a "man dies after slap by Indian" in one of the fast growing textile industries in the pyramid state of Nigeria. It was later discovered that contrary to the wrong impression created by the news item, the man died after a brief illness, which the parents took as an act of God. The reporter of that story, now late, had to personally apologise to the management of the company without the knowledge of his newspaper.
About November 2006 or thereabout, during the ill-fated and absurd activities of the Economic/Finance Crime Commission (EFCC) under the now embattled Police Officer, Nuhu Ribadu, Daily Trust came out with various spurious but participatory lead story about the present governor of Kano State titled " Shekarau to be prosecuted", "Shekarau not qualified to contest", "Shekarau can now contest" and all such mischievous headlines. The event thereafter which indicated contrary showed that Shekarau did not only contest in the election but also won the election for his current second term.
On May 11 and 12, 2007 the Daily Trust and its sister Weekly Trust reported that "Fraud: EFCC beams searchlight on Kano industries." Here, the reporter stated in his lead paragraph that "a monumental fraud has been uncovered in an Indian company in Kano." It was later revealed that the company, the story talked about is owned by a national other than Indian and that the monumental fraud the reporter mentioned was about just N133,000- which a worker claimed was not remitted to his NSITF account.
On 23rd August 2007, the Daily Trust exclaimed in its front page that "N70billion cotton fund missing." About two weeks later on September 11 , 2008 the same Daily Trust contradicted its earlier report when the interview of NEXIM MD, Alhaji Baba Yusuf Ahmed, debunking the story and averted that the "N70billion textile fund'll soon be ready." On 24th January, 2008 the Daily Trust came up again with a subterfuge, telling the public that " Textile Fund: NEXIM disburses N70billion in March." Seven month thereafter, no single kobo has been so far disbursed from the NEXIM to the textiles.
On 6th June 2008, Daily Trust published a fabricated article on "Kano and unfulfilled promises" by one Kabiru Inuwa Tsakuwa where many lies were told against Kano and its government. While the readers were contemplating about the authenticity of the fact contained in the article, on 16th June 2008, the Daily Trust published came with another litany of lies by the same Kabiru Inuwa Tsakwa titled, "Kano: Development in reverse gear." The Director of Press and Public Relations, Kano State Government, Malam Sule Ya'u Sule carpeted the sinister piece via his article ,"Kano: cynicism is not an option." Perhaps the Daily Trust was not happy with this master piece. On 25th June 2008, it caused the same Kabiru Inuwa Tsakuwa to hide under pen name, 'Babangida Dangora' to reply Sule and attempted to ridicule the good people of Kano and their government.
As a result of the too many lies contained in Tsakuwa/Dangora response, which I could not stomach, I picked up my pen to correct the various insinuations contained therein. To my utmost surprise, the editor of the Daily Trust could not allow my good version to see the light of the day in his newspaper until it was heavily paid for via the Weekly Trust of Saturday, July 5 2008 as full page "advertorial." This journalistic misconduct in coercing opinion as nakedly displayed by a newspaper burdened on trust made me to disbelieve such trust after all.
In its negative coverage of Kano activities, on 8th August 2008 one Bashir Ibrahim Hassan was given another chance by the Daily Trust to talk nonsense of Kano and its government under the guise of poverty in the North. My response to Bashir's piece titled "the truth about poverty in the North" has already been published by some national dailies except the Daily Trust whose avowed determination was perhaps, to upgrade falsehood and downgrade truth in matters affecting Kano and its government. Interestingly, the author of the piece had already gone to one of the Kano State Commissioners to apologise for his deliberate lies published by the Daily Trust.
The latest in the series of blackmail, falsehood and outright lies by the Daily Trust against Kano government was its recent front page publication of 14th August 2008 where it stated that "Kano officials embezzled N4.5bn." This report mischievously referred to the 2006 audited account of Kano State Government, which the newspaper perhaps, did not know had already been published in the Sunday Triumph of 2nd March 2008. This 419 report has been refuted by the Kano State Government as lacking iota of truth on the very day of the report. The rebuttal was made by the same Chairman of the Committee quoted in the Daily Trust report as if he the junk reporter had met him before rushing to the press.
Tragically for the paper that claims integrity, it has no choice but to publish the rebuttal of the Kano State Government and bury it inside page 2 of the paper to avoid any one noticing its journalistic blunder. A responsible media that has no axe to grind against any one and whose social responsibilities among others is to be fair in all their dealings would have thought it wise to publish the rebuttal story on the same page and column the first bad story appeared. Perhaps, since the fact that the story was deliberately designed to embarrass the Kano Government and its people for reason best known to it, the Daily Trust refused to thread the path of honour.
Looking at the various corollaries of wrongful accusations by the Daily Trust as itemized above, the nagging questions in Kano are why did Daily Trust decide to run down Kano? What does the paper stand to gain for embarking on the yellow or junk journalism on Kano and its government? It could not be mere coincident that the Daily Trust has never seen any good in the government of Malam Shekarau since 2006 when Malam began his struggle for his actualized second term mandate.
Having been able to go down the memory lane of the fallacies embarked upon by the Daily Trust since Malam's second coming, it becomes a matter of concern as to why a (supposedly respected) newspaper wants to bring down in its report the good works, developments and achievements brought about by this government to the entire people of Kano State. If the paper wants to find fault in a good man, it should remember that whoever wants to go to equity must go with clean hands.
With the reasons that are bound (printed and unprinted), if the state government takes any legal action against the paper, on a platter of gold, it must win. As colleagues in the pen profession, I sincerely wish to advise that there should be orientation for the new and zealous reporters and re-orientation for the old ones to further bridge the actions that might result in disrepute to the media house. Meanwhile, the entire readership of the Daily Trust is being displeased with the fallacies and un-investigative journalism of the Daily Trust. Contrary to its name, Daily Trust, it has planted the seed of distrust in the minds of the readers.
It is my candid opinion that the Management of Media Trust Limited supervises and monitors the excesses of her reporters for the interest of the company, journalism profession and the entire Nigerian readership. It is unethical in the profession to receive too many rejoinders, agony of apologies, thereby eating what it has vomited.
And to the government of Kano State, I want to honestly advise that your good work is seen by the greater majority. Suffice to say that it must not be appreciated by all since it is not a one on one development but to the masses that affect all. In view of this, the government should see it as an insult from one of her radical children and show mercy to the Daily Trust.
Saka Raji Audu writes from Kano and can be reached on his e-mail: sakaraj@yahoo.com |