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Mr. President, Please Pardon Leadership By Saka Raji Audu
It's often said that every day is for a thief but one day is for the owner. This popular gnome aptly applied to some fictitious publications and manipulations of facts that the Leadership Newspapers have been dishing out to its gullible readers in recent time. They have on many occasions painted white black and malign people, both individuals and government functionaries without any recourse to the ethics of the journalism profession that is based on fact and objectivity. In order to remain afloat at all costs, the media owners and their hired practitioners tend to abandon responsible journalism to pick up sensationalism just to earn favour or perhaps laugh to their banks.
Fortunately enough, in Newton's first law of nature, it states that for every action, there must be equal and opposite reaction. Penultimate Saturday, 8th November, luck ran against the Leadership newspapers when their weekly edition carried one of their stock-in-trade news on Mr. President's state of health. The Leadership told its readers that President Yar'adua was sick again, as if the President was immune to sickness. In its desperate move to convince its readers that its report was a true one, the paper misinformed that Mr. President could not attend the Friday Juma'at prayer at the National mosque or any public function for two days.
To the Leadership newspaper, it has done a great service to the nation by that singular story. Nay, the readers did not realise that what they paid for or consumed from the Leadership about the ill health of Mr. President was, as usual, fake, malicious and concoction until the Special Adviser to the President on Communication, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi came out with the true details of happening, which the Leadership could not puncture. Adeniyi said, "…the President is in good health and has been attending to all his official duties in full view of the media in the past week." The Special Adviser narrated the various official functions Mr. President has attended to in that week and that indeed; he actually attended the Juma'at prayers. "In keeping with his commitment to upholding the rule of law at all times, President Yar'adua has directed his lawyers to take appropriate legal action against the Leadership newspaper and pursued the case to its logical conclusion", the Special Adviser averred.
Perhaps, jittery by the horrendous consequence that awaits the Leadership in the court if Mr. President executes his threat, the newspaper management quickly owned up to its fault regarding Mr. President's state of health by tendering public apology to the President and members of his family for the embarrassment. The Leadership admits its guilt, "having taken a second look at the offensive report, we can understand the concerns of the presidency and therefore sincerely apologise to the President and members of his family", said the Leadership in its rebuttal statement, which appeared in the Sunday edition of November 9, 2008. With this, I am sure Mr. President would listen and forgive the Leadership newspaper in the interest of peace and unity.
It is however a piety that the so called new crops of journalists joining the noble profession are daily dragging this profession into the mud by their overzealous posture to satisfy their pay master. Not quite long ago, the Leadership newspaper published some fraudulent lies via pseudo name against the People's Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State. In Shekarau's case, he is not bothered about such misdemeanors because he knows that no amounts of lies can uproot his unprecedented achievements or still, withstand the true test of time since every one must surely account for one's deeds, either here or hereafter. If falsehood and malicious publications was any thing to go by, the simple but dignified governor would not have realised his second term mandate. If Shekarau were to spend his precious time addressing such evil machination of falsehood, he would have no time left to do things for his people. His wonderful achievements recorded since he assumed office attest to this fact. So, the best thing he could do in the face of such wrongful persecution is for him to do what is right, and then turn his back to every vulgar criticism.
However, in Mr. President's view, he has graciously tolerated over twenty months of false rumours, speculations and innuendoes about his ill health, but the Leadership newspaper report of 8th November 2008 crossed all acceptable lines of professional ethics, decency, decorum and respect for others' rights and feelings. Because, there are laws against libel, defamation of character and publication of falsehoods in our status book, the President decided to take the Leadership newspaper to court in line with the rule of laws. I should however advise the President to show mercy on the overzealous report of the Leadership newspaper against his state of ill health, believing that only God gives and takes life. This is because if Mr. President takes the legal action against the Leadership newspaper, on a platter of gold, he must win and the damages that the paper may be asked to pay will be too much for it to survive. Heart warming enough, the newspaper is over hauling itself by in-house cleansing of its reportorial mechanism. I advise other media houses to emulate this pacifying in-house cleansing in order to return the battered reputation of journalism to a strong and virile standard.
The public apology already offered by the Leadership newspaper to the President should be enough to teach the paper a lesson even though; the hands of those that throw stones do not normally rest. For journalism to regain its lost glory, we must avoid falsehood and malicious publications. We must try at whatever cost to verify and ascertain our fact before rushing to the press. One is not unaware that our media houses need money to survive but our integrity also matters. The public apology the Leadership newspapers tendered to the President would have been avoided if it had properly done his home work. We are however lucky that our President believes in democracy and the rule of laws. If not, only God knows where the editor and reporter of the vexed report on the President's ill health would have been by now. Where are Dele Giwa and the host of others?
Some zealous reporters believe that the only way for one to make money and be recognised in the journalism profession is to adopt negative and lopsided approach to issues. This is very wrong. I perfectly agreed that there are bad leaders whose excesses must be checked through constructive criticisms. But the way some of our modern day journalists go about their news report and analysis cannot bring about any meaningful change and development. For instance, when the administration of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau decided recently, to upgrade the status of the traditional leaders by purchasing cars for them to ease their movement, there was hue and cry over the car 'gift.'
Some of our journalists and chop –chop columnists made some silly noises over the good gesture. They said that the amount used in purchasing the car should have been used to take care of the so called talakawas. The same emir whose car some media houses criticized celebrated his 45th anniversary on the exalted thrown. A huge sum of money has been collected so far by the same media through adverts on the emir's anniversary. If the media were sincere in their criticisms and about the welfare of talakawas based on principle, they should have advised the advertisers to channel the huge advert money to talakawa's welfare.
The question is what is the difference between the money used in purchasing the car for the emir by Shekarau administration and the advert money collected by the media houses for the emir's anniversary? Yes, the media houses collected the advert money because they render services to the advertisers. Likewise, the Shekarau administration gave out the cars to the emirs because they also render services to the people. The cream of personalities and the large turn out of talakawas to witness the 45th anniversary of the emir further attest to the fact that indeed Shekarau Is Right (SIR). May God save journalism profession in Nigeria. Once again, I have spoken!
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