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A Despicable Form of Journalism By Tochukwu Ezukanma
My intense dislike for pictorial magazines stems from a number of reasons, most notably: they reinforce the long held stereotype about the black man. It is believed that the black man in his intellectual laziness and disdain for enlightenment does not read. Consequently, that the most successful way to hide anything from him is to write it in a book. Secondly, they glamorize greed by glorifying the crooked, greedy and fraudulent in our society. In addition, they project a grossly distorted image of the Nigerian society.
Nigerians do not have a reading culture. Unlike some societies where people see reading as something rewarding, pleasant and relaxing, we perceive it as something unpleasant and stressful, necessitated only by the need to pass an exam. Some societies appreciate the need to read and learn continually, thus, constantly widening the intellectual horizon. On the other hand, in Nigeria, most people do not read after the acquisition of their degrees and certificates. Then, they find fulfillment not in intellectual development, but in alcohol, pepper soup and sex, and in bragging about their many degrees and supposed versatility. Having thrown away the books, and not opened them in years, the intellectual range withers and in spite of the much vaunted knowledge, the individual subliminally degenerates into illiteracy.
These photo magazines feed on this refusal to read. They enhance our preference of imagery over reality. In Nigeria, image is more important than substance. So, to flaunt your degrees and recite the names of the universities you attended is more important than the continued widening of ones cerebral scope for the good of the individual and the society. The number of titles (Dr, Chief, Alahaji, Sir, etc.) that one has is more important than the contribution he can make to the common good in his country. To pontificate from the pulpit, professing their being born again credentials and their consequent Christ-likeness is more important to a pastor and his congregation than actually living in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The same politicians who cultivate the image of pious commitment to the wellbeing of the people, steal and share and pocket the money budgeted for the betterment of the people.
These magazines pander to our need to dwell on gossip: lavishness of parties, hair styles, exquisiteness of jewelries, splendor of luxury cars, opulence of houses, etc than on substantive issues of life. There must be something profoundly wrong in a country where grown men and women, even the supposedly educated, buy magazines and just admire pictures. It must be a vain and cerebrally indolent country. To buy picture books and just look at pictures is kid stuff. For adults to do it, and then dwell on people’s looks, outfit and other associated cheap gossip is stupendous absurdity.
Secondly, I detest pictorial magazines because they glamorize greed. They ignore commitment and loyalty to the public good and the selfless struggle of some (though very few) to better the lives of others. They only present a panegyric of the rich and the famous. And some of the rich and the famous celebrated in this magazines acquired their wealth under questionable circumstances. Some got their money from corruption and sometimes from out right theft. They provide a source of continuous glorification for those whose activities should ordinarily be frowned upon by the society: politicians and government officials who stole government money, criminals who bought chieftaincy titles, pastors who pervert the gospel to fleece their congregation, etc.
Glory comes from diligence to duty and its consequent achievement. The problem of the Nigerian society is that our mindset has been perverted. We now see glory as being independent of hard work and accomplishment. We see it as coming from falsehood, image manipulation and cheap propaganda. These magazines glorify those who seek glory not from honest work, respect for the law, dedication to decency or contribution to the common good, but those who expect it from crookedness, greed and dishonesty.
They extol the follies of the Nigerian society; snobbery, excessive class consciousness and inordinate extravagance of the affluence; invariably, they encourage the disparagement of the poor and the adoration of the rich. This undermines equity and social justice as it reinforces the lamentable tendency amongst Nigerians to predicate every aspect of human relationship, including the application of the law on “levels”. Your “level” is determined not by the content of your character but by your family name, the quality of your clothes, poshness of your car, elegance of the jewelries around your neck, exclusiveness of your address, etc. Once you measure up to the desired level, you are treated with maximum respect and everything about you is handled with utmost discretion, and the law, if necessary is bent to give you special treatment. On the other hand, if you fall below the expected “level”, you are handled as the scum of the earth, and the law bent to victimize you.
In addition, they do not reflect the reality of the Nigerian society. Nigeria is an anomaly. She is an oil-rich country, but she has the social indexes of the poorest countries of the world. Despite the enormous oil revenue that accrued to her over the years, the generality of her people, 70 percent is trapped in desperate poverty – unemployed, underpaid, exploited, housed in a hovels situated in a festering, trash strewn neighborhood and buffeted by ready prevented and treated diseases. She is a democracy, but her citizens are intimidated by the police, brutalized by the soldiers, harassed by landlords and employers and disfranchised by an Oligarchy unrivaled in its arrogance of power, electoral fraud and theft of public funds. To leave all these and fixate on the lifestyle of a tiny minority is unrepresentative of the society they purportedly portray.
Theirs is a pathetic form of journalism that reinforces the inanities of the society, lauds the decadent opulence of the elite, excite the fantasy and indulge the greed of the people and distort the Nigerian reality. In a newspaper article, Dele Momodu, the doyen of glamour magazine publication wrote about his style of journalism. It is, he said, to celebrate wealth. That those who choose to celebrate poverty should publish their own publications celebrating poverty. Nobody wants to celebrate poverty because poverty like sickness or deformity is unwholesomeness. People want to identify with reality which is synonymous with the truth. Glamour magazines thrive on the misrepresentation of reality; and that is falsehood.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
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