The Vice President shared his thoughts on the nation’s press and issues ailing it at a dialogue and book presentation in Lagos.
RATHER than celebrate her 50th birthday with pomp and circumstance, the multimedia journalist, Kadaria Ahmed, marked the occasion with an examination of the state of the Nigerian media last Saturday.
Tagged A Conversation on Media Renewal in Nigeria, the event held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Victoria Island, Lagos. It had the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), as the keynote speaker.
An impressive array of eminent Nigerians and media professionals graced the occasion, which also featured the presentation of the book 50 Voices, and award of scholarships to 6 mass communication undergraduates.
Chair of Bi-Courtney and Ms. Ahmed’s ex-employer, Dr Wale Babalakin; Managing Director of Sun Trust Bank, Mohammed Jibrin; founder of the rested news channel, NN24, Tony Darah; First Bank Director, Dr Dauda Lawal; Halima Kyari; Folake Ali-Mumuney also of First Bank and Ake Festival organiser, Lola Shoneyin were among guests at the occasion.
Others were Executive Editor of TheNews/PM News, Kunle Ajibade; activists Ayo Obe and Yemi Adamolekun; the artist Victor Ehikhamenor and Deputy Editor, Nation on Sunday who was Ahmed’s classmate at Bayero University, Kano, Olayinka Oyegbile.
Three of the celebrator’s siblings, including the wife of the Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, Asia and her mother, Hajia Hafsat Abdulwaheed, the first published female Hausa novelist also graced the occasion.
Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Channels TV where Ahmed presented her rested Straight Talk with Kadaria and the still running The Core, Mr John Momoh, got the conversation going with vital points raised in his welcome address.
Momoh underscored the importance of the media to humanity, people’s attachment to media devices and technological advances that might cause information overload. The future of the media, he submitted, is difficult to predict. “Whether you’re in the print journalism or broadcast journalism business, the future of the media is one that would be determined by three hugely disruptive forces: predicting content, virtual reality, and eradication of language barriers. It’s a new world of media and it’s ready for us. And if we use it properly, it should inspire and influence, not just entertain and inform.”
Professor Osinbajo commenced his presentation by highlighting salient facts about Nigeria’s mainstream media, including its vibrancy and resilience. Nigeria’s elite, he noted, have always understood the power of the press and that currently, there is greater access to information and freedom of expression as well as an explosion in technology.
For him, the media’s bane is its lack of vision and ingenuity, especially in the face of dwindling circulation and the disruptive influence of technology. He refused to blame the declining fortunes of the press on the internet or social media, submitting that: “This decline was already taking place long before the internet or social media became so prominent in our daily lives. Elsewhere in the world, the press is one of the custodians of collective societal memory. The press has always been there to remind us of what has gone by so that we can sort of reflect on what’s happening today. But I’m not aware that there’s any online Nigerian archive, for example of news stories, from even, say, 1999. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, there are archives dating back several decades available as public reminders of the twists and turns of ongoing events and all that.
“It’s important that we bear in mind that some of these services that the press ought to render, is not there for various reasons, the strongest being financial challenges. But you may not be able to blame financial challenges for the absence of archives. If anything, the blame should rest squarely on an absence of vision; a lack of understanding of the media’s role in the society. I think we should be more visionary about these things.
“Even more interesting is that perhaps some of the challenges the media is confronted with could be solved by a return to basic principles; to the rediscovering and understanding of our place in the society. A number of Nigerians, not to talk of foreigners, researchers, analysts, will pay a premium for a properly organized newspaper, radio or TV archives dating back at least 15 decades.”
Still, on financing, Osinbajo said: “It’s heartbreaking that it’s become almost acceptable for media houses in Nigeria to treat the salaries of their journalists as optional items in the grand scheme of staff welfare. It’s now accepted that a journalist who’s able to afford a decent existence either owns the medium, has another job where his income comes from or has learned to be innovative with being a journalist.
“You are forced to ask the question why should a newspaper or TV station that owes salaries hold to account a state government that‘s guilty of the same. Why would you question those who owe salaries?”
The vice president admitted that the media landscape had changed and that it would be “unforgivably presumptuous to define and interrogate the press today in terms of mainstream media.” He acknowledged the emergence of social media as well as the internet underworld where it is possible for an author to circulate materials and hide his/her identity.
The Nigerian media, Osinbajo further explained was dealing with circumstances that had undermined virtually every institution in the country in the last few decades. “For example, the crisis of corruption and lack of integrity is systemic; every institution is infected,” he said while highlighting similarities between the press and judiciary,” he said.
“We are dealing with a crisis of enormous proportion in our society and we are in many senses abnormal when it comes to that,” Osinbajo warned, adding that the press must ask hard questions from individuals and institutions.
“The press must be active; it must continue to hold people to account even where our justice system is slow. The press must hold people to account so that we would never go this path again. We are at a point where outrage at wrongdoing is severely low. The press and the media as crusaders for justice or against corruption, just see it as a vintage matter. Our society requires addressing big issues and staying the course long enough. Influencers and the press owe a big responsibility to this nation because our issues are peculiar. And these issues are major issues, they are crosscutting, fundamental and we must deal with them.”
All that is required to galvanise the media, he proffered, was dedicated individuals like the celebrator who would stay the course in asking hard questions.
The vice president further bared his mind on issues of welfare in a panel discussion that featured him, publisher of The Cable, Simon Kolawole; Executive Director of Daily Trust, Mannir Dan Ali and Japhet Omojuwa. It was moderated by ex-Managing Director of Channels TV, Kayode Akintemi.
Osinbajo advised the media to adopt a new business model to tackle its financial challenges. “There has to be a business model for the media that works. Obviously, those that are able to pay salaries not only have a good business model but also have integrity in their relationship with their staff which is important. But I think that there are a lot of media organizations that simply are not making the kind of money that they ought to make and are probably not working on the right business model. There are others making enough money but just don’t feel obliged to pay salary.
“Unfortunately, the reason why anyone would remain in a job where he’s not being paid, where there’s no prospect and no pension, it’s because he’s found some other means of earning a living within that system and usually those means are not the most honest means.
“The other thing is erect legislation that prevents you from owing salaries over a continuous period of time without filing for bankruptcy. In other places, if you are unable to pay salaries and are unable to meet your overhead, you are bankrupt. We do have bankruptcy laws but they need revision. But I think there must be consequences; if there are no consequences that cost you, people will continue to owe,” he stated.
Other issues raised by the panellists included a re-examination of the journalism curricular, continuous training for journalists, improved welfare and increased budgetary allocation to the education sector.