Time to give back to the Nigeria media

 On Wednesday, June 16, 2021 in Maiduguri at a Media Dialogue session of a two-day media workshop organised by the Nigeria INGO Forum, I had as part of my intervention to state my view again on the way all stakeholders in Nigeria have treated the media in the country.

The story of the struggle for independence of Nigeria cannot be told without a mention of the media. In more recent years, the various struggles against military dictatorship and especially the citizens movement that evolved after the annulment of the June 12,1993 presidential elections had bite because of the role played by the media. Some of the facts associated with these are contained in Prof. Lai Oso's book on the media roles in Nigeria political struggles, Prof. Ayo Olukotun's Repressive State and Resurgent Media under Nigeria’s Military Dictatorship and Prof. Wale Adebamiwi's Trials & Triumphs: The Story of The News, a book on The News magazine. My masters degree thesis, Media, Mood and Movement: How Media Energise Social Movements in Nigeria (1986 – 2006), also chronicles this.
Unfortunately, this sector which made the most sacrifice, in loss of business, resources, experienced official highhandedness of the military dictators, intimidation, closures and proscription, including deaths. This sector unfortunately did not benefit from the windfalls of those struggles. Big businesses, some of their operators and privileged employees who today are state's and government's apologists were the defenders of state brutality or are silent onlookers with no definable positions. I still recall, and have stated in previous writings, how a foreigner visiting Nigeria in the early days of the return to civilian rule had expressed disgust that the media in spite of having made so much sacrifices had gained nothing and the businesses that were either onlookers or collaborators became the real beneficiaries.
Today, we have a media badly affected by our collective neglect, conspiracy to destroy alternate opinions and badly managed national and subnational economies. Media houses in Nigeria today practically struggle to survive and at times have to resort to some options we in our spurious puritanical and hypocrisy are quick to condemn. The only professions I know in this country with an army of at under-40 retirees are in the media. A lot of brilliant journalists and other media practitioners who were there in the 1980s and 1990s moved on to other things while in their late 20s or in their 30s. Media houses struggle to pay for their operations and owe salary. While there are situations where we can point at some media owners who have acted irresponsibly in the management of their own resources, in case anyone wants to bring that up, the vast majority actually have challenges with resources.
Interesting thing is while all of us have made no efforts at supporting the media in Nigeria and those who work in them, we expect them to hold government accountable on our behalf. If possible, take bullets for us. I hope no one comes talking of corporates initiating awards programmes for journalists and other media workers or mention any of those CSR we have all over the place. Those CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) I've always insisted are CSI (Corporate Social Investments). In some cases, some of them are just part of the public relations and self-projection efforts by the corporates.
I look forward to the day when we will all do well with the media and provide that sector with needed support and stop making demands of it that we are unwilling to invest in. The Nigeria INGO Forum has taken the first right initiative in this dialogue. I look towards the corporates and their platforms/associations and other stakeholders doing same. And actually go ahead and come out with practical things they will do to support media, with clearly stated roadmap for doing same.

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