The oracles have looked again into the seeds of time again and seen that soon and very soon, the political establishment in Nigeria will take advantage of the unfavourable climate in the political economy of a free press to move against good journalism. And so this is a time to warn their operatives against such retrogressive policy strategy that will set back democracy. I mean, we should warn those who are beginning to feel uncomfortable with good journalism in Africa’s most populous black nation that there is indeed some remarkable link between good journalism and development. In other words, when state actors in the country under any subterfuge approach, begin to undermine press freedom, we will understand immediately that they are just in power to foster a growing culture of ‘national greed’. The expediency of getting our leaders to understand the role that a sycophantic press can play in their destruction is the reason for this article, which is a subtle recourse to an old diary of commentaries on the same issue at different times since 1999 when we began another uncertain democratic journey to nationhood. It is indeed a time for reputation managers of our leaders to realise that telling them to learn the rudiments of public relations and public engagement at this time after elections, isn’t an insult. Their remit is recognise broadcast and publication of facts that can assist in gauging groundswell of public opinions about their principals.

And here again is the thing, a recent debate on various platforms about the propriety of the style of questioning of an Arise News anchor, Oseni Rufai and recent commentaries by even our veterans on how some official reputation managers are feeling about some newspaper columnists in the country, has raised some alarm about imminent crack down on good journalism.. It is even curious that some professional journalists who should know are joining the clique of haters of good journalism by condemning what they call adversarial journalism at this time. The writings we are beginning to see on the walls of official ‘cyber soldiers’ indicates that the next job frontier for some fake and dubious journalists is to condemn good journalism on all fronts. They are beginning to use strange sophistry to impress state actors on different digital platforms.
After reading and listening to debates and responses to commentaries on so many platforms, I am afraid that good journalism will soon be under an attack in Nigeria where democracy is currently experiencing a crisis of coherence and confidence. That will be tragic! How will there be democracy that should nurture development without good journalism? How will there be a focus on dealing with Nigeria’s enemy number one, corruptionwhen the right to know through civic competence isn’t guaranteed via good journalism? That is why we need to talk to our people who have been empowered to manage communications at this time that they need to unlearn bad behaviour of attacking good journalism through acidic rejoinders. They need to collect facts and data from good journalism so that they can strengthen their skills in risk analysis that will improve governance reforms the current administration needs so urgently. And here is how to achieve that development strategy: 

Journalism, power and development
Let’s examine the following lines from a United Nations MacBride Commission report in 1980: Under Rights and Responsibilities of Journalists, the Commission reiterates the role of investigative journalists this way: 

‘Those in authorities often tend to conceal that which is convenient or likely to arouse public opinion against them… Active pursuit and disclosure of facts which are of public interest is one of the criteria to judge a journalist’s professional capacities…The role of the investigative journalist is to question and probe the action of those in authority and to expose them whenever there is abuse of power, incompetence, corruption and other deviations….’ Let’s deconstruct this further from the way some giants in journalism have explained this aspect of good journalism:
 
‘The Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)’ defines Investigative Journalism as journalism that targets systemic errors, aiming to right a wrong.  This is how one of the founders of the Centre Ms Sheila Coronel summarises the definition in a case study for World Bank Institute:

‘The PCIJ always addresses systemic problems.  We never look at individual cases or incidents unless we can put them in a wider context of important issues such as the environment, corruption or social disintegration.  We are always looking at the specific case as part of a bigger pattern in order to point out what is wrong in the system. This is what makes these investigations possible…. For us, investigative journalism is not just techniques, it is very important to understand investigative journalism-on a philosophical level-as journalism, which holds powerful individuals and institutions for their actions..  We are very conscious of the role investigative journalism can play in a young democracy in terms of enriching public debate, catalysing reforms and holding the powerful to account….’

Let’s deconstruct journalism in this context as defined by a practitioner in a book on the press by Dr Dokun Bojuwade, former executive of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) who retired from the old MAMSER as a director (now NOA) in the early 90’s. An unidentified practitioner in Bojuwade’s book on ‘the press and public policy’ defines the role of the press this way:

The ideal press is the First Estate of the Realm, not the Fourth…that keeps a watchful eye on the judiciary if the institution is wrongly interpreting the law…that moderates the activities of the executive if found to be presiding over a tyrannical mandate…that keeps the parliament on its toes if the body is putting out repressive legislation…

We need to get it right here as they did in the Philippines that thorough, investigative reports are capable of:
*Arousing public opinions against authorities or governments.
*Questioning actions of those in authorities.
*Exposing them whenever there are traits of corruption, incompetence and deviations.
*Drawing attention to tyranny, oppression, wrong interpretation.
*Exposing hypocrisies, double standard and allied matters…
*Exposing something somebody in power or office wants to hide.
This is the World Bank’s Framework on Investigative Reporting…

The world-class investigative story the World Bank Institute has been showcasing to the world in the Philippines took the investigators eight months. Tagged ‘Journalistic Legwork that Tumbled a President’, the report documented by Lars Moller and Jack Jackson for the World Bank Institute is about how a handful of Filipino journalists pulled the red carpet from under their powerful President Joseph Estrada in 2021.  

The World Bank has recommended the legwork in the Philippines as a brilliant case study for journalists around the World.  It is therefore pertinent for young and old journalists to understand the fact that newspapers can only be influential by the quality of regular investigative reports it publishes. It cost the Filipino investigative journalists eight million US dollars. Public officers who are afraid should expect this as we deepen democracy here.

We can see from this notebook as I have been claiming here that organic journalism isn’t public relations that most followers of people in power and their publicists want journalists to practise. Public relations goal is to manage reputation and control damage done to reputation perhaps though good journalism. This is yet another opportunity to explain this conceptual confusion to most people who do not understand what journalism is all about.  Those who like to teach journalism to journalists need to know that state actors all over the world want journalists to do public relations job for them. But good journalism seeks to cover what is odd, bizarre and unusual about peoples, places and events. 

That is also why some scholars have defined the most valuable product journalists sell, ‘the news’ as ‘something, somebody somewhere is trying to hide, the rest is advertising’. And facts, which are the main ingredients of news, are regarded as sacred. Journalism is people-centric. So, it is the remit of journalists to cover people, places and events but most people in authority, especially the power and business elite, would like journalists to cover up for them at all times as if journalists were their reputation managers. Anyone who does this for personal gains should not be regarded as a journalist. This should explain why before the kingdom of God will come to man again, journalists and state actors including those who are even doing well, will never be good friends. Such friendships never last. Reason? No reader or viewer or listener outside the state houses will subscribe to media that are full of praises of state actors who are mostly underachievers.

Readers and listeners want to read or listen to items, notably about unusual affairs of states such as robust investments in education, critical infrastructure that lead to visible and remarkable feats in WAEC/WASCE, JAMB/UTME results. People want to read about or watch on television extraordinary investments in massive road construction and healthcare facilities that will prevent medical tourism to India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, etc. But our political actors will renovate only four school classrooms and they want the classrooms photo and the commissioning on the front pages and prime time news on radio and television. What is unusual or extra-ordinary there? What is of public interest here?

What is more nauseating, our federal legislators with strange alacrity for approving foreign loans for even consumption will want journalists to hail their recklessness.

The federal legislators who would like to approve N160 million x 109 and N130 million x 360 worth of sport utility vans (SUVs) at a time of economic hardship like this would like journalists to praise them on front pages and prime-time news. The 109 senators who conducted worthless  screening of ministerial nominees and imposed on the nation a cabinet of many mediocrities would like journalists covering them to cover up their ordinariness. Where is pubic-interest content in today’s parliamentary proceedings in Nigeria? What about strangeness we see daily in judicial decisions and electoral justice system? 

All told, what our leaders are exhibiting in Abuja and many state capitals will always set off hard questions from good journalists. You can’t advertise a lean government and set up a bloated bureaucracy and expect public relations questions from good public affairs journalists. Even a Supreme Court that adds up votes to make number four governorship candidate number one after an election can’t expect soft editorials and questions from the media. A presidency that sets up a chaotic and incompetent bureaucracy that can’t scrutinise credentials of presidential nominees before announcements cannot blame journalists who ask hard questions about disorderliness and mediocrity in the presidency. Note this again, good journalism focuses on unusualness, extraordinariness, oddities in all aspects of human affairs. Yes,  good journalism isn’t about your prominence, oratory and sophistry in lying about banditry. Good journalism won’t be hard on your significant service delivery initiative and sustainable development goals for the common good.

And so, those who want to cast stones at those who ask hard questions in the context of journalism should note that there is a correlation between good journalism and development. Therefore, sycophancy is the enemy we should be afraid of, not good journalism.  
***We should continue this conversation here.    

THOSE who say life is not a straight line may be right. It is topsy turvy, full of curves, surprises and happenings that can hardly be explained satisfactorily. Niger State-born Justice Musa Datijjo Muhammed became more popular; nay, controversial, on the day he was retiring from the Supreme Court Bench than the 45 awesome years he had spent sitting on it. What will leave an imprint on the minds of the present and the future will not be any of the judgments His Lordship delivered beginning from 1978 when he was appointed as Magistrate Grade 11 up to his elevation to the highest court of the land, the Supreme Court, on 10 July, 2012, but the valedictory speech he made on his last day on the Bench on Friday, 27 October, 2023. That speech is what will define him, for better or for worse. In his valedictory speech, Dantijjo pulled no punches as he took the judiciary to the cleaners, not sparing even the very head of that arm of government, his boss and the Chief Justice of the Federation. In fact, it would appear that the CJN was the direct object of Dantijjo’s vitriolic attack. What can we call this: Staying inside and pissing inside or defecating on the seat while vacating it?

Now, we talk of motives and timing. In my African Philosophy class in the university, I was taught a very spectacular African concept of cause and effect that distinguished it from the Hellenic or Euro-centric concept. What, when, where and how are questions the Western world asks when an event occurs; the African goes a step forward to ask why the event happened, why at that material time, why at that particular place, and why to that particular person? Motives help us to have a better understanding of cause and effect. Timing also throws light on the inner recesses of actors that the happenings themselves, taken at their face value, may not yield. For instance, in Dantijjo’s tongue-lashing of the CJN, the judiciary as a whole, and the apex court’s handling of the presidential election petitions filed by the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party counterpart, Mr. Peter Obi, we must seek out the motives and timing behind the attack.

Dantijjo accused the CJN of wielding immense powers that can make him – in fact, he has become – authoritarian and dictatorial, capable of – in fact, has – taken decisions without consulting his peers on the Bench. Says Lord Acton: Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. But the question to ask is this: Is this a new omnibus power given to the present CJN or has those powers always been available to the CJNs before him? If those powers have always been available – which I think is the case – why is Dantijjo crying out now and not before now? Dantijjo spent a whopping 11 years on the Supreme Court Bench, he must have worked with about four of five CJNs all wielding the same powers as the current CJN. There-in, then, comes motives. Are there personal issues involved? Was there a competition for this post that went one way to the displeasure of another? Were there personality clashes? Otherwise, why now? Why this timing? I do not want to ask whether there are internal machineries available at the apex court to ventilate grievances and iron out issues rather than wash dirty lines in the public. Dantijjo’s valedictory speech, celebrated wildly and widely in the media, did more harm than good to the judiciary where he spent almost all of his life and whose leading light he is supposed to be. If a justice of the Supreme Court could speak so lowly of the judiciary, why should ordinary citizens repose any confidence in it? Was Dantijjo building – or was he destroying – the judiciary? Whatever lapses there are in the judiciary, he must have been a part of it. He cannot wash himself clean with his valedictory speech – except we have evidence that he had cried himself hoarse in the past, without the authorities giving heed. In which case, it would have been honourable for him to resign in protest, and not spend his time out and retire with full benefits before speaking out!

I was still meditating on this and Dantijjo’s allegation that justices of the Supreme Court from two of the six geo-political zones were not on the panel that heard Atiku and Obi’s petitions, thereby rendering their decision tainted, in the view of Dantijjo, and thinking whether or not I should join issues with his Lordship when I received the lecture delivered by another eminent jurist, retired Kogi State high court judge, Justice Alaba Omolaye Ajileye, which, in my opinion, addressed the issue raised by His Lordship Dantijjo, on the composition of the Supreme Court panel of jurists that made the final pronouncements on Atiku and Obi’s petitions. His Lordship Omolaye Ajileye, Nigeria’s foremost authority on the law of electronic evidence, spoke in a lecture delivered at the 9th annual week of the Badagry branch of the Nigerian Bar Association held last Thursday. It was titled “Leveraging emerging legal challenges to the rule of law in the prevailing socio-economic realities in Nigeria” He said: “Distinguished gentlemen of the Bar, whether we accept it or not, the truth remains that the public is watching what is going on in our courts and regularly and deeply questioning the rationale behind certain decisions, and rightly so. If there was ever a period where we expected the public to blindly trust the Judiciary, it is long gone. The trust necessary for the public to accept judicial decisions and court orders is fundamental to the rule of law. The Judiciary must continually ask itself, how and why did it allow things to degenerate to this level? This is because the Nigerian judiciary had undoubtedly enjoyed high levels of trust in the past. The judiciary must take this decline in public trust seriously. It cannot afford to be complacent. It is dangerous for it to assume that trust is ever-present. It must address this trust deficit.

“The public should and must be able to trust in the individual judges and the judiciary as an institution which wields immense power on its behalf. As Alexander Hamilton famously said, unlike the executive and legislature, the judiciary “has no influence over either sword or the purse” and “may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment”.  Armed with only the power of judgment, the judiciary requires the legitimacy gained from public trust to function effectively to make the rule of law blossom. The general acceptance of judicial decisions, by citizens and by governments, is essential for peace, welfare, good government and the rule of law. The corollary is also true. To distrust the judiciary is a ready recipe for anarchy. This is because citizens who trust the judiciary are more likely to engage with the legal system to address their legal issues and to co-operate with its processes…

“Still on the issue of trust, His Lordship, Hon. Justice Dattijo Muhammad, JSC (Rtd), recently made a statement at his valedictory that raises a jurisprudential question on securing public trust and justice. I quote Him: To ensure justice and transparency in presidential appeals from the lower court, all geo-political zones are required to participate in the hearing. It is, therefore, dangerous for democracy and equity for two entire regions to be left out in the decisions that will affect the generality of Nigerians. The grouse of His Lordship here is that both the North Central and South East geo-political zones were not represented in the panel of Justices of the Supreme Court that decided appeals that arose from the Presidential Election Tribunal to the apex court recently. This he describes as ‘dangerous for democracy and equity’

“While the focus of His Lordship was on the absence of Justices from the North Central and South East geo-political zones in the panel, it was easy for social media commentators to quickly draw attention to the fact that the South West geo-political zone that parades the Chief Justice of Nigeria and two other eminent Justices of the Supreme Court was also not represented in the panel. According to the commentators, it was also in order to ensure ‘transparency and equity’ . The issue is neither here nor there. My humble position here is, it is better that the Judiciary, including the Supreme Court, be perceived as a homogeneous entity that serves the interest of all. It is dangerous to the society to perceive justice from the prisms of tribes, religion or geo-political divisions. Justice ought to remain an integral whole that does not admit of partition along tribal or geo-political bifurcation. It is also more dangerous if the impartiality of the Supreme Court is to wait for people to see the extent to which they have been represented by Justices who come from their geo-political zones.

“Secondly, with due respect, to perceive justice from geo-political lines is to trivialize justice. Justice is far more important than that. If we accept the intrinsic worth of every human being, then, justice becomes the minimum debt we owe to him, for if we deny him justice, we have declared him worthless. The dispenser of justice should, therefore, be a person that is even-handed, blind to all social distinctions and disparities in wealth, religion, tribe, status and no respecter of persons, just as justice itself should be. If a nation cannot not look at their judges and see men and women who are upright enough to uphold the principle of the rule of law and do justice to all manner of people without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, then, I will simply say that nation has lost it!”

On point of law, there is nothing to add to what His Lordship, Alaba Omolaye Ajileye, currently with the Baze University, Abuja, has said, but if desperate politicians are stopping at nothing to ridicule judges and ruin the judiciary; if litigants’ lawyers can be said to be doing their job; what do we make of any eminent jurist who lines up behind those to disparage his own seat of honour? Must you, for no justifiable reason, lend a helping hand to those intent on destroying the house you spent close to half a century labouring hard to build? This Nigeria don tire me o!

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Saturday night, disclosed that its operatives on off-season election have arrested 14 suspected vote buyers in Otueke, Adawari playgrounds in Bayelsa State and at various polling units in Imo and Kogi States.

According to the commission in a statement on its official X-account, they were arrested on Saturday, in intelligence-driven operations that commenced several days before the ongoing governorship elections in the three states.

“Also, a total sum of N11,040,000 (Eleven Million, Forty Thousand Naira only) comprising N9,310,000 (Nine Million, Three Hundred and Ten Thousand Naira) intercepted from suspected vote buyers and sellers in Bayelsa and N1,730,000 (One Million, Seven Hundred and Thirty Thousand Naira) intercepted from electoral fraud suspects across Imo State, were also recovered from them.

“Also, two vehicles were intercepted from the suspects.

“They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded,” the statement added.

[Nigerian Tribune]

The governorship candidate of Action Alliance in Kogi State, Olayinka Braimoh, was arrested yesterday, his media aide, Musa Yakubu,  told journalists, saying his principal was arrested by security operatives in Kabba.

Musa said the candidate and seven of his security details were nabbed after campaign materials were allegedly found in his car.

Yakubu had earlier raised the alarm over the candidate’s whereabouts.

“The last time I heard from him was in the morning when he called from Kabba town, but all attempts to get through to him since that time proved abortive,” Yakubu said.

[Leadership]

An academic colleague and close friend in an American university asked me to contribute some thoughts to a faculty discussion platform on the changing face of journalism especially as reflected in the interplay between legacy and social media as well as the interface between ‘fake news’ and factual reporting in media activity around Nigeria’s last general elections. This was part of a project on the future of global media culture.

Here was my take:

Nigeria’s last election cycle sprang so many surprises. Beyond the electoral outcomes which largely defied most enlightened polls and the deeply divided opinion at home, the election season in general came up with challenges in the area of mass communication and media activity. Almost like the Nigerian electorate, the media was perplexed by the new trends that the 2023 election season revealed.

First, the pattern of media economics and the news business defied familiar traditions and conventional expectations. In the past, it had been the rule that legacy media- print, electronic and outdoor –would experience a boom in terms of patronage and advertisement revenue at election time. There would normally be a deluge of political reporting and advertising as political interests jostle for visibility and topicality. Advertising agency budgets usually balloon, media houses reap a harvest, political reporters don new sneakers for increased activity.

In the past, political parties and candidates would usually pre-book and pre-pay for advertisement and supplement spaces. All manner of PR agents and political media consultants would have a field day. Available reporters would be overly engaged with trying to keep pace with the campaign schedules of key candidates. The scramble and jostle would normally be heightened by the rather large expanse of the Nigerian political landscape.

It is a multiverse of candidates and a market place of ambitions. You had over 80 parties each expected to present presidential candidates. Each of them was expected to present a candidate for each of our 36 state governorships, candidates  for close to 400 Federal House of Representatives seats, 90 Senate seats, any number of state Houses of Assembly seats etc. This is literally an army of political contestants each requiring media attention and seeking to be heard by a population of over 100 million voting age adult Nigerians and a limitless international market place of media hungry people who want to hear or read about Nigeria.

But contrary to expectations and projections, the media budgets of both traditional advertising agencies and the media themselves witnessed a rude shock. For some reason, Nigeria’s last election season defied all the ‘normal’ expectations and projections. It was like no season before it. Advertisement revenue was scanty for both legacy and online titles and even the advertising agencies who now had to cope with the demands of new formats, technologies and changing audiences.

Political parties and key candidates held back on their spend till the last moments and even at that point, the advertisement bookings were scanty in relative terms.

On the whole, the legacy print media said they all fared rather poorly in terms of political advertising revenue and traffic. But for a few belated wrap-around front page advertisements, not so much space bookings were made. Television and radio fared slightly better. This is probably because we live in a festival inspired African society in an age of visuals and audio. This is the age of talkatives and gossips! Political candidates dress themselves up like merchandise seeking for colour and dramatic presence. Closely following this is the culture of robust and loud expression for which Nigerians are now world famous. Every Nigerian wants to be heard loudest. So all manner of noisy audio clips got aired on any number of AM, FM and satellite radio stations all over the country and the Nigerian diaspora.

But the emergence and explosion of the social media was perhaps the decisive difference. Online media platforms mushroomed into numerical dominance over and above legacy media outlets. No one has an accurate count of the number of titles and platforms.

For the first time, ownership of the media itself became democratized instead of merely serving the ends of democracy. It is not just in the ownership of the tools of communication- cell phones, computers, tablets etc. The individualized use of these devices to communicate across a democratic space marked the decisive departure towards a new democratization of media communication in the service of democracy and freedom.

In other words, the term social media connotes the unbundling of communication from the ‘fourth estate’ concept to the era of universal freedom. The fourth estate of the realm is now more a description of the function of the media rather than a designation for a specialized professional undertaking and its privileged institutions. For the first time in human history, the fourth estate of the realm is now Everyman, Woman, Child or destitute wielding a cheap cell phone from Vietnam or Shanghai.

The key revolution in communication is that, for the first time, both the voters, the political parties and the candidates themselves all became active communicators. Party online media platforms multiplied and posted their own real time stories and photos. Individual candidates wrote their own news stories, updated and posted their own photo feeds on the go and directed their own Op-Ed commentary warfare and news reports on the go. Since most registered online platforms do not have the necessary funding to be as mobile as the politicians they were reporting at rallies and campaigns, they were less instantaneous and current than the subjects they were reporting on. The politicians went around with their own cell phones and hand held production crew to shoot and broadcast their won videos and push them onto the world stage at the speed of lightening.

Both the voters and election officials also became reporters, commentators and value judges themselves. Therefore, not much media spend by politicians and political parties went to the legacy media or to the numerous new online platforms. Much of the campaign budget stayed in the pockets and bank vaults of parties and political actors.

What Has Fiction Got to Do With It?

The world of fiction is a world of make belief. It is at the same time a true reflection of reality but essentially a lie because it tells life’s truths based on the laws of a ‘lie’. Some scholars have spoken of the truth of literature and fiction as a world of ‘truthful lies’.

A work of fiction exists as an objective reality. We can see and touch a novel, a play or a book of poems. We can listen to recordings of folk tales. But the world which a work of literary fiction recreates does not exist as an objective reality. Its content is never a three –dimensional touchable realty. As audience, we read, perceive and listen in suspended disbelief. We know it is a ‘lie’ but believe it because it reflects truths that remind us of our own experiences in reality. King Lear is not exactly the king in the next town. But the choices he has to make and the experiences he goes through as a tormented fictional sovereign speak of real experiences and the torments of high office when faced with the forces of change. He becomes every king of influence and authority in our real world. We fear for ourselves because we are ‘human’ like the demented king but overcome his torment because we know he is imaginary.

Critics, theorists, publishers  and other people who make a living out of producing and popularizing literature take themselves and their trades seriously. They are teachers, scholars, publishers, publicists, printers and even students engaged in real life objective engagements and productive pursuits. Their efforts are not make belief, or fictional fantasies. Literary critics and theorists like myself make value judgments about the fictional people and actions we experience in literature. They do what we as journalists do in our job as witnesses to history in a hurry. We all take ourselves seriously in a world ruled by division of labour and professional specialization.

Where Fiction and Journalism Meet in Politics

Politicians who contest today’s democratic elections around the world have a lot in common with the heroes that dominate the world of literary fiction. Similarly, journalists who report and comment on the actions of these politicians are more like the chorus in Greek tragedy or even comedy. Through us journalists as chorus and cheer mongers, the public as participant/observers in a democratic process are able to draw their conclusions and make up their minds as to which candidate to support or vote for.

A political campaign in full steam takes on the guise of literature in the form of drama. Politicians, like comedians, wear garish costumes. They speak in unserious esoteric language, pretending to be what they are not. Even the things they say are far removed from their authentic beliefs. They speak a language that can be called ‘political speak’ in which every thing is promised and very little is verifiable or intended to be held as an article of faith. Consistent deniability is the hallmark of ‘political speak’.

This is a realm that is in direct opposition to the real world of real people who face poverty and deprivation. These ordinary people go out to listen to political campaign speeches to assuage their adversities and nurture some hope. It is like going out to watch a choreographed piece of dramatic presentation.  Nothing approximates dramatic literature better than a political campaign ‘performance’.

Fake News as Fiction Toppling Reality

The rise of ‘fake news’ is the nearest we get to journalists admitting their proximity to fiction makers and creative fiction artists. In ‘fake news’, some ‘journalists’ and commentators put on the garb of fiction writers. But fake news is disturbingly real. It is however more dangerous than factual news. Fake news has a readier likelihood to upset social and political order by inciting riots, mob upheaval and civil disobedience than factual reporting. When we now add the emerging tricks of Artificial Intelligence (AI)  to deepen the impact of fake news, we are well within the realm of dangerous journalism and destructive literature. The pen as the ultimate sword! The road to universal political Armageddon is paved with doses of fake news and ‘creative’ reporting! In terms of their destructive potential, fake news animated by AI could be as catastrophic as when AI overwrites the command protocols in the defense computer network of a nuclear super power.

When former US President Donald Trump speaks of ‘alternative truths’ and ‘alternative reality’, he is actually licensing journalists to become fiction writers. Above all, he is deliberately engaging in destructive propaganda as we saw in the January 6, 2022 mob revolt and invasion of the US Capitol. When a journalist concocts fiction and posts it online as fact, he blurs the dividing line between fiction and reality. The reading or listening public is lost as to where to draw the line. Dangerous people fed bad ideas through fake news can be a lethal threat to the world as we saw in the Washington Capitol armed invasion of January 6.

In that event, the parameters for judging news and genuine journalism meet and mix with criteria for literary evaluation because fiction take on a viral life and life itself takes on a literary garb.

The Triumph of  Ultimate Power

When we are tasked to assess a major political event such as the last elections in Nigeria, we have a task of disentangling or separating reality from fiction in the actions and behaviors of political actors.

In terms of the reality of experience in Nigeria’s last election, mostly non- factual categories dominated the coverage of the candidates. Religion, ethnicity, youth sensationalism and plain outright comic dramatic effect replaced hard truths in most of the media coverage of the candidates. The candidates became something of fictional heroes- tragic or comic heroes depending on your angle of perception. We may never know whether  Tinubu’s “ba ba blu” gibberish was meant to be a comic distraction or something elxe since they have net resurfaced since after he won the election. Similarly, since Peter Obi did not win the election, we have no way of knowing whether indeed his posturing about more prudent governance were genuine. We may never know whether Atiku Abubakar would have been the urbane cosmopolitan Nigerian president or yet another Sahelian Fulani pretender to the throne.

As far as the implications of these developments concern the evolution of the media and political communication, some major shifts have taken place. We are now squarely in the age of horizontal (equalitarian) information flow as against a vertical (top to bottom)information flow. We no longer have the media as the lofty fourth estate of the realm hovering above the reality of political and social life. The media is no longer an elevated elitist reality existing above the social and political realms and handing down information to the rest of society as before. That era is over.

Instead, information has become both an entitlement and social responsibility of everyone. People pass round news, opinion, reports, images among themselves on a horizontal plain even as they carry on with the rituals of daily living. Even when tragedy strikes as in a motor accident or a shooting, people are busy making videos of the incident and reporting it just as they help first responders to assist the injured or evacuate the dead.  Everyone is now both a news maker and a news purveyor. To be a citizen is also to be a journalist. 

As it were, two things have happened that will forever change the face of communication of social and political realities in the world ahead. First, democracy has appropriated media communication and now owns it. Second, the world of reality and that of fiction have merged in the milieu of the social media to create a new genre of journalism, “fake news” which feeds on or is even quasi fiction or “alternative reality”. The looming dominance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will further blur all the remaining demarcations between truth, reality, news, fiction and a new virtual world in which humanity a is a collection of mere avatars in a virtual universe.

Long ago, I read the story of a young boy whose mum gave two 10 kobo coins on a Sunday morning. “This 10 kobo is for offering. The other one is for sweets after service,” the mum instructed him. The boy kept the coins in his breast pocket. On his way to church, one of the coins fell out of his pocket as he jumped over a ditch. The boy shook his head and said: “Dear God, there goes your 10 kobo.” Sense won’t kill him! That is the selfishness always at play whenever the Nigerian economy is in a bad state: the little resources left are for the comfort of our leaders and the brunt of the crunch is to be borne only by the people. It always happens. Nothing ever changes in our dearly beloved country.

Nigerians have been going through hell in recent years and things could only get worse with the removal of petrol subsidy and the official devaluation of the naira. While these painful policies are inevitable — the truth is that we were living a lie and had refused to make necessary adjustments for too long — the message of “sacrifice” would have been more appealing if our leaders were, for Pete’s sake, practising what they preach. So far, I have not seen any measure or behaviour under President Bola Tinubu to show that the message of “sacrifice” is for all. It is lowly Nigerians that always have to “sacrifice” to keep the champagne flowing for the leaders in their yachts and jets.

Where do I start from? Senator Sunday Steve Karimi, the senator representing Kogi West, was on TV some weeks ago trying to justify the decision of the National Assembly to buy “committee cars”, each reportedly valued at N160 million. For those who may not know: before the introduction of the monetisation policy of the federal government in 2003 or so, every member of the National Assembly was given a new official car. However, with monetisation, the cost of a car is now calculated and paid, along with other allowances such as wardrobe and medical, on a pro-rata basis to the lawmakers. But they still go on buying “committee cars” to help them do “oversight” work.

If they truly need “committee cars”, why buy for every member? Why can’t they buy pool cars as their own “sacrifice”? Of course, they are having their egg and eating it at the same time. And you know what? Government assets are depreciated at 25 percent per year. By the fourth year, it has zero value. The committee cars will end up as personal assets at zero price. Sense won’t kill these people! That may be why Karimi said foreign SUVs are the ones made for Nigerian roads. “If I go home once to my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad,” he said as per the suggestion that the lawmakers should kindly buy SUVs assembled in Nigeria.

Karimi was telling the truth. By the way, he is my senator. In fact, between 2011 and 2019, he was also the member representing my Yagba East/Yagba West/Mopamuro constituency in the House of Reps. By and large, he has been travelling between Abuja and Kogi West in SUVs since 2011. He knows the meaning of bad roads. The last time I travelled to my village to bury my grandmother, the roads were so, so horrible. As you go past Aiyetoro Gbedde on your way from Kabba, the rest is torture, from Mopa through Isanlu to Egbe, all in Kogi state, and then deep into Kwara. But unlike Karimi, most people don’t have Prados to help them through the nightmare. Such a lucky chap.

Karimi’s misadventure on Channels TV explains many things about the mindset of most of those ruling over us — and this is not limited to legislators. It includes the big guys in the executive and the judicial arms of government. For one, these people don’t understand why they are in office. When the roads are bad, they do not think it is their job, one way or the other, to get them fixed. Instead, they go and buy SUVs so that they can successfully enter the potholes and come out in flying colours. When there is insecurity, they travel under the protection of police, NSCDC and military officers. That is their understanding of why they are in power: to feather their own nests without let or hindrance.

Two, these guys — again, I mean the guys in power — are deaf and blind, as it were. At a time Nigerians are complaining about the price of petrol, what these guys are thinking about is the price of SUV. If these guys are really in touch with the people as they always claim, they will think less about personal comfort and more about the rising cost of living for the ordinary Nigerian who does not have access to the treasury, who does not sit on committees, who does not award contracts and who does not get “oversight” alerts. There is an almighty disconnect between those in power and the people on the streets. Not that it started today, but there is just no let-up despite our cries.

Three, Karimi made a Freudian slip and ended up exposing the mentality of many public officers. “Somebody that is a minister has more than three Land Cruisers, Prado, and other vehicles, and you are not asking them questions. Why us?” he asked. In truth, the competition in government is usually about “my Mercedes is bigger than yours”. Ministers and legislators should be competing on the basis of how many roads, schools and hospitals they have used their influence to fix in their constituencies — not how many Land Cruisers, Prados and mansions they have accumulated while in “service” to fatherland. We can never fix Nigeria until we are able to fix this warped mentality.

Finally, Karimi’s interview further exposed the sense of entitlement among those who rule Nigeria. They think Nigeria owes them everything. Last week, Pastor Sam Adeyemi preached a message straight from Matthew 20:25-28 on what Jesus told his disciples about the meaning of leadership: “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

In Nigeria, it is the other way round. To be a leader — either in government or private sector — is to be a tin god. Rather than serve, you are to be served. Rather than sacrifice your comfort for the good of the people, you make the people sacrifice for your comfort. That is why anytime there is austerity, as we are currently facing, our leaders will collect every kobo they are entitled to, and then say, like the little boy, “Dear Nigerians, there goes your 10 kobo.” There will be no “cash backing” when it comes to delivering the goods to the people. There will be money to pay for presidential yachts and presidential jets but when it comes to funding education, the budget will start underperforming.

Pastor Adeyemi said you cannot be a good leader in any sphere of life if you do not love the people you are leading. Spot on! I agree wholeheartedly. If you have love, you will have compassion. That is a given. You cannot be a leader in a poverty-ridden society, where poor people are treated like rags at public hospitals, where the children of the poor are dropping out of school because they cannot afford the cost, where people are trekking to office because they cannot afford the transport fare — and your priority will be how to acquire the most expensive toys in town for “committee work” or to travel in chartered flights. No. Your conscience will not allow you to fiddle while Rome burns.

Make no mistakes about it: this is not just an Abuja problem. We don’t even know how many cars the state legislators are buying for “committee work”, or how much allowances they collect every month. We are not really interested in that. We do not know how the state budgets are padded or how the contracts are awarded. We do not know if yachts and jets are also a thing for some of the governors. We do not care that much. Those who control public discourse in Nigeria have fervently framed everything wrong with governance as an Abuja problem or some political structure. Everything starts and ends in Abuja. Unfortunately, that is how we see things and there is nothing we can do about it.

I have been saying this for a while and I accept that many Nigerians will never agree with me: the real division in Nigeria is not north and south, Christian and Muslim, six geo-political zones, 250 ethnic groups, or even APC, PDP and Labour Party. Rather, the real division is into two groups: Group A and Group B, in which Group A is for the elite in power and their associates and Group B is for the “other Nigerians”. Those mismanaging Nigeria and taking advantage of the public treasury do not have ethnic, religious or partisan inhibitions. They are united in their insensitivity and squandermania. I have not seen any legislator from any party or ethnic group come out to reject the SUV bonanza.

On the other hand, those suffering the consequences of the waste and mismanagement are from all ethnic groups, parties, religions and regions. Inflation does not spare people because they are Hausa or Igbo, PDP or APC, northerners or southerners. You see, an egg can sell for N200, garri for N500 per mudu, petrol for N2,000 per litre and diesel for N2,000 per litre. It is none of the business of Group A. They will still eat in excess and waste much. They will still buy more cars and build more houses. They will still go for “summer”. They will always take care of themselves — with the help of the “broke” treasury. The message of sacrifice is for the others: “Dear Group B, there goes your 10 kobo.”

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AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

MIGHTY MATAWALLE

Alhaji Bello Matawalle, minister of state for defence, has been under the spotlight over his actions and deeds as Zamfara governor from 2019 to 2023. The state government has published a long list and bundles of pictures of projects that Matawalle fully paid for but were totally abandoned or not executed. One was a N1 billion “catering centre” that is just a pile of blocks. In his response, Matawalle said the exposé is aimed at discrediting him and getting him fired as minister. I would advise Matawalle not to worry about that. With what I have seen and heard so far, I don’t think any appointee should be worried about getting sacked by President Tinubu for corruption. Extravaganza.

SOLIDARITY SICKNESS

Members of the National Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Thursday disrupted flights at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in solidarity with the NLC president, Comrade Joe Ajeiro, who was assaulted obviously by political thugs or police officers or both in — wait for this — faraway Imo state! The Abuja disruption is the height of irresponsibility. What is the business of other Nigerians with the fight between Ajaero and his state governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, who was seeking re-election and whom Ajaero apparently doesn’t want to return to office? The excesses of some of these unionists need to be curbed urgently. Rascality.

ISRAEL’S HAMMER

More than a month after war broke out between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group which also doubles as a political party governing Gaza, there are still no winners. Hamas had launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, reportedly killing 1,400 Israelis and taking 200 hostage. Israel typically responded with maximum force and over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have reportedly died. But one fact remains: nobody is going to win this war. Bombs cannot. Guns cannot. Only common sense will. Israel will have to accept the two-state solution (by accepting Palestinians’ right to have a country) and Hamas have to recognise Israel’s right to exist. Compromise.

FINALLY…

Anytime MultiChoice increases its tariffs, it always attracts more attention than the prices of garri and onions — or any other price hikes in Nigeria. The National Assembly and some unions would threaten to shut down the pay TV company’s operations in Nigeria. Meanwhile, costs of goods and services (particularly those paid for in dollars) have been on the rise for years because of the FX situation. Government fees and levies have been going up. But there seems to be an obsession with MultiChoice which I have never been able to understand. At this rate, the National Assembly may have to amend the constitution in order to declare pay TV as a fundamental human right. Weird.

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Imo State, Athan Achonu, on Saturday, alleged that thugs beat up his party’s agent during the election.

Achonu charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the votes in polling units marred by violence.

The governorship candidate stated this in Umunumo hamlet in the Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State.

When asked if the electoral body should cancel votes in polling units marred by violence, Achonu said, “Of course where this thing is happening, they must cancel it.

“There is no other alternative than to cancel it so that every person will come there and watch it conducted.

“They beat up so many of our agents. We are sad, we are going to upload some of their pictures. This is crazy, this is what our democracy has come to.

“But we are resisting. Can’t you see the people here? They will not allow it. I hope it is the same thing going on everywhere so that we can have proper democracy and bring in good governance.”

His Holiness, Pope Francis, leader of more religious adherents than any other religious leader in the world (and in human history, for that matter), has consistently strived to stress the communality of all those who believe in God, regardless of their religious persuasion.

His Eminence, Sultan Saad Abubarkar III, whom I consider to be the leader of the greatest number of Moslems on Earth (he certainly has more subjects than any other Moslem ruler, indeed far more than the King of Saudi Arabia) once noted that religious divisions are rather overrated, given that we are mostly born into a religion we didn't choose for ourselves and that our religious peculiarities cannot be legitimate grounds for hatred, much less to the extent of bloodshed.

I guess the argument can be made that it is not impossible, but how likely would it have been for me, if my parents were from Saudi Arabia, and I was born in Mecca, to have ended up a Christian?

By that same token, how likely would it have been for some other person, whose parents are ancestrally from Rome, and was born in a hospital in Vatican City, of all countries, to end up being a Moslem?

Maybe somewhere in the remotest village in the Congo or the Amazon, someone with the brain capacity of a Darwin, a Soyinka, a Newton or a Ramanujan was born decades ago but because he had no opportunity for formal education remains just another odd fellow till today.

Tomorrow, some far less intelligent fellow takes a camera to his village, makes a documentary, and describes him as a member of a primitive tribe!

We don't have any control as to the circumstances of our birth and however hard we try, it is still ultimately only by grace that we end up making anything of our lives.

So, who is your brother or your sister in this sinful world?

My approach to the problem is to apply the test of the Culture of Christ.

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said: "By their fruits, you shall know them."

That for me is the ultimate standard (it is the Christian standard, anyway, and that is my religion) and when I apply it to my fellow man, oftentimes a Moslem might emerge before me, far more of a child of God than even a fellow Christian.

Indeed even a traditional worshipper, Hindu, Buddhist or person of whatever religious persuasion might end up exhibiting more of the Culture of Christ than a fellow Christian!

I don't know what is wrong with those who keep trying to devide us through religion but I know that God will not forgive them, be they a Peter Obi plotting religious war, while pretending to be a pan-Nigerian, or, a Sheik Ahmad Gumi talking absolute rubbish, while hobnobbing with extremists, terrorists, bandits and kidnappers.

I have found the attitude of Yorubas to religion to be one of the reasons that most endears them to me.

Some people erroneously think Yorubas don't take religion seriously but nothing could be further from the truth.

On the contrary, Yorubas take religion extremely seriously but they also take religious freedom equally seriously and that is a sociocultural maturity I would recommend to the holier than thou hypocrites around the world who prefer to divide rather than unite in God's Most Holy Name.

I can never be anything but a Christian but I'm not really interested whether my fellowman is a Christian, Moslem or of some other creed.

Regardless of his or her religious identity, if they bear the fruits of a child of God, they are my flesh and blood as much as any Christian who does the same.

"Oh, how wonderful, how pleasing it is when God's children all come together as one!" Psalm 133:1.

May love lead.

Onokpasa, a lawyer, was a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC Presidential Campaign Council, and writes from Abuja.

An 86-year-old woman, Mercy Okodo, has expressed disappointment that her name was missing from the voters register in her polling unit in Yenagoa, Bayelsa.

The woman said she trekked to polling unit 011 at Yenada Market Square, Epie III Ward, Yenagoa, in order to vote for her governorship candidate.

The polling unit has 822 registered voters.

Mrs Okodo expressed disappointment that her name was missing in spite of voting at the same polling unit in the past.

“I’m surprised to be told that my name is not on the voters list, it’s very disappointing,” the octogenarian said.

Mrs Okodo, who said she was at the polling unit before voting started, was eventually assisted to return home by a good Samaritan.

Meanwhile, Sarah Godfrey, a 60-year-old civil servant, said after casting her vote at the polling unit that the election had been peaceful.

She commended INEC for making special arrangements for elderly persons to vote without hassle.

Mrs Godfrey, who recently had surgery, said she came out to vote for the future of her children.

“I had a surgical operation, but I could not sit down at home without voting. I am doing this because I believe it will be the turn of my children tomorrow.”

(NAN)