Onjefu OkiduThe name, WIKE, has assumed reprehensible meaning for some peccable Nigerians. They associate it with “TROUBLE.” Wike’s political life has been an open book since 2015 when he became governor of Rivers State. He shares his feelings and thoughts on issues with a remarkable tour de force. Unarguably, the man has delineated himself very clearly among Nigerian politicians as courageous, candid, frank, open, blunt, forthright and undiplomatic, and has refused to give up on those things that would correct Nigeria’s downward trajectory even though he has been intensely misjudged, misunderstood, vilified and denigrated. His stance on how Nigeria can make real progress often puts him at odds with some Nigerians who appear indifferent to the country’s social, economic and political conundrum. He is, unarguably, the loudest voice of political rectitude in Nigeria today.
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As he has pointed out again and again, despite being dressed in borrowed robes of a “TROUBLEMAKER,” Wike is enjoying the serenity of mind, soul and spirit because unlike many Nigerians he discovered who he is, his true self, long time ago as an uncommon breed who has brought daunting courage and fearlessness to the universe and Nigeria. His voice is his superpower. Despite his loud opposition to national retrogressive ideas and actions, he is about the most vilified political figure in the country today. Of all the attacks on his person and political life, he appears most disappointed by the professional transgression of some Nigerian media to the extent that he has indirectly thrown up an unconscious debate agenda as to whether Arise News is propaganda, political party or journalism. Undoubtedly, transgression has become a big problem in Nigerian journalism and has been contributing in no small measure to the odious Nigerian conundrum.
Despite being visible with manifest grand impact on a global scale, the most burdensome credibility question increasingly staring the faces of journalism professionals in Nigeria, Africa, and the world currently is whether Arise News is truly propaganda or journalism. Lasswell’s classic work, Propaganda Technique in the World, presents one of the most careful attempts at the description of the concept of propaganda. According to Lasswell, “propaganda is not necessarily false, since sometimes the truth can be good propaganda.” Journalism is not a logical truth but the truth, and nothing but the truth. Most descriptions of the concept of journalism recognize absolute truth as its core ethics. Hence, journalists wherever they may be should be attempting the same thing: unravelling the absolute truth at all costs. This has been the essence of journalism from the beginning.
Beyond the sustained deliberate, conscious, determined and committed campaign of making Wike a political bad guy, and his consequent fight-back, Arise News tends to serve as an example of one of the deeper malaise contributing to the Nigerian journalism conundrum. In particular, the recent political crisis that engulfed Rivers State calls to question the journalistic credibility of the anchors of The Morning Show. In a real sense, 31 October through to 2 November 2023 saw the programme highlight one of the worst moments of Nigerian journalism.
First, virtually all the guests head-hunted and brought on the programme to discourse the issue were Wike’s staunch political enemies. There was no single guest head-hunted to balance the pack. And so, how could the audience arrive at the truth however obvious it may be? Second, most of the questions asked were virtually direct lead questions spiced with name-calling and snide comments aimed at making Wike a bad guy. Usually, journalists ask tricky questions to lay bare the truth. Third, the anchors displayed a stark lack of background research on the root and immediate causes of the Rivers crisis probably to confuse the truth. When the whole thing is put together, it does not just amount to propaganda but what one can simply refer to as hate speech.
As one of the foremost American journalists, Walter Lippmann, pointed out, a journalist always confronts ideas with opposing ideas so that people will get true ideas, and if this is not done, journalism will become silly or filled with deception, and cannot be preserved against the demand for restoration of order or of decency. In contrast, most times, the anchors of The Morning Show, have the tendency to generalize based on their fixated ideas about issues and are more inclined to believe “the pictures in their heads” than to come to judgment with critical, in-depth and broad thinking. Or what Lippmann refers to as “intelligent, fact-based communication, honest in intent and effect, serving no cause but the discernible truth.
Actually, journalism is far too truthful, powerful and important to require profit from hatred.
But, blaming The Morning Show anchors and the Arise TV owner is not fair, it is not! Aside from the political economy of the stomach, these are smart interlopers who have hardly had any journalism training, who have refused to recognize even the existence of journalism as a profession, and who think they know everything beyond the universe including metaphysics. It hardly needs to be said, therefore, that among the majority of Nigerians who are penetrated by Arise News, there exists a deep-seated degree of uncertainty and mistrust about the professional qualification of The Morning Show anchors. They know fully well that much of the Arise News is there to inform and entertain, it is also there to do more, not to debase their tastes, pander to preoccupations with trivia, or conversely propagate acceptance of misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and hate communication.
There is no real need to question the proposition that the individual Morning Show anchors may even be intelligent men and women of personal integrity who are merely exercising their formal responsibilities within the Arise TV structure. What is in question is their developed sense of journalism which is starkly misleading. Actually, to most professionals in the industry, the reality they must face today is the fact that journalism practice in Nigeria has so progressively lost its substance to modern transgressive redefinitions. But, to suggest training and reforming a person with the transgressive influence, power, and authority of the Arise News Morning Show anchors would at best go unheeded and, at worst prompt the growth of “enemies,” more of whom, Wike, apparently, do not need at the moment!
Dr Okidu writes from Ilorin.
He can be reached through:
E-mail – okidu2002@yahoo.com
Phone – +2348036636139
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