BBC, RANDY LECTURERS AND NIGERIAN MEDIA -BY MARTINS OLOJA
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| Martins Oloja. |
We should not get it
twisted in the media, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC’s) still
trending scoop on two randy lecturers at the University of Lagos and a
University in Ghana may be rightly interpreted as a consistency in the Western
media’s strategy to de-market our universities so that their universities will
continue to admit students from West Africa. But I would like to add that the
sting operation is, indeed another wake-up call for the Nigerian media.
And here is the thing,
while editorial writers are drafting and redrafting condemnation of the randy
lecturers in West Africa and other consequences of the damning report, I would
like to appeal to media owners and operators especially in Nigeria that the
development has exposed a log in our eyes. And so, we need to remove such a
reproach that can further diminish our stature as an African giant and tower of
strength for the black race.
Which is why I agree with
a colleague, Anike-Ade Funke Treasure’s brief but seminal post on this on a digital
platform where she wrote:
“No Longer at Ease. BBC is
back 59 years after to give leadership in this sector. Shame of a nation. Kiki
Mordi is a star now. Allow young people shine. Let their ideas fly in the
newsroom. Stop sitting on their reports forever. Stop killing their morale.
Finally, Special message
to the Federal Government: With NTA and FRCN these investigations would be done
but many politicians own Radio (and TV) stations now, we should not kill the
two giants for yours. FUND them. RESTRUCTURE them. Value your OWN talents.
Again, Nothing new in this investigation. Nigerian journos have shouted
themselves hoarse on this issue in the past.
What is unique in this
one? Three things. The LIBERTY to tell the story, the FUNDING to stay on the story
and the availability of a CREDIBLE & TRUSTED NEWS BRAND. And then Corporate
Nigeria, I 'hail' thee...”
What else shall we add?
Immediately the BBC
broadcast the exclusive story, I recalled Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola’s
counsel to Editors on May 29, 2013 ‘Democracy Day Dinner’ he organised for us
at the Protea hotel, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi Lagos. The Governor’s clear message on
the occasion was a curious response to Mr. Lanre Idowu’s concise keynote
titled, “Today’s Reporting”, which in any case was an analysis of flawed
reportage of events at the time. Here is an excerpt from the 1,227-word keynote
in which he (Idowu) wondered why Nigerian media could not report accurately the
Governors’ Forum election that took place then and why the media was not conflict-sensitive
in reporting the kidnap of Kehinde Bamigbetan, a Local Government Chairman in
Lagos at the time.
...It is all too easy to predict media content these days. The subject matter is strikingly similar, the treatment, painfully predictable. Politics remains the main staple of the media, with the economy, a distant second and episodic interest in stories of conflict, disaster, prominence, consequence, and novelty bringing up the rear. If our media are not emphasizing the trifles of daily governance, they are busy throwing heat without light on issues crying for media clarity and direction. Too often there are gaping holes in the stories we publish, which tend to suggest insufficient attention to detail…
The conclusion of
Fashola’s response to the keynote that night was that if the Nigerian media
would not step up from mediocrity and incipient descent into lack of
thoroughness that a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (FNGE), Mr. Idowu
contextualised, more resourceful foreigners would come to the country with
their capital and capacity to take over journalism practice as business.
Most of Fashola’s guests
including yours sincerely were taken aback by the virulent remark of our chief
host.
I would like to say that
the same Fashola became an oracle to me last week when the “BBC African Eye”
came quietly into the University of Lagos and threatened to ruin the brand
equity of the Nigerian university system through their report on two randy
lecturers. There is no doubt that the BBC ‘sting operation’ is a good scoop
that will have long lasting effect on the governance policy of universities in
Nigeria. My take, however, is that the limited operation that has become
prominent would have been more significant and comprehensive enough if we had heeded
the caveat by citizen Fashola: that we should have been more diligent in
monitoring governance at all levels beyond Abuja and a few government houses we
cover in the country.
The BBC would not have
come to Lagos if we had followed up on the discovery of a randy Professor
Richard Akindele who was sentenced to two years in prison in December last
year. The scandal a student, Monica Osagie touched off in her own ‘sting
operation’ that was promptly handled by the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife
authorities and the civil society organisations should have set off more robust
investigations into operations of the university system in Nigeria beyond poor
funding. We did nothing and left everything to God. As God of all grace hadn’t
punished the scoundrels in our universities, the BBC came in and did a curious
job while we Nigerian pressmen dozed off on the all-important education beat.
That is the echo of my sister, Funke Treasure, former General Manager of Radio
Nigeria’s FM Station, Radio One who said, BBC…came to give leadership in this
sector, 59 years after our independence from the owners of the public
broadcaster (BBC). It is, according to her, ‘shame of a nation’.
I had on February 4, 2018
(on this page) suggested a restructuring of the Nigeria’s public broadcasters
too to reflect independence and vibrancy that the “BBC” too, a public
broadcaster depicts, in this connection.
In the article (marking a
BBC good product, Ms Kadaria Ahmed @ 50) titled, A time to restructure NTA, FRCN and VON,
I made the following observation:
‘…I would, therefore, like
to join the train of institution builders this week too through a suggestion
within the context of my old “Operation-Fix-Nigeria” theme.
This time, I would like to
ask for restructuring of one of Nigeria’s most significant institutions that
successive governments have been competing to ruin: the public broadcasters
known as the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), the Federal Radio Corporation
of Nigeria (FRCN) and Voice of Nigeria (VON).
My interest in these
public broadcasters as they should be called, was renewed recently though two
related issues involving two Nigerian significant female journalists, Kadaria
Ahmed formerly of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Yoyosi
Ogunseye former Sunday Punch Editor who just joined the same BBC, a very successful
public broadcaster. The first was Kadaria’s when she marked her 50th birthday
in December last year with a colloquium on the state of the media and a book
presentation.
At the parley attended by
notable people including the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, her first
employer in Nigeria, Dr. Wale Babalakin, who built and still manages the best
local airport in Nigeria, the Channels Television founder and chairman, John
Momoh and wife Olusola, vice chairman, among others, Kadaria who hails from
Zamfara state but raised in Kano was unveiled as one of Nigeria’s best
journalists from the stable of the BBC.
Kadaria, a former editor
of the defunct Next, which once threatened to change the face of journalism in
Nigeria, signifies the distinctive journalism at the BBC. I was there and
listened to all the testifiers to the quality of Kadaria in learning and
character.
John Momoh too spoke to
the sterling quality of journalism that Kadaria brought to Nigeria from the
same BBC where she spent thirteen good years. Dr. Babalakin spoke glowingly too
of her exceptional emotional intelligence before her book was publicly
presented. Yinka Oyegbile, an old soldier from The Guardian who was with her at
Next and now of The Nation spoke of the quality the artful Kadaria exhibited.
She demonstrated quality from the BBC world service when in 2011 she had to
take over from where the CNN’s Jonathan Mann pulled out at the last minute of
the presidential debate. She was to assist Mann who was the advertised
anchorperson on the platform of the then NN24, organisers of the 2011
presidential election debate. That was the event that announced the former BBC
brand ambassador called Kadaria Ahmed.
At the NIIA, Lagos where
Kadaria was celebrated, I wanted to draw the attention of the political leaders
on the occasion to the prevailing conditions in the country that have not made
the Nigeria’s public broadcasters too brands of good equity. I could not. But
early last month, an opportunity came for me when Ms Yoyosi Ogunseye generally
believed to be the next editor of The Punch daily, assumed duty as the Head of
BBC West Africa.
The two striking stories
of Kadaria and Toyosi and the BBC have set me thinking about the expediency of
discussing the rise and fall of institutions in Nigeria. What is more, that is
why I am fully persuaded that instead of reading regularly from the book of
lamentation on how the military juntas in Nigeria tactlessly seized the then
Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) and changed it to NTA now in focus,
we should think of how to rebrand it now from the ruinous clutch of the federal
government and indeed the presidency. There has been no credit to give to any
government since the takeover: no government has added value to the NTA, FRCN
and VON. We only pretend that it is well.
And here is the thing and
conclusion of the whole matter: why is it that Toyosi can join the BBC, a
public broadcaster instead of a Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS)? How is it
that the only reference point is that the FRCN and NTA too made John and Sola
Momoh, for instance? And sadly, why
can’t Channels Television get some values from the FRCN and the NTA that
trained its owners some years ago?...’
I just want to conclude
that media owners and operators in Nigeria need to reflect this week on how the
“BBC” again just took the steam out of what we could have done better. What is
more, I want to pay tribute to Prophet B.R Fashola who predicted in 2013 that
we could lose steam and relevance to more resourceful foreign media if we continued
to celebrate mediocrity in journalism in this age of disruptive giants.
Behold, we need to disrupt
our business model to reflect what BBC, et al can learn from us, lest they will
be covering corruption of our system while we will be covering it up.
Note: Inside
Stuff with MARTINS OLOJA is published
every Sunday in The Guardian and used by permission.
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