Nigerian Journalism : Thisday Newspaper, Tinubu, Fashola, and the Chagoury Tango.
August 18, 2008 by 
Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
The news that Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu the predecessor to Governor Fashola of Lagos State was hosted in Beirut by the cronies of late Gen. Sani Abacha, made front page in Thisday Newspaper after Thisday hosted her annual musical festival in Abuja. The report has it that using Hitech limited, the Chagoury are in control of over 60% of the total infrastructural development contracts in Lagos.
Since this news broke, the Lagos State government using The Nation Newspaper believed to be owned by Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu have engaged Thisday. It got to a ludicrous head when the Lagos State Governor returned the award given to him in February as the best Governor 2008 in infrastructural development. Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim also got the best governor in the environmental category. When these awards hit the airwave, my reaction was “why give 2008 award in the beginning of 2008?” More also why should a media house that ought to be a watch dog and an Oliver Twist, be giving an award to governors whose elections as at that time were seriously challenged and the courts were yet to rule.
Arising from the bashing by Thisday’s negative report on Lagos State, the Lagos State governor answered my query. Those awards are Greek gift given to solicit adverts and other concessions from the recipients. This was evident with the deluge of state government adverts that flooded Thisday after the award.
Thisday newspaper is not the only Nigerian media outfit involved in this unethical reportage. A newspaper led concurrently for three weeks with damning exposure of questionable award of pension by Gombe State House of Assembly to Governor Danjuma Goje. When adverts from Gombe State and friends of Gombe State started appearing in the pages of this newspaper and other newspapers, nothing was heard of the Goje pension saga.
This questionable journalism practice is also extended to corporate Nigeria. A GSM service provider gave tariff free lines to major columnists and editors. This Greek gift has ensured that this company does not get the truth about her reported. When any columnist or editor runs out of weekend cash, or money for staff salary, a not too favourable report is done, which is automatically followed by an advert or appearance on the cover of the weekend edition/centre page special report or pull out from the affected corporation or individual. This is how Nigerian media runs.
If not, why did Thisday report a story they have had in their shelf during the award ceremony, only to release it when they were denied right to host this year’s Thisday Music Festival in Lagos? The previous year’s was hosted in Lekki Lagos state.
Though this style of reporting common in Nigerian media is a shame, the issues raised by Thisday have not been addressed by Lagos State government. Was Hitech responsible for the Ijegun fire disaster? Has she and Lagos State government paid compensation to the family of those who lost their lives due to the negligence of Hitech?
Instead of following these leads and investigate the activities of the Chagoury during Abacha’s maximum dictatorship, another Nigerian newspaper has joined the fray. Nation Life in her Saturday August 16th 2008 Edition in page 52 took an upper cut at Thisday publisher Mr. Nduka Obaigbena. This week’s report is part (2) of what must have started last week. The rider reads How Thisday Publisher got into trouble in South Africa. To show the cowardice of the paper, the by-line of the story is merely by Our Reporter. This alleged incident happening in 2004. The report went ahead to claim that the publisher of Thisday has gone to “beg” Mr. Albert, (Gilbert) the head of the Chagoury family. With a graphic description of the conversation, one would have expected Nation Life to reveal the name of Bank’s MD that made the visit with Mr. Nduka and the serial number of the N20 milion cheque that was bounced. In case the publishers of Nation Life do not know, giving a dud cheque is a financial crime worthy of EFCC intervention.
In other climes, media expositions of crimes have led to the collapse of multi-national corporations and the resignation of government officials. But the Nigerian journalist, for a port of cold portage throws objectivity to the winds and sees no need for adequate investigative journalism.
The Abacha Henchmen Chagourys Take Over Lagos story of Thisday, was signed off thus “ This article is the first in Thisday series on state governments” Nigerians are sceptically waiting for the expose on other governors, provided they are also those that have been giving Thisday centre spread adverts.
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ICT and the Nigerian Journalist
December 11, 2007 by Che Oyimnatumba · Leave a Comment
Written by: Ashimole Felix Esq.
The new trend in curriculum vitae of job seeking Nigerians is to type and highlight “Computer literate”. The most daring include Information and Communication Technology (ICT) compliant. As assistant editor LEADERSHIP WEEKEND (2006), of one of the national dailies, I had the odd job of proof reading and restructuring the news items and feature articles smuggled in by reporters who want to beat the paper’s bed time. Insistences on faxing in or emailing their report fail on deaf ears.
Wanting to make my work easier and escape the tantrums of my publisher who was always demanding for perfection and timely delivery of the paper to the stand, I went to town to investigate why these reporters who claimed in their CVs to be ICT and Computer literate are shy to communicate using these electronic gadgets. My worry was deeply rooted as their counterpart in other clime have transcended the use of midgets and reliance on noise infested tape recorders to other supersonic visual-audio accurate tools of the trade.
The world has shrunk into a global village and information are becoming rapidly obsolete that before a Nigerian reporter can come back from the field, a breaking news has occurred or more in depth angle to the story he is manually rushing to the news room to write has unfolded. This snail speed has remained the reason why most Nigerian
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