Choppe syndrome in Nigerian journalism
By Kabiru Danladi
So much has been said about corruption in Nigeria in recent times that the issue is now becoming over-talked about. No matter what, the issue, due to its importance, will never stop arousing debates whenever it is raised. Recently, a well respected journalist and former editor of Citizen Magazine, Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf, raised an important issue in her special column, Ombudswoman, in Sunday Trust, June 8, 2008.. In the article she angrily wrote about an event which she said caused her embarrassment. She had attended an event (or was it a press conference), in which a representative of a minister was also present. In her address, the minister’s representative publicly announced that she had to apologise to ‘the gentlemen of the press’ that the ministry did not make any ‘provision’ for them. It is a well-known fact here in Nigeria that journalists who attend an event – be it political or otherwise – are often presented, apart from the usual handouts, brown envelopes stuffed with wads of cash. This money is to facilitate the ‘travel and expenses’ of reporters so that they can do a ‘decent job’. Therefore, the minister’s representative had to publicly announce that no provision had been made for them to avoid being crucified by journalists after the event. Her remarks were genuine and reasonable, because failure to do that means either the event will not be reported or the reports would be hidden in one of the inside pages, with unattractive headlines in the case of newspapers, or casual mention in the broadcast media.
Journalists, whether in the private or government-owned media, do attend events, expecting to receive not necessarily scoops, but as I said earlier, envelopes filled with money. The mass media is said to be the eye of the society, watching over happenings in the society; advising, criticising, and in some cases, expose and curtail bribery and corruption. Although the media in Nigeria contributed immensely to the struggle for democracy, the issue of brown envelopes and inappropriate gifts has become a major problem confronting the rather honourable profession. Although the attitude and behaviour of journalists will not be different from the society in which they live, journalists’ role in shaping society makes them very special in society. They mirror the society. So, if they are guilty of taking bribes, automatically, the picture of the society presented not only to other Nigerians but to the rest of the world is that of a country where even the most responsible of that society are no different from the corrupt politicians they castigate daily.
Corruption in Nigeria has become so rampant that the country was rated as the second most corrupt country in the world in 2002. Journalists cannot be isolated from the rest of Nigerians. A deputy editor of one of the Nigerian dailies used to call his correspondents from states to tell them to credit his account with money, recharge his mobile phone or their stories would not see the light of the day. The same man was alleged to have told one of his roving reporters that the Nigerian press is like a police station, officers are sent on patrol based on the returns they brought back to the Oga. Therefore, whoever wants to go out for an assignment daily should bring some share of the ‘welfare’ he got in the field. Journalists do accept gift openly and even press event organisers to give them their own ‘share’. Waziri Adio of Thisday, writing on corruption in the media, noted: ‘Nigerian journalism is not just a profession where anything goes, it is now one of the bastions of corruption in the country.’ Adio added that ‘it is a supreme irony that this profession that is supposed to unearth corruption now fully engages in it.’ It is argued that Nigerian journalists see the fault in other corrupt people, criticising them and sometimes even prosecuting and sentencing them on newspaper pages, but find it very difficult to talk about their own form of corruption.
But do we completely blame journalists for collecting brown envelopes? Many people, even within the media circle, believe that the issue is more of survival than corruption. Journalists are the most poorly paid; they receive meagre or no wages at all. Some earn as little as N15, 000 a month. A journalist once recalled that when he was hired, his editors gave him his press credentials with the admonition to ‘go out there and make money for yourself’. And it is a well known fact among journalists all over the country that a well respected publisher of a national daily use to tell his staff that the ID card he gives them is their meal ticket. That is, let them not expect any salary at the end of the month. Will the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) or Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) claim not to be aware of this? I doubt much.
Newsmakers themselves have come to accept that if they host a news event, they have to dole out Choppe or ‘PR’, depending on what they call it in your own part of the country. But I have to reiterate here that journalists in Nigeria have found themselves in a very difficult situation of balancing the demand of their immediate family, that is of survival, and that of protecting the interest of the society in which they live, vis-à-vis adhering to professional ethics. Sociologists argue that there is no single cultural factor that inclines a society towards corruption, but economic factors play a big part. Most clearly, poverty and bribery go together. Nobody, either within the media circle or outside it, will deny the fact that journalists are poorly paid or not paid at all. But I have to state here that quacks are allowed to infiltrate the profession so much so that it is hard for anybody to differentiate between a journalist and others. Do we have to continue pretending that we want to uphold professional ethics on one the hand and then make no provision as to who is a journalist by profession? Or insist they should be decently paid? Why do we have to allow the profession to be so bastardised by quacks, thereby turning it into nothing more than a body of praise singers that take fancy in destroying the very profession regarded as ‘the Fourth Estate Of The Realm’?
Today, the NUJ and NGE are confronted with not only ensuring the signing of the Freedom Of Information Bill, but also the issue of who is a journalist. Their members are left suffering from the hands of greedy publishers, receiving the most humiliating treatments from over-ambitious and dictatorial editors everyday.
Nobody can deny the fact that despite this harsh and poor condition of service, Nigerian journalists have proved themselves, winning various prizes, including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, won by Dele Olojede in 2005. But due to poor remunerations, these achievements have been overshadowed by the moral question. Till date, I am not aware of any concerted effort by either the NUJ or NGE in proffering lasting solutions to these problems. Although some newspaper organisations like the Daily Trust are taking what they feel as a bold step towards minimising this trend of collecting gifts by publishing in their newspapers a no thank you message to those who offer their reporters gratification, the problem is much more than individual effort alone. A collective effort needs to be taken by both the NJU, NGE and media owners. This they can do by first of all reviewing wages and salaries of journalists, determine who is a journalist and who is not, ensure that anyone who wants to establish a media outfit must have at least enough money to pay his staff for one year and have enough for budget for production for the same period.
Unless clear criteria and guidelines are set before registering any media outfit, the sorry state of journalism and journalists will continue for a long time to come in Nigeria. And then it will give every Tom, Dick and Harry the audacity to open his big mouth to call journalists ‘hungry press boys’. If the NUJ, NGE and all stakeholders in the Nigerian media continue to show non-challant attitude towards the welfare of their members, then there is no need of calling themselves professional bodies. Journalism is an honourable profession that deserves respect, let’s join hands and ensure that we uphold not only the ethics of the profession, but also our personal integrity as human beings.
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