NIGERIA: Media and Democracy

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3.	KENYA: New Constitution Restores Foreign Investors' Confidence
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Submitted by Ogooluwakitan on Fri, 02/09/2011 - 10:24pm

Journalism is more than reporting; it includes making the news.

We seem to have settled into the same dance again; waltzing away to the same old tunes and wearing our plastic smiles knowing that the shoe hurts our feet. Yet we dance still. I have come to a conclusion that the face of inept leadership is the face of noone in particular- someway somehow; it takes the face of whoever wears the cap.

We have conveniently spent over three months threaten to strike, choosing members of the cabinet, and to propose tenure elongation or as our dear guy in bowler hat puts it- “Single Term Tenure”.

We should congratulate ourselves for a wonderful job done so far. I dare say that Nigeria is a near hopeless situation and I weep for what tomorrow will be.

A Case of Amnesia

As I predicted, we have again been struck by amnesia, though some might argue that we never really recuperated from the last one- I wonder where the Akala’s, Daniel’s and Bankole’s of yesterday are.

After the regular brouhaha from the press, nothing seems to be happening and again, we have unfortunately chosen the path of silence.

The role of the media is immerse and cannot be underestimated in the attainment and maintenance of democracy. There is so much individuals can do but a concerted and strategic effort by the media geared towards the attainment of democracy by hammering on and exposing corrupt acts, and by proffering viable solutions drawn from other countries, cannot be over emphasized.

Brown Envelope

It is an open secret that several prominent media personalities are on the payroll of politicians- some
blame this on the fact that the career is not well paid.

We equally have the situation where media houses and print media are owned by some of the very ugly ones in the society or at least sponsored by them hence, we have no choice but to dance to their tunes.

However, we cannot rule out the duty of the media to educate, entertain and to pave the way for change.

The Freedom of Information Bill grants us the access to whatever information we want- we should be able to monitor budgets, we should be able to monitor contracts and leases, we should be able to monitor acts of leadership and laud them, and we should be able to monitor and bring to light acts of corruption.

I still maintain that the bulk of the job lies on the shoulders of the media- I would expect that by now, a thorough research should have been done on the salaries and allowances of public office holders in various countries- I do not mean the simple analogies that are being presented to us, but a comprehensive document that shows what applies in other countries and from this comparative analysis, recommend a salary structure for our own country.

The media needs to steer away from bland, tasteless journalism that only states and repeats the obvious
instead of stating the situation and proffering possible options and avenues out.

The media has a duty to expose corruption, lax leadership and pave the way to recovery- Journalism is more than reporting; it includes making the news.