Reporting Politics: ‘Analysis of Strategy’
“Journalism has gone past the stage in which all a reporter does is to report what a man says. Yes, doing that is basic to his calling, but he must then take what the politicians are saying to critical and objective analysis.”
Esbee and Cee Kay did some beautiful things in those good old days when they were sport columnists for Daily Times. For every important football match, Esbee used to take his favourite team and write nice things about it. It always happened that Esbee didn’t like the team that Cee Kay liked. Esbee would then sit down and analyse the good chances of his favourite team. He always remembered to point out the weaknesses for the team of his choice. Apart from providing excellent literary entertainment, the stories of the two columnists provided for their readers the best analysis of the game plan of the opposing teams.
In journalism what Esbee and Cee Kay did is called analysis of strategy in a game of chance. And if that can be done in sports writing, most certainly it can be done in political reporting. Indeed, it is called for because politics is the biggest game of chance. Of course, in writing political analysis for the newspaper, the reporter will not have the licence to take sides with any of the contestants. He will be expected to be as impartial as humanly possible in analyzing, saying, the political and campaign strategies of the candidates in a political race. In other words, a reporter covering a particular candidate should be able to give readers details of the candidate’s plans and methods for winning the voters to his side. He will write from his understanding of the candidate, having spent time following him on the hustings and having digested every one of his speeches and the position papers of his party. The reporter will be expected to understanding the candidate’s issues and see whether they are pertinent to the needs of the nation. And then, he must watch carefully how the candidate presents his issues to different segments of the electorate. Are the candidate’s promises outlandish? Will they help the nation? Does the country have the resources to fulfil the promises?
The reporter must ask these questions in his stories and find answers to them by talking to experts in the fields concerning each issue and promise and then probe the electorate’s reactions to them. Does Nigeria have the means to pay everyone in the labour market N200 minimum monthly wages? He must speak to economists, talk to voters on their attitude to it, comb the private sector to get its reaction on the viability of the plan. That, of course Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s issue. Can Nigeria afford to build five million housing units in four or five years? Assuming that each unit costs N2,000, can the country afford N10 billion outlay on that plan alone? Talk to real estate specialists and bankers to get their opinion. If the liquid cash is available, does the country have the infrastructure to manage the project? That is Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s issue. The remaining three candidates, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim and Mallam Aminu Kano have not made easily quantifiable promises. But are their philosophical promoises of making the human condition better for Nigerians enough? What do they mean by that? The truth is that Nigerian newspapers have failed to ask these questions. And without asking them and finding answer from all the segments of the nation, the political correspondents cannot claim to have given their readers complete picture of the political scenes.
Journalism has gone past the stage in which all a reporter does is to report what a man says. Yes, doing that is basic to his calling, but he must then take what the candidates are saying to critical and objective analysis. It’s not too late to start talking about the drive behind the candidates, that they have not been debating issues and that they are talking over each other’s heads down to the electorate. Voters in this country would still like to know the weaknesses and strength of the candidates, their resilience and temperament and the character of their advisers. We have heard all the promises but are the candidates disingenuous in making some of them? The political reports must tell us.
©Daily Times, June 20, 1979
(Pp.41-42)
