The Press and the Second Republic
“For the president and the legislature to be well reported, the journalists assigned to cover them must show freshness. They will need to learn how to make observations and write clear-headed analyses of the working of the government.”
Like a clockwork, the passage to the civilian government took place at the Tafawa Balewa Square. The former Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, handed over the mantle of office to his successor, President Shehu Shagari, and thus signaled the beginning of a new era for the country. With it is the arrival in Lagos of 95 senators and more than 400 legislators. In the states,19 governors have taken office and more than thousand assembly men and women are in place. Each of the senators will make efforts to become a national figure either by genuine hardwork or by sheer grand-standing. Even some of the representatives will strive to use their membership to make better their political fortunes. And the president will use the press every day to talk to Nigerians wherever they are. Everything he does will noteworthy and Nigerians, both his supporters and adversaries, will want to hear what he is saying and what he is doing.
All of this will keep the Nigerian press on the rope, and make it, as an institution, a crucial vehicle for the working of democracy in Nigeria. Already, President Shagari has tapped the press, especially as the nation’s watchdog, in fighting corruption in the country. In an interview with a team of Daily Times reporters who visited him just before his inauguration, the president said that “the fight against corruption should … be a fight for every Nigerian, including the press.
The press and members of the public will assist the government by expressing proven cases of dishonesty and corruption wherever they may exist.” The question now is: Is the press in Nigeria fitted for this role? It is part of a large question, that of how the press intends to cover the second Republic. The statistics mentioned earlier are staggering and that means the press will have to throw out its old clothing and don new ones. Many people will agree that the press, apart from covering the campaign on an even keel, failed to cover the campaign with the sophistication required. Although most of the reporters assigned by their newspapers to cover the candidates remained with those candidates throughout the election campaigns, they failed substantially to bring their readers the personalities and the consistencies of the candidates.
Even now, many people, including some of the best minds in Nigerian journalism, say that President Shagari remains, in their view, an enigma. One would have expected the press crew which followed the president on the campaign trail to have such understanding of the man and his politics to be able to produce telling profiles on him. As a matter of fact, all the special editions produced by the newspapers in the country contained nothing refreshing about the president, or readable explanation of how the presidential system will function. Thus, for the president and the legislature to be well reporter, the journalists assigned to cover them must show freshness. They will need to learn to make observations and write clear-headed analyses of the working of the government. For the first few weeks, those on the legislative beat will spend quite a lot of time reporting the confirmation hearings on the nominations of the president, which will be held by various committees before they send their recommendations to the senate for debating and voting. And other things will be happening in the president’s office, state assemblies and governor’s mansions that the press must keep up with. That means the various newspapers will have to hire more staff and spend liberally to break them in on the arduous task ahead.
©Daily Times, October 3, 1979
(Pp.49-50)
