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Page 1 of 2 By Kabiru Danladi
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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.
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