I Cry For Nigerian Journalism

By Ibrahim Na’ayi Salihu

(1) That people of any discipline STRAY into it.

(2) That those who STRAYED into it in the name of practitioners are not given even a rudimentary training, but are allowed to do it the way they choose.

(3) That people are mostly given identity cards called ” meal tickets” by supposed employers. Which means one should use such cards to fend for themselves as they will not receive any pay for services rendered – hence the emergence of rampant corruption in the news media.

(4) That the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) is handicapped because the news media executives who perpetrate No.3 above are the employers of the NUJ executives. Those media executives do not see the NUJ executives as partners but rather as their underdogs.

(5) Similarly, all the news media regulatory bodies such as the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Newspaper Proprietors Association (NPA), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Nigerian Press Council (NPC) and the NUJ itself do not bother about the detereorating morals, rampant blackmails, corruption, lack of professionalism and general misconduct in the profession.

(6) That the above combined made the NUJ to remain a UNION all these years, rather than a body of professionals. This is much to the advantage of all those who failed to get employed in other sectors to easily stray into it, especially with the right connections or godfathers/mothers.

(7) The NUJ executives must understand that they are steering a profession of honour, dignity and of high sense of responsibility to be left in the hands of those who have no serious stake in it. Those who want make money at the expense of the good name of the profession without caring about their own reputation, if they have any.

(8) It is absolutely necessary for all the above stake holders to wake up and salvage whatever remains in the esteem of Journalism Profession. A situation in which radio/television listeners or those who want their names in print tend to offer paltry bribes in many ways is not the best for a renowned profession like Journalism.