History

NIGERIA – 1914 TO DATE: The chequered journey so far - See more at:

Since we are today celebrating one of the country’s best journalists, we should also use the opportunity to appraise the role of the media in the Nigeria project so far. At 73 I am in a position to know what roles the media have so far played especially in the political and social life of Nigeria. In the first republic you could easily predict the home base of any newspaper by simply glancing at their main headlines. The papers were replicas of the major political parties in the three regions of the Federation, the NCNC in the Eastern Region, the AG in the Western Region, and the NPC in the Northern Region. Whatever issues were at stake, the newspapers in these regions, regardless of their ownership, reported only the partisan and parochial positions of their leadership and their respective areas. The question now is whether there is any significant change in Nigerian journalism today

. The honest answer in my opinion is “NO”. In fact it could be argued that there is more parochial and divisive journalism today than in the first republic. And there is no indication yet that the media will be balanced and neutral in their reporting of events in Nigeria. It is this sensational divisive reporting on Nigerian affairs by the Nigerian media which gives foreign interests the materials with which to project the “likely disintegration” of the country in not too distant future. However in every general rule there is always an exception no matter how small the margin of error.
Not many will disagree if I pronounce Leadership Newspaper as one of the few exceptions of the crass journalism exhibited by the generality of the Nigerian media houses today. The credit may be, to so many behind the scene but I want to give a large chunk of it to Mr Sam Nda Isiah personally. We pray that God will continue to strengthen his resolve in the service of “GOD AND COUNTRY”.





http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/05/nigeria-1914-to-date-the-chequered-journey-so-far