The History of
Journalism in Nigeria A Training Program Organized by the Centre for Constitutional Governance
in collaboration with the US Consulate, Lagos Nigeria
Venue: Lagos Travel Inn Hotel, Toyin St, Ikeja, Lagos. 7 June 2017
Module 1
The History of Journalism in
Nigeria
Objectives
Ø To enable
participants know and understand how journalism practice evolved across the
world particularly in Nigeria.
Ø To ensure
that this training knowledge and understanding by participants is impacted on
responsible journalism practice in Nigeria.
Ø
To enhance the skills of
participants to enable them contribute effectively to the advocacy for Press
Freedom in Nigeria.
Materials
Various Research Papers
By universal connotation the
history of Journalism is the development and growth of the gathering and transmitting of news with regards to the
growth of technology and trade, manifest by the emergence of specialized
techniques for gathering and disseminating such information on a regular basis.
The history of Journalism could be emphasized as the steady rise in news
available to us and the speed of its dissemination.
Before
the advent of writing (and later, the invention of printing press), word of
mouth was the source of news. In Africa and indeed Nigeria, there was what was
known as oral tradition whereby stories about different kings, empires,
kingdoms, festivals, disasters etc were told from mouth-to-mouth, from
generation-to-generation. Long distance traders, merchants and warriors also
brought news of their experiences. All of this news was spread around from town
to town by news peddlers. The transmission of this news, though unreliable,
soon fizzled out with the advent of writing and printing press.
By
the turn of 18th century, newspapers and magazines became the primary
medium of expression for Journalists all over the world. Radio and television
were only introduced to complement the print media in the 20th
century and the internet in the 21st century.
The first record of monthly news bulletin was in 1556 when the government
of Venice first published the
monthly Notizie scritte ("Written notices") at a cost of one
gazetta (the Venetian coin of the time) and
it became the name of the "newspaper" later. Essentially
handwritten newsletters covering political economic and military news dominated
Europe between 1500-1800.
Since these newspapers were
limited in coverage areas and also not meant for mass public circulation, they
did not fulfill the requirements of present day newspaper. However, by and
large, development improvement in news gathering and coverage areas made
newspapers (called “relations”) that sprang up around 15th and 16th
centuries in England, France and Spain to reflect semblance of modern
newspapers.
Historically however, around
the 1840s, the Presbyterian Church missionaries began to arrive in Nigeria and
settled in an area known as English Town in Calabar. Among these missionaries
was Rev. Henry Townsend who
later moved to Abeokuta in the 1850s. By 1854 he established a printing press
which was used, five years later, to publish the first newspaper in Nigeria
called “Iwe Irohin Fun Awon Ara Egba
Ati Yoruba,” which literary means "A Newspaper for the Egba and Yoruba
Nations" {Ese Malemi, 1999} in today's Abeokuta the Capital city of Ogun
State to promote literacy and build up elites among the then EGBAs.
Therefore, it could be said that the
historical background and development of the Nigerian Press commenced with the
print media on November 23 1859 when the first edition of the newspaper came out. Later on, the
newspaper was simply called Iwe Irohin.
The newspaper was published fortnightly (every 15 days) and sold for 120
cowries (Ogofa owo eyo, equivalent to a penny). James Ede, who was trained by Henry Townsend, served as the chief
printer of the newspaper.
Iwe Irohin was highly patronized by
the few literates of that time throughout Yoruba land. The circulation of the
paper was around 3,000 as at that time. Rev. Henry Townsend’s main purpose of
setting up the newspaper was to make the new Christian converts read and write.
He himself said: “my objective is to get the people to read and to beget the
habit of seeking information by reading.”
Therefore, Iwe Irohin published news
of church activities, arrival and departure of religious dignitaries, ordinations
and so on. It later broadened its contents by adding stories about Abeokuta,
cotton and cocoa statistics, with advertisements from local firms and
government agencies. The newspaper was cautioned by the C.M.S authorities in
1863 for some of its contents that antagonized the colonial government, but
this did not stop Townsend from running his newspaper.
In January, 1866, Iwe Irohin
appeared in two versions, one in English and the other in Yoruba. In 1867, Rev.
Henry Townsend’s printing press in Abeokuta was razed by Egba people due to
cultural and political clashes that occurred between the Egbas and the British
which resulted to the expulsion of all Europeans in Egbaland. This brought an
end to Iwe Irohin, the first newspaper in Nigeria. But before its total
decline, Iwe Irohin had already fulfilled its mission which was to develop
reading habit in the people thus leaving them to yearn for news after its
demise.
The
demise of Iwe Iroyin' led to the emergence of other Newspapers like
Anglo-African (Nigeria’s first English language newspaper published in Lagos)
edited by Robert Cambell, an African-American entrepreneur whose
views can best be described as 'cosmopolitan', a term used at that time for
those who rejected any strong attachment to locality, and saw themselves as
citizens of the world. The newspaper was very sympathetic to the British
colonialists.
The Lagos Times and Gold Coast
Colony Advertiser was the third newspaper in Nigeria. It was established on
Wednesday, 10th November, 1880 by Richard
Olamilege Beale Blaize and was co-edited by Andrew M. Thomas and Mojola
Agbebi. The six pence newspaper was printed fortnightly and was mainly
concerned with the burning issues and matters of the period. Therefore, it
became critical of the colonial government’s extravagance in one of its
editions published in 1881.
The newspaper was harsh on many of
the policies and actions of the colonial government of the time. The newspaper
also criticized the executive and legislative council which had no African as
one of its members. It also prophesied that a day would come when Nigerians
would be left to govern themselves, and the prophecy came to pass on October 1,
1960 when Nigerian gained her independence from the British government. The
newspaper went out of circulation on October 24, 1883, but reappeared seven
years later as a weekly newspaper but with little success.
There
was the newspaper exploits of John
Payne Jackson (25 March 1848 – 1 August 1915) an
American-Liberian journalist of Yoruba descent, born in Liberia but was
influential in Lagos, Nigeria around the turn of the 20th century. He edited
and published the Lagos Weekly Record from 1891 until his death in 1915.
The newspaper was a well-written informative paper that discussed and analyzed
current events, majorly centered on an anti-colonialist, African nationalist
position that made it unpopular with the authorities and also with some of the
Nigerian elite.
It must however be said that The Lagos Times which foundered in 1882 was re-launched in 1890 as The Weekly Times under John Payne Jackson who had persuaded Blaize to let him run the paper. Jackson brought in Ladapo Samuel Ademola as his assistant that year. Years later Ladapo Samuel Ademola was crowned the Alake of Egbaland (Abeokuta). Although the writing quality of the newspaper was excellent, Richard Blaize and Jackson soon fell out with each other over the latter’s drunkenness and the newspaper’s dwindling finances, from which the newspaper was unable to survive and consequently the name had to be changed to Lagos Weekly Record.
This new tabloid was funded by the prosperous local physician John Kehinde Randle. It must however be noted that John Payne Jackson was an iconic figure in the early history of Journalism in Nigeria.
Other newspapers at the time were: Lagos
Observer, The Eagle and Lagos Critic, The Mirror, The Nigerian Chronicle, The
Lagos Standard, African Messenger, The West African Pilot, Nigerian Tribune
{Reuben Abati, 1998}.
It
must be emphasized here that the era not only brought about the emergence of
Newspapers in Nigeria but also gave birth to articulated vibrant and veteran
journalists, who made judicious use of this created media institution to fight the
British Colonialists during the nationalist struggle. This gradually led to
Nigeria’s Independence in 1960 and as a matter of fact, this has placed them in
the front role of Nigeria’s political arena since then.
Corroborating this, Matthew H. Kukah {1999}
stated that journalism was the major vehicle through which the anti-colonial
struggle in Nigeria was carried out. Many of the major figures in this struggle
were Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ernest Ikoli, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony
Enahoro, Dutse Mohammed Ali, Mokwugo Okoye to mention a few who were newspaper
publishers, journalists, commentators and editors. Their newspapers served as
platform for mobilizing the people, spreading nationalist awareness and for
opposing the worst manifestation of colonial subjugation and the racialism that
was customary to them.
Also
Fred Omu {1978} the pre-eminent historian of the Nigerian Press said the early
Nigerian Press provided the most distinguished intellectual forum in Nigerian
history - one in which the high standard of debate, discussion, the quality of
thought and expression cannot fail to fascinate the modern reader.
Interestingly,
Nigerian Press moved beyond publication industry to electronic industry around
1932 when radio broadcasting was introduced as a relay of the British Empire
service with the establishment of a Relay Station in Victoria Island, Lagos
through which broadcasts were made to major cities in Nigeria via
wired-wireless called Radiofusion {'Goke Raufu, 2003}. This was succeeded by
Radio Nigeria which was established through Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation
{NBC} incorporated and operated under Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation
Ordinance of 1956.
Branches
were subsequently established in Nigeria’s three Regions with each of them
having regional control while the headquarters remained in Lagos. The regionalization
introduced then coupled with political bias of Radio Nigeria as well as the inadequacy
regarding coverage and availability of market to be exploited by commercial
broadcasting inter alia prompted the
then Western Region spearheaded by the Late Legend, Chief Obafemi Awolowo to
inaugurate Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation {WNBC} around May 1959 and
successfully went on air in the same year. The Western Nigeria Broadcasting
Corporation {WNBC} was followed on 31st October 1959 by Western Nigeria Television
{WNTV} which as a matter of fact served as the first television station in
Nigeria and Africa at large and was later emulated by the other two Regions
around 1962.
After
Independence, the Nigerian Press was so developed to the extent that many
newspapers and magazines were established, and electronics media such as WNTV,
WNRC and NBC among others later metamorphosed
to Nigerian Television Authority {NTA) and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria
{FRCN} with many stations across the Nation as well as other stations owned by
the State Governments. Indeed, the private individuals were not empowered to
own electronic media like their counterparts in publishing. The interesting
fact about Nigerian Press at this stage of country’s political development was
that men of the press continuously played their roles which appeared as a
threat to the selfish desires of some people in government who intended to
monopolize and control the public space as a result of which instruments
available in government were used perceptively to achieve their objectives. Not
only that, men of the press moved to inform the people that the primary motive
of the colonialist successors were not different from the Colonialists
themselves as well as shedding more light on their competency {Reuben Abati,
1998}.
Later
on, politicians gradually employed the press to hurt ethnic affiliation and created
an avenue to negotiate power. More profoundly, the Pilot newspaper which was
detribalized then began to participate in ethnic politics, supporting one
candidate against the other and thus the emerging regionalization increased the
level of partisanship of the Nigerian Press.
The
attainment of Independence status in 1960 coincided with the reshaping of the
Nigerian press in the sense that most of the proprietors of the then available
Newspapers were politicians during colonial era who saw the presence of the
Press as an instrument of acquiring their different aspired office to the
extent that those who did not have any print media were motivated to establish
their own. These newspapers served their proprietors' interest based on an
adage which says: "the piper dictates the tune".
Corroborating
this, Reuben Abati { 1998} stated thus: "At every moment in Nigeria
history, the press has been in the forefront, manning the barricades. The
centrality to the issues of the day and lives of the people has brought the
Nigerian press much travail. From colonial times, it has been treated as a
major tool of power. Opposing power centers which felt threatened by its
dynamism invariably sought to control the press through several means in which
politicians later resulted to misuse of mass media to achieve their selfish
desires"
As
a matter of fact, this appears, to me, as one of the major factors that led to
the intervention of the Military in 1966.
Between 1966
-1979, the history of journalism was first dwarfed by the politico-military
pogrom of 1966-67and the ensuing 30 months civil war, as attention was more on
prosecuting the war than governance issues. Despite this, General
Yakubu Gowon still promulgated the Emergency Decree No. 44 of June 1966 which
made
it an offense for anyone to provoke a breach of the peace by a defamatory
or offensive publication.
The decree also made it mandatory for the arrest and detention of Citizens
without lawful warrant and also empowered the Inspector - General of Police and
other Officers of the same or higher rank to search any Newspaper Office or
Premises in Nigeria without warrant or notice; based on which Daily Times
office {Weekend Times} was searched by the Police in 1968 General Yakubu Gowon also signed another
Decree No. 17 of 1967, which gave the head of the military government power to
prohibit the circulation of any newspaper it felt was detrimental to the interests
of the Federation or of any State.
Perhaps the most
celebrated free press issue arose in the so-called Amakiri Affair. Amakiri, a
newspaper reporter who was arrested by one of the state governors, was beaten
and had his head shaved with a dull knife. A high court awarded Amakiri a total
of 10,000 naira for the beating, the detention, and the pain inflicted upon
him.
Renowned
journalists like Lateef Jakande (Nigerian Tribune), Babatunde Jose (Daily
Times) and others rose up to criticize General Gowon in their various
newspapers. However, Gowon was overthrown in 1975 by Murtala Mohammed’s led
military putsch, which coincided with the debilitating crisis that engulfed
Daily Times. Are Oyebola the newspaper’s editor was sacked and replaced by his
deputy Segun Osoba. Being the largest circulating newspaper in Africa and most
critical of government, General Olusegun Obasanjo upon assumption of power,
decided to nationalize Daily Times (in Lagos) and New Nigerian newspaper (in
Kaduna), television stations as NTA and radio stations as FRCN; all six
Nigerian Universities (Lagos, Ibadan, Ife, Benin, Nsuka and ABU Zaria), banks
and some companies too. It was the era
of nationalization, and the media was never the same again. In 1978, the
military government announced its intention to create a press council to
supervise and control news reporting. The decree was never implemented because
of opposition from the press and public.
Many other private
newspapers rose up against the government of the day. Particularly noteworthy
was Chris Okoli’s Newbreed magazine which gave Obasanjo’s government serious
headache. His paper was proscribed twice while he was arrested and detained
thrice. Yet, he withstood the government up till Shagari era in 1979-1983.
However,
the Second Republic which commenced on 1st October 1979 changed the historical
development of the Nigerian Press from this point. Despite the fact that
Nigerians expected the media institution to have learnt lessons from its
historical trajectory, the partisan politics peculiar to the Nigerian Press or
media affected its realization which was caused by political affiliation of the
owners of the institution. Chief Obafemi Awolowo used the Nigerian Tribune to
vilify the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) while exalting the virtues, people’s
benefits and programmes of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). The ensuing
rivalry led MKO Abiola to fly in printing press machines into the country to
herald the birth of Concord newspapers in 1980. Abiola was able to poach versatile
editors (Doyin Aboaba, Dele Giwa, et al) from Daily Times to kick-start Concord.
Indeed, Concord newspaper gave Tribune and other newspapers in Lagos and
southwest axis a big competition, as it soon became the toast of the newsstand.
It brought out many secrets of Chief Awolowo (the 360 plots of Maroko from the
Oniru family; correspondence between Awolowo and Zik with Awolowo suggesting to
be Zik’s vice president if they both teamed up against the north; the twelve
two-third case of 1979 etc). Chief Awolowo was so disturbed by these
revelations that he fired Odia Ofeimum his private secretary, believing those
secrets must have leaked through him.
Writing
in the Guardian newspaper in 1986 in tributes to the demise of Chief Awolowo,
Odia Ofeimum said he regretted shunning Awolowo’s invitation to see him to
enable Awolowo apologized when it was discovered later that the mole in
Awolowo’s camp (who leaked the secrets) was MCK Ajuluchukwu (UPN’s national
publicity secretary), not Odia Ofeimum.
Eventually,
Concord newspaper was engulfed in crisis, particularly between MKO Abiola and
Dele Giwa regarding Funmi a youth corper friend of Giwa who had her national
service at Concord. The crisis pushed out the trio of Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and
Yakubu Muhammed from Concord to midwife what later became Newswatch magazine
with Dan Agbese (General manager of the Nigerian Standard, Jos) joining them in
Lagos. Florence Ita-Giwa (Dele Giwa’s estrange wife) was able to help them
assemble investors like Alex Akinyele (information minster later), Ume Umanna,
Prince Tony Momoh and Otunba Mike Adenuga etc.
The
emergence of Newswatch changed the face of journalism in Nigeria, spiced up
with high qualitative investigative cover-stories, that it became practically
impossible to miss its weekly editions. Week after week, readers kept wondering
where and how did Newswatch source its different stories.
To
compete with Newswatch, other magazines began to surface namely Thisweek,
African Guardian, and African Concord etc. For instance, Thisweek magazine was
the first to introduce all coloured publication and also the first to introduce
statistical journalism with Thisweek 100 – the ranking of corporate companies
in Nigeria fashioned after America’s Forbes 500 and Fortune 1000. Even, the
daily tabloids re-designed their papers to have specialized pages such as
finance & economy, judiciary & crimes, politics, science & tech,
culture & entertainment etc in order to attract adverts and newsstand
sales.
It
is interesting to note that one of the commendable achievements of the military
government vis-a-vis the Nigerian Press is that the government empowered
privately owned electronic media in Nigeria by granting license to
non-governmental bodies to commence broadcasting in Nigeria upon fulfillment of
some requisite conditions through the promulgation of National Broadcasting
Commission Decree No 38 1992 ' which paved way for the establishment of Ray
Power FM Radio Station with Africa Independence Television {AIT} as the pioneer
privately owned Radio and Television Station respectively in Nigeria and others
that were in existence till date.
Be
that as it may, the vibrancy, incisive and invigorative journalism of this
period kept the citizens highly informed and enlightened so much so that the
frenzy was suddenly cut short with the death of Dele Giwa on October 19, 1986
through a parcel bomb. The Nigerian media space could not hold itself together
again. Fear gripped the entire sector, as nobody knew who will be next and by
what means. Those who could not stay left Nigeria to other shores (Dr Olatunji
Dare, Amma Ogan, Dele Olojede, Dapo Olorunyomi, Sonala Olumhense, Ndayo Uko,
etc). Some of those who stayed were too timid to even dare embark on exposing
the IBB government while other journalists simply preferred to wine and dine
with those in power and make money through ‘juicy contracts, largess and brown
envelopes’.
This
seemed to be the position of things, even through the regimes of General Sani Abacha,
General Abdulsalaam Abubakar, and the current democratic dispensation beginning
with President Obasanjo in 1999. The Nigerian Press is cowed down, could not
embark on thorough investigative journalism anymore.
Today,
the Press is more partisan and more divided than the earliest times because
about 80% of the media is owned by politicians or their friends who feast on
government patronages.
Today the Nigerian media is
increasingly moving towards public relations than information dissemination. It
is now common for most big newspapers to wrap themselves round with adverts of
banks and other big corporations in what used to be the prestigious front page.
News is tending towards entertainment and drama while the face-to-face contact
is being replaced by web postings.
The Constitutional obligations and the
expectable role of the Nigerian Press
Section
22 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria provides that the
press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all
times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in chapter two of the
Constitution {which cut across government and people, political objectives,
economic objectives, social objectives, educational objectives, foreign policy
objectives, environmental objectives, directive on Nigerian cultures, national
ethics and duties of the citizens} and uphold the responsibility and
accountability of the government to the people which was further strengthened
by virtue of Section 39{ 1 }.
Section
39{ 1 } provides that every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression,
including freedom to hold opinions and to receive, impart ideas and information
without interference.
I
asseverate with all emphasis at my disposal that this constitutional power
granted the Nigerian Press has been handcuffed by various laws which pose great
threat to them and invariably served as obstacles to Nigerian citizens’
fundamental rights of contributing to their socio-political development.
Underpinning
this argument, I must make reference to the dissenting views expressed by Justice
Hugo Black in American Case of Barenblatt v USA {360 US 109 {1959}; where he
stated that "the only constitutional way our government can preserve
itself is to leave its people the fullest possible freedom to praise,
criticize, or discuss as they see fit, all government policies and to suggest,
if they desire, that even its most fundamental postulate are bad and should be
changed" and that no agent or an institution can be used to achieve this
than the Press.
It
is on this basis that we all appreciated former President Goodluck Jonathan when
he signed the Freedom of Information Act into law in 2011. Its benefit is not
restricted to the press freedom alone but will empower all Nigerians to demand
good governance, transparency and accountability from those managing the
affairs of government {Daily Sun Newspaper, 2009}.
Following
M. H. Kukah { 1999} therefore, "…for democracy to take firm roots in our
nation there is no doubt that the media will have to be alert to its duties and
responsibilities as a genuine watchdog" and Napoleon Bonaparte's
postulation some years back that "a journalist is a grumbler, a censurer,
a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations . ."
The in-road of Digital Technology and Internet
The rise of professional journalism in the 20th century (up
to the present times) helped create a certain image of reporters. This image,
which the industry itself reinforced, asserted that only “professional”
journalists engaged in journalism. But that was not always the case, and the
rise of digital technology and the democratizing power of the internet have
fundamentally challenged that image.
Barely two months after Nigeria’s return to civil democracy in 1999,
its democratic journey suffered a mishap. Alhaji Salisu Buhari, the newly
elected Speaker of the House of Representatives and by law the fourth citizen
of the country, became the first casualty when he fell from his exalted
position on allegations of certificate forgery and perjury. His fall was aided
by internet technology, then a new tool for journalists and Nigerians. The News
magazine, a leading Nigerian weekly, used the internet to conduct
investigations into the speaker’s claims that he had been awarded a University
degree from Toronto, Canada, his business dealings, his age which he had lied
about and the dates of other schools he claimed he had attended. Applying a
combination of traditional investigative journalistic tools with searches on
the internet and email communication, the magazine was able to publish a
factual account that exposed Salisu Buhari as a liar. The published story was
widely circulated in Nigeria and was even shared with the AllAfrica.com website
with which it had a content sharing arrangement. Eventually, it was not just
Nigerians that read the story, but the whole world.
For the media, it was a huge triumph, a victory only made possible
through the use of the new media tools offered by the internet. This was
investigative journalism by the traditional media at its best, aided by the
emergence of new media tools; email communication, search engines, and the
wealth of information available on the information super highway. The sheer
power of the new media tools offered by the internet was brought home to
journalists like me.
The immediacy of the internet and its centrality to the work of the
media was thus established in Nigeria. Also, the potential it held as a tool
for social change empowering the individual became quite obvious to millions of
Nigerians.
Today, more people than ever are participating in journalism. People
are breaking news on Twitter, covering their communities on Facebook,
live-streaming, distributing news via email and writing in--‐depth blogs on issues of civic and community
significance. Some of these people are what we would consider “traditional”
journalists working on new platforms, but many are not.
As more and more people commit acts of journalism, the lines between
who is and who is not a journalist get blurrier — and the distinction becomes
less useful:
Nigeria has the greatest number of
internet users in Africa; nearly 50 percent accessed the internet in 2014.
Social-media platforms have proved influential as an alternative source of
information and opinion.
The emergence of social media newspapers was fueled by the interactive
and investigative vacuum found in the traditional media in Nigeria. Their style
of journalism has invigorated, informed and empowered the Nigerian citizenry.
They have spurred them into a new era of citizenship awareness, greater
political participation and a greater demand for accountability and
transparency from those that govern them.
Indeed, social media journalism has come to challenge the hegemonic
powers of the traditional media forcing the latter to make adjustments to the
extent that many of them now have their own social media platform with breaking
news, updates, commentaries, photo journalism etc. Not just newspapers. Even
NTA, ChannelsTV, AIT, Silverbird etc now have their internet platforms.
It suggests that in spite of
its inherent weaknesses, social media journalism in all its various forms can
be fused with the traditional media to create a synergy that will be of
democratic value to emerging democracies like Nigeria.
Therein lies the future of journalism in Nigeria
Guided
Questions for Discussion(i) Historically, Nigeria has boasted the most free and outspoken press of any African country, but also one which has consistently been the target of harassment by the past military dictatorships. Nigeria's media practitioners have been imprisoned, exiled, tortured, or murdered in the line of their constitutional and social responsibility duties.. Is this an apt description of the history of Nigerian journalism?
(ii) What transformed the media vibrancy of the mid-1970s (that threw up Babatunde Ahmed Jose, Aare Oyebola, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Tony Momoh, Segun Osoba, Tai Solarin, Aire Iyare etc) and the mid-1980’s (of the era of Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Femi Osofisan, Olatunji Dare, Stanley Macebu, Edwin Madunagwu etc) which asked grand questions about serious government misconduct, into today’s media, which can be alternatively frivolous, petulant, obnoxious and obsequious?
(iii) Today the Nigerian media is increasingly moving towards public relations than information dissemination. It is now common for most big newspapers to wrap themselves round with adverts of banks and other big corporations in what used to be the prestigious front page; news is tending towards entertainment and drama while the face-to-face contact is being replaced by web postings. The western world still believes in their traditional media and patronizes them. Why is Nigeria different?
(iv) Today, the Nigerian Press engages in self censorship by refusing to carry news and stories that will offend and damage the integrity of the government of the day and captains of industry because their economic survival depend on them. Sales from circulation are nothing compared to juicy contracts and adverts from these sources. Can we remedy this compromised situation?
Many thanks
Pastor Adedeji Adeleye Executive Director, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP) Lagos, Nigeria June 7, 2017
