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Nigeria
Newspapers
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Cry For Change
-Imo Ukpe, Nigerian
Posted
June 07, 2006
News Editors,
I think its time we think seriously of turning your
newspapers and every other news media around, at least front
pages and major captions.
Instead of posting to the people what the politicians,
“actors” as I would prefer to see them; are doing, lets be
real by posting to the politicians, (hoping they will get
the time to get on line or flip a page of the papers and
read) the real life situation of the masses and the Nigerian
Public, YOU AND ME.
Lets stop these wasteful publicity of Politicians, Bank
Directors etc to me they are doing their jobs and not well
enough for today’s demands. Else I would expect that we
should be on the papers everyday for merely waking up and
driving to work.
At least now, at the eve of fresh politics in our country,
lets take our editorials and cameras to our schools, our
rural areas, our hospitals, our roads, our residential areas
and suburbs, our work places, our markets, our remand homes,
our welfare centers, our police stations and council
offices, our emergency centers, our military camps and
barracks. Lets talk to the real Nigerians, the over 90% who
really need attention in this country but who are forgotten
and deprived of a good life every political season. The
people whose votes the politicians pretend they need to take
charge of resources.
Everyone has a role to play as we approach the start of
another long track to a new round of democracy, and the
press I can say at this time is not doing what it should do
for this country and her people.
Lets use this opportunity to remind our politicians that
there is a lot to this country, than they do everyday in the
State houses and polished walkways at the seat of power.
When will our news stories focus on how long people are
still waiting for electricity and water, what people
experience everyday during or after robberies and what
happens when they call the police, their daily experiences
at hospitals; with Policemen at night on the streets. The
hundreds of Staged arrests merely carried out for extortion.
Brutality of government revenue agents, these things are
going on day by day.
The policeman’s experience and other agents of law
enforcement, under harsh conditions while carrying out
legitimate duty. Working without proper welfare, under harsh
weather and inadequate equipment. The doctor’s experiences,
lawyers, students. How our students in different schools are
preparing for exams to come and their expectations. The
experiences of the graduate job seekers. When will our front
pages carry these stories with photos? Probably its easier
to put on our front pages; photos from Insurance dinners,
coronations, launchings and state visits than those from,
crowded
hospitals, inefficient crowded banks, dirty slaughter houses
and market places.
These are the real Nigerian news stories that politicians
and decision makers should read and rethink if they have
forgotten what it means to be a Nigerian. Maybe these things
have become so normal in our society that they are no longer
news. Then there is
nothing to change, there fore there should be no campaigns,
no need for choosing a leader, and our problems are hereby
solved.
Take a trip of your news papers, Mr. Editors, and those of
your counterparts, then look at our streets, look to the
faces of the people on the street, and the lives they live
in the cities where these papers are written and sold daily,
and tell me honestly if you are doing your job. Compare your
performance to what is obtainable elsewhere in the world,
where journalism is what it should be. You and the
politicians have a role to play in nation building. When you
start telling the real news stories, then
things will start to change.
The purpose of the press is to stir up some attention, bring
about correction and initiate some change.
I think I am not the only one suffering this frustration of
seeing our papers and news media walking over the real
stories that should reflect the way we are Nigerians today.
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of good things are happening but I
think if the poor
situations still outnumber them, so should the pages of our
papers be.
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