It was exactly 10 years ago that I got that important phone call that made it possible for me to undertake my first trip to the United States of America. The American Embassy in Abuja had opened a window for editors of leading media organisations in Nigeria to observe and report the American election taking place in November of that year, and as editor of the flagship title of a major newspaper at the time, I was one of those approached and offered the privilege.
It was my first experience with American society. And I was impressed with what I saw. Perhaps to avoid being seen as influencing our editorial judgement, the US Embassy waived for us the payment of visa fees, but left the responsibility of air tickets, hotel accommodation and other expenses to us.
It was the last time I got involved with the American government, through the embassy, until two years later when my visa expired and I wanted to attend the 2015 edition of the World News Congress, organized by the World Editors Forum and World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, to which I am a member. I applied for visa renewal through the normal process, and was treated with utmost respect and courtesy, just like every other Nigerian applicant.
Granted the visa for another two years, I was able to attend the World News Congress in Washington DC. Some of us were privileged to visit the White Hiuse, America’s seat of power, as well as the Pentagon, the headquarters building of the American Ministry of Defence that was constructed during World War 2, on an accelerated schedule.
When that visa expired two years later, I deliberately decided not to go for a renewal because it coincided with the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential election of that year. With the kind of negative sentiments he was spewing, I felt, for the first time, that I could not be safe in the country that is the global leader of democracy and human liberty. It was such a relief to the global community when Trump was defeated by incumbent President Joe Biden, though Trump has, unfortunately, succeeded in dividing the American society, taking small aspects of it back to the dark ages of racial discrimination. Of course, Americans are resilient, and we are optimistic that all of that will be fully reversed, to the benefit of humanity.
There are editors who could never have attended the American government-funded Town Hall Meeting and Capacity Building Workshop organized by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, an organisation I served as deputy president, if President Trump were still in power. Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka threatened to destroy his American Green Card, if Trump won the presidential election. Such was the level of distaste for the man whose enmity for the Third Word was never hidden. But with a new sheriff in town, a Biden that is busy embracing the whole world and restoring America to its leadership of the global community, people are now proud to associate with that great country.
It is to the credit of the current exco of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, under the able leadership of Mustapha Isah, that America has found it worthwhile to enrich the capacity of Nigerian editors, with a grant of $200,000. And to take learning right to the doorsteps of the editors, the guild has structured the workshop into the six geopolitical zones of the country. Though I operate from Abuja, my name was included among editors in the northwestern zone, taking place in the commercial city of Kano, obviously because Kano is where I started my journalism practice over three decades ago. I still run a media office there.
This is a capacity-building workshop that challenges any editor who thinks he or she knows it all. The choice of resource persons is excellent. From one paper presenter to the other, new areas of media knowledge were opened and widely explored, in a refreshing way and manner.
In Kano, you get to discern the importance of any event when it is attended by the Emir in person. Such was the significance of the workshop that Emir Aminu Ado Bayero not only attended in person, he also went down memory lane to tell it all about how he graduated with honours in mass communication, and his brief foray in the world of journalism. The emir tasked journalists to ensure fact-checking and forestall the spread of fake news, given that the people rely on the media to tell them the truth and also serve as torch-bearers in the society.
A major area of discussion is the question of media ownership in Nigeria. This is basically of two categories: governmental and private. While there is the general tendency to look down on government-owned media as propaganda mouthpieces of any government in power, both at state and federal levels, it emerged at the workshop that the private media organisations can be as bad as well, in terms of being badly influenced to, more often than not, do the dirty bidding of the owners, most of whom are politicians.
Unethical practices were also brought to the fore. For example, under the Nigeria Broadcasting Organisation Code, only true professionals of certain years of practice can be appointed as heads of radio or television outfits. You find, however, that, in this clime, people with access to government will apply and obtain radio or television license and, to pretend to be respecting the code, will hire professionals as enunciated by the law, but because that was never their intention, they ultimately either frustrate those professionals into resigning in their own, or even fire them from their positions, to pave way for their wives or children to be appointed in their stead.
To deepen professionalism, credible media associations like the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Nigeria Union of Journalists were also tasked to ensure full protection of the rights and privileges of professionals. A situation where only a few media organisations pay salaries to their editors and reporters was strongly deplored. It is the one key reason the Nigerian press is often found wanting in the task of holding leaders accountable to the governed, as enunciated in the Constitution.
The workshop also took a look at other issues affecting humanity that tend to be accorded less attention by large segments of the media, issues like humanitarian crises and climate change. There is also the issue of undue attention paid to non-state actors in areas of conflicts, at the expense of state actors whose actions are aimed at the protection of the society.
Media dichotomy was also discussed and discouraged. Though there are cultural barriers and issues that make media practitioners in the north to see things somewhat differently from their peers in the south, the emphasis at the workshop is the truth and nothing but it.
Though segments of the Nigerian media can be found wanting when it comes to reporting such issues as good governance, the consensus at the workshop is that the Nigerian Press is trying its best in that direction. It was noted that without the media, corruption and bad governance will have been much higher in Nigeria. Of course as consciences of the society, media practitioners are also expected to look into the mirror and lead in setting good examples for the society.
There is no way anyone could do justice to a workshop that has held for the whole of three days, in such a small space as a newspaper column. Topics discussed were very relevant to the needs of the Nigerian society. Good governance, advancement of democracy and freedom of the press and its practitioners are the key words. The whole thing revolves around them.
The American government has surely done very well sponsoring such a capacity building workshop for Nigerian editors. But to make the whole thing holistic, it needs to expand this across the board, to include reporters who are the field officers reporting people and events on everyday basis.
Jeanne L. Clark, the Press Attache, who also doubles as the spokesperson of the embassy in Nigeria, has continued to do very well with her team, which includes Aisha Gambari, a Nigerian, in facilitating friendship between editors and the government and good people of America. She represented the ambassador very well, and all of us look forward to deepening media relations with the United States, going forward . It is hoped that the American Embassy will make this sponsorship an annual ritual, as the global leader in democracy and good governance.