SHAMEFUL PRESS COVERAGE BY THE SUN, DAILY TRUST, NEW TELEGRAPH and THISDAY: “50 Students Killed in #Nigeria Vs GEJ #GEJdeclares. …..”


“50 Students Killed in Vs GEJ Here is how the Nigerian Press Prioritised the two events …..”

Nigeria press-Goodluck

Nasir El-Rufai may be a party member of the opposition, this could not stop me from thinking about how a section of the Nigerian press captured the terrorist acts of Boko Haram at a school in Potiskum leaving 48 or 49 students killed.

It was not bad enough that our President, for the 2nd time ignored the terrible acts of terrorism and went about his political ambition with a banner screaming, ‘business as usual’ to Nigerians, it was sad to see how a section of the Nigerian press chose to capture this most unfortunate act, that would NEVER, EVER and I repeat NEVER, EVER happen in a an environment where the lives of citizens are valued.

I always ponder this reason for the inexplicable acts of our leaders and those in power, inclusive of the press that as far as anything goes in Nigeria, you are in free-land, where rules are promulgated to fill up volumes of books, but the actual implementation of these rules are cosmetic. There will be BUCKET LOADS OF PRESS COVERAGE (we now all know that an influential section belong to same caucus as the politicians) and TONS OF ANONYMOUS COMMENTS accompanied by JOKES that further trivialises the offence.

Why in goodness name would the offender be disciplined by the law?

If by chance, the offence was too obvious for the courts to strike out, the offenders would be SENTENCED. The JAILS would be turned into VIP LOUNGES. The offender would be given a ROUSING RECEPTION upon release, and then ends up with a POLITICAL APPOINTMENT. How about that for demo-crazy!

Now, I ask myself these questions:

1. How much are Nigerian journalists paid?

2. How many units of Nigerian newspapers are sold to generate an income?

3. How much adverts would these newspapers generate in order to sustain the business?

The answers to the above questions are all negative, and as a result of survival of the fittest and most of the time greedy, disgraceful headlines such as the ones below will be a normal occurrence. 

How would anyone with common or uncommon sense want to argue unbehalf of this section of the press?

With everything in Nigeria, MONEY ALWAYS SPEAKS.

I may be called naive, but my sense of justice, my heart of recognising what is wrong, my pain of observing how the ordinary Nigerian had joined the bandwagon of politicians – jostling for whatever they can lay their hands on when the opportunities show up – will never be diminished. It pains me to write that this section of the press, supposedly regarded as the voice of the masses has sold out. Not all Nigerian press, I am mindful to write, but a section widely read ones have disappointed a section of Nigerians. 

In some parts of the world Journalists travel out of their comfort zones into dangerous zones to cover the injustice taking place hundreds of kilometres away. Some, as its been widely reported were captured and beheaded. These journalists took the risk and died in the process exposing injustice, paying the ultimate price. How many journalists in Nigeria are prepared to pay the ultimate price?

In the not so favourable economic comfort of Nigeria, journalists, writers and photo-journalists are either compromised into silence or made to look idiotic to the world by what they report and how they report it.

Plenty of these are seen on a regular basis, The ones below happen to be upper crust examples.

Shame on you THE SUN.

Shame on you DAILY TRUST

Shame on you NEW TELEGRAPH and

Shame on you THISDAY.

SHAME SHAME, SHAME ON YOU.

Not that you have a conscience to care, but some of us still do.

Nigeria press-Goodluck Nigeria press-Goodluck Nigeria press-Goodluck Nigeria press-Goodluck

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