In its edition of Monday, 18th October 2015, the Vanguard and Leadership newspapers published a story on the planned impeachment of the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, on the ground that he is not carrying the rest honourable members along in the scheme of affairs, that N36m that accrued to the House from the Local Government Councils meant for the maintenance of the legislators’ quarters were yet to be made available to the lawmakers, and that the Speaker singlehandedly appointed 41 Special Advisers…these spurious information was reported by the Vanguard reporter, I suppose the report was written in a beer parloUr, after he was entertained with dog meat pepper soup and kainkain by the sponsor of the story.
Beyond every reasonable and unreasonable doubts, these allegations are spurious, unfounded, senseless, childish and trashy. In addition, it is a complete display of absolute ignorance and high level of unprofessionalism in the practice of journalism.
I waited this long to respond to the story in question, because, I expected the reporters that wrote the stories to retract them and tender their apologies to the respective persons, authorities and institutions that were so embarrassed by the report. I need to first educate the overzealous reporters on salient issues.
In the first place, the number of Special Advisers to Mr Speaker, are only four; there are Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants, and the Speaker couldn’t have singlehandedly appointed all of them. So, the reporters misinformed the public with respect to that. Again, it is no longer story that local governments in Edo state are struggling to pay their staff salaries, so, where could they have gotten a whopping sum of N36m for the renovation of the legislators’ quarters, and is it the responsibility of the local government authorities to fund the renovation of the legislators’ quarters? All these are misinformation of the highest order.
After reading the story, I was surprised to discover the extent to which some journalists can go in tarnishing the image of some persons as a result of whatever inducement they are given to encourage them to so do. I was more taken aback by the fact that such unbalanced report can be published by national newspapers that seem to have gained credence and are held in high esteem by some persons in the country, and the persons that are employed by the newspapers to do the needful, such as the editor and the sub editors, can be so careless as to allow such story to be in print; or did they partake in the sharing of the booty?
The reporter that wrote the story in the Vanguard newspaper, one Simeon Ebegbulem and another that reports for Leadership newspaper, as well as the editors they report to, have succeeded in bringing shame and disgrace to the Vanguard and Leadership newspapers, as well as to the media profession in general. They need to undergo some retraining (if they were trained for the job in the first place) to enable them be in tune with modern day practice in journalism.
If it was a regional or community newspaper that committed such heinous error; it could have been seen as an oversight or overzealousness on the part of the publisher, but not a national newspaper like the Vanguard and Leadership.
Again, I understand that the said reporters are old hands in the profession; but they failed to apply wisdom in the practice of their profession and the senseless and irresponsible manner in which they conducted themselves, is a slap on the face of the highly respected profession- journalism.
Even though I agree in totality that no man is perfect, journalists inclusive, there are certain salient mistakes that one commits that will raise some questions. For example, questions like what sort of training did they receive? Do they have any morals at all? How much could they have been paid that induced them to embarrass themselves, the organizations they work for, and the profession in this manner?
As if what these reporters did was not enough, another reporter for new Telegraph, one Cajetan Mmuta, who seems to be in same category with the said Vanguard and Leadership Newspapers reporters (in terms of low ethical conduct in the practice of Journalism) on Tuesday, October 20th, published another rubbish saying the Speaker apologized to the lawmakers and that the intervention of the Comrade Governor of Edo State, in the matter, calmed some of the (according to him) more aggrieved lawmakers.
It is good to see how all the honourable members of Edo State House of Assembly, during their sitting the following day, Tuesday, 20th October condemned the newspaper reports and distanced themselves from the publication. Again, they passed a vote of confidence on the leadership style of the Speaker of the House, Rt Hon. Engr, Chief Victor Sabor Tiger Edoror.
Again, on Wednesday, 21st October was Mr Speaker’s birthday, the honourable members stormed his residence to celebrate with him, and were also with him in a get together party that he organised to host guests. What can be better than this? Well, I am not surprised as the stories are the handwork of those that have come to steal, to kill and to destroy, as the holy bible rightly puts it, but Mr Speaker’s confidence is that God has come to give life and also to give it in abundance. Just in case they are not aware, or are pretending not to be aware of this development, I am bringing it to their notice so they can have reports to send to their newspaper Houses.
It is characteristic of me to ignore reports and issues of this nature because I see these kinds of reporters as opportunists and persons that do not have any business being in the media profession kin the first place. There are several well polished, very good journalists all around that can do extremely better than those that are messing up the profession.
Again, these reporters, after wasting all the months from January to September, 2015 in pursuing vain things, may have done what they did in other to be recognized hence win prizes from their respective media Houses, or some organizations for being the best reporters of the year 2015, since the year is gradually coming to an end, and it is time for recognising people. Or they might be hustling to raise money to celebrate the Xmas, hence, when they were offered money to do the story, they threw ethics of the profession to the dogs.
It is my strong believe that they find themselves in this profession by twist of fate, either as a result of the level of unemployment in the country (as such they must engage themselves in productive ventures to survive) or some godfathers somewhere got them the job; in any case, they need to be properly schooled in the ethics of the profession.
For these reporters to rubbish the much esteemed journalism profession in this manner, to the extent that some persons are beginning to see journalist as scavengers and blackmailers, to the extent that journalist are now being looked down upon in the society, calls for immediate action from the members and authorities of the fourth Estate of the realm.
The media is and should be guided by ethnics. At a time when a good number of journalists with integrity are trying to clean up the media profession and play the unbiased role given to it by the constitution, the likes of hungry reporters of this nature continue to rubbish the profession as a result of their gluttonous tendencies, greed and practice of journalism of stomach infrastructure.
The Vanguard reporter again shot himself on the leg when on Wednesday, 21st October, he published a story he captioned “Edo ALGON denies allegation of N36m monthly deduction from LGs”
In this said report, he quoted Mrs. Itohan Osahon Ogbeide the Chairman of ALGON in the state as saying; “…the renovation of legislators’ quarters is not the responsibility of the local governments…” this is a pointer to the fact that, even she, condemned the said publication. so, where did these reporters get their information from?
Hmmmmmmm, the Vanguard newspaper reporter in that report tries to be smart. He was trying to clean up his mess after defecating everywhere. It is again possible that he may have been advised by some persons to do this follow up story which in their opinion, will balance the first one he did, but the truth remains that he is only beating about the bush. Here comes a superior advice to the Vanguard and Leadership newspapers reporters; “Clean up your mess by apologizing to the honourable members of Edo State House Of Assembly and the number three citizen in Edo State, the Speaker of the House, as well as the profession that you have brought shame and disrepute upon” take my advice immediately and sin no more sirs.
Oriaifoh Godwins is the Chief Press Secretary to the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly
