By Adeola Soetan
Mr. Babajide Otitoju is a respected broadcast journalist, and a public affairs commentator who tries to be objective always on the programne. I commend him for that and his sense of patriotism especially in his deep concern and wide useful knowledge on the nation’s war against Boko Haram which he freely shared with the public.
But I take objection to some of his comments on the popular programne, Journalists Hangout, today, Tuesday, April 7, 2020. This bothers on social and broadcast ethics, and his simplistic understanding and interpretation of the covid-19 pandemic lockdown and the attendant issues.
First, it’s very wrong of Babajide Otitoju to call on the policemen to go and disperse with teargas some Nigerians who were trekking or exercising on the Gbagada bridge under construction, whom in his own opinion, were defiant of the lockdown directive of the Lagos State Government.
He repeated his “instruction.” to the police force to go and attack those “defiants” with teargas to show that his statement was not a slip of the tongue. Babajide even went further to say that nobody can break law or take law into their hands in “this Sanwoolu’s Lagos” “Sanwoolu’s Lagos” ? Oh my gosh!
Only Otitoju can explain what he meant by that “Sanwoolu’s possessiveness of Lagos” To me, that’s a lousy semantic error that should not be allowed in professional broadcasting for whatever reason.
Under no circumstance should the broadcast media including television be used to promote violence or incite security agencies against the people and vice versa. This was what the popular broadcaster errorneously did by calling on the police to go and attack the people with teargas. He even noticed (as shown on the programne) that women were part of the “defiant crowd” whom he said “would runaway” at the sight of policemen firing shots of teargas canisters.
Babajide should know that he can only inform and educate, he cannot tell police how to do their job, they can discuss and persuade as many reasonable officers have been doing to get better crowd / defiants control results in this period of social tension where a little spark can provoke mass revolt which end no one can predict.
This his statement and opinion on a live popular television programne is unethical and unprofessional, he should desist from such. I expected Ayo, the moderator, to moderate Babajide but he failed to do that. Ayo’s later promise that their camera crew would visit Gbagada scene tomorrow was good for a balanced view, but such action should have come earlier because all Voices Must be heard before policemen start to “teargas” them.
Secondly, Babajide’s understanding of “the poor and the vulnerable” in trying to justify the Lagos state government’s provision of food rations for 200, 000 households was narrow.
Assuming there were “the permanent poor and the vulnerable” people on which database Lagos planned its food intervention programme. But Babajide and Lagos state government should have known that with the lockdown, a lot of daily income earners like many bus conductors, commercial drivers, barbers, tailors, bricklayer, “vulganisers” mechanics and even resident prostitutes are now “transitionally vulnerable” who should be accommodated in the social safety nets. Hence, there is no way the provision for just poor and vulnerable 200,000 households will he enough.
The state government has been doing commendable job medically, they need to do more and more socially for the lockdown to be effective and hunger free.
Lastly, Babajide’s allusion to Rwanda and Saudi Arabia as examples of countries where people obey the lockdown directives missed the essential point.
I had duscused this many times on my time line and on different platforms. While we all should encourage people to strive and obey the lockdown and all containment practices against covid-19 spread for our own good, but we must know that medicine and sociology of the people must be harmonized.
I hereby refer Babajide to one of my publications:
“Covid-19: Medicine Vs Sociology
Medicine after Food is the trite parlance in medical care. It means that if there is no food, there may not be medicine.
What is playing out now in the country with the rising disobedience of people to the lockdown order mainly due to hunger is simply a clash of sociology and medicine because of the way our society is over stratified. A disorganized society with mass poverty in the midst of abundant wealth controlled by the few privileged elite.
And in the conflict between sociology and medicine especially during a pandemic, where government fails to harmonize the two factors to positively complement one another, the conflict will, unfortunately, be resolved in favor of sociology of the people with its attendant cost.
People don’t want to die of covid-19 or any disease and at the same time they don’t want to die of hunger. But hunger they feel daily, personally and directly, conoravirus they do not see but it’s real. The two must just be resolved pari passu”.
I enjoy Journalists Hangout and I commend their efforts in putting together a live and lively daily programme (except on weekend) to discuss topical issues for the enhancement of national discourse and good governance. . From my four decades experience in broadcast media, I know it’s not a lazy team’s job. Kudos!
Adeola Soetan, Broadcaster, Publisher & Public Commentator, is the National Coordinator, Democracy Vanguard (DV) 08037207856
