I woke up this morning after my morning devotion; I dabbled into a mind boggling report on my WhatsApp platform
I told myself: The TRUTH be told, what are the roles of the MEDIA obligated and bestowed with the sole ethical responsibilities of being the watchdog of the society; must have PLAYED in the long aged corruptions that have infested and given birth to loss of lives, heinous carnage, wanton destruction of our personal and national wealth over the years in Nigeria???!!!
After reading through this long revealing poetic but mind boggling report on my WhatsApp platform, calls for concerns.
I was forced to cull the below excerpts of the old historic but recent report and adaptation of the events that pluck up, and pull down many great African countries today.
“…Nigeria is fast ascending to the very path that Freetown took. The path that ruined Congo and Libya. The expressway to Rwanda, that is the path Nigeria is fast speeding into. Yet, this path is not a new path to us. It’s a familiar terrain that we have taken before. In 1966, long before even the Rwandan path was paved. We wasted over 3 million people as hundreds of innocent souls were slaughtered before even the war started.
Long before the Rwandan path was paved, religious differences and ethnic intolerance as being repeated today, led to a civil war that took our best, took our leaders, took innocent souls and took us backward.
The backwardness is still hunting and hurting us till day. And, it’s the wounds of the war that was not treated in a round table talk, talk, that is leading to another war. Yet, the leader of the nation insists that he’s comfortable exactly the way things are.
So, it’s either history is unfair to us or our leaders are blind to it. Indeed, the death meant to kill a dog does not allow her to smell faeces. And, like the saying goes, those who do not understand history are bound to repeat it.
Even if we hadn’t experienced a civil war before, what happened in Free Town, Monrovia, Abidjan in recent history ought to have taught us a lesson. The way Tripoli was turned from a fast developing city into a slave town where war lords reign should serve as a lesson.
But no, we learnt nothing. Just “over” 50 years after, when those that played major role to the last civil war are still alive, here the snowball of war goes rolling down from the snow mountain of stupid arrogance, gathering with it all the ethnic intolerance and religious divide that paved the path of Rwandan.”
Now, the key QUESTIONS:
1. What roles will the Nigerian Media (the Fourth Estate or Fourth Power of the Realm) are known for to have played in the history of Nigeria of today and Nigeria of the future.
2. How can the MEDIA forthwith contribute greatly and use as tools for unbiased dispersion of information to show the dark side of every human lives and distribute truth?
Posterity will surely catch up with every genuine and qualified professional in this world of journalism, hence whilst, there is urgent need and call to create that sense of balance and transparency in our society, in Nigeria.
I can’t say it all here. We all know the role of the Rwandan Media in the historic 1994 genocide amongst the Hutu and Tutsi of the Republic of Rwanda.
Amongst others, #ENDSAR Protest would pass as a litmus test for the Nigerian Media if they truly stand for the truth and want to be identified for shaping public public opinion/reactions for peaceful and progressive nation.
Let’s change the narratives, as a force for peace, be the agent of societal change, as the watchdog of our society, our own country.
- Blaise Udunze lives in Lagos