Once again, Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth, many thanks for this engaging, brief, thought-provoking post.
Indeed, there's "the short attention span in the age of social media…In the age of grasshopper minds." That, plus the frequent familiarity and the gradual, painful acclimatization to growing immunity from being shocked by the unending sequence of one atrocity surpassing the other. and the frustration and despair, ojare, when the pursuit of justice comes to nought seems to have made you surrender and conclude that " No story is worth a journalist's life"
You hit the nail on the head with " If investigative reports have to work, then you have to have reliable judiciary and police and participating citizens or should i add a critical mass of societally conscious citizens."... and the rest of what you say in response to Babatunde Jaiyeoba
At this stage, it's not clear how you/we relate to the proposition, "Give me liberty or give me death"
Or how you/we/ they ( the unholy criminals) relate to the idea that "Christ died for our sins"
Back in the day, on a daily basis, from approximately 3881 English miles away, I could tell you what the President of a certain African country had for breakfast. From a much closer distance, I could tell you with precision what was happening in Abidjan, but that was just good social relations, harmless gossip, not "investigative journalism" which demands that you are there - in the field as a "Field Negro" not back there as a good old Robinson Crusoe, " House Negro" enjoying crumbs from Massa's table - more like Wofa Akwasi, at least like a freedom fighter/ war correspondent, battling in the "trenches" - not sitting by the wintry fireplace in New York and sending reports about the power outages in the war that's about to begin in Ukraine…
Back in the day, wherever, Investigative Journalism meant that they'd investigate and write exposés that would lead to dire consequences for the miscreants. In a different class from hack writers, praise singers, gossip-mongers, and the neo-narcissistic ego-tripping, self-deluded adulation and self-promoting chest-beating armchair professors of so-called spin who never left the precincts of their cosy cabins or ivory towers, forever boasting of their existent or non-existent hide & speak "secret sources", forever stationed close to their Mr President - in this case, their Mr President of Nigeria - apart from the controversial Daniel Ellsberg and men of integrity such as Bob Woodward we have had our fair share of other real Investigative Journalists, such as the late Dele Giwa , the late Shireen Abu Akleh and most recently, Arshad Sharif all of who paid the ultimate price with their martyrdom
But even where there appears to be unfettered freedom of the press, and nothing to be afraid of ( apart from fear itself) unfortunately, what we have today, and not only in Nigeria - is that the lootocracy can commit their crimes - robbing the nation blind in broad daylight and not even covertly, with impunity syphon off mega-millions into offshore accounts, without any worries of consequences - since it's obvious that they and their criminal networks own both the police and the military, own all the executive arms of govern-ment, have the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary in their back pockets, so what do they have to be afraid of?
Have you by any chance yet read Nigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation? ( I have waded through the acknowledgements and the rest of what's available in that link…
By the way, I think that Civil Courage should be encouraged and just in case there isn't any such thing in Nigeria yet, a Civil Courage Prize has to be instituted and awarded to deserving journalists every year...On Friday, 28 October 2022 at 07:06:01 UTC+2 abicke...@googlemail.com wrote:On forumite Babatunde Jaiyeoba and investigative journalism by Augustine Togonu-bickersteth,london,england
Greetings Mr Babatunde Jaiyeoba. you have asked a million-dollar question, but I would try
and answer it. you would like to know what's responsible for the lull in investigative journalism in Nigeria.
I want to believe there is still a modicum of investigative reports taking place
If you are to go by the existence of institutions like, the international canter for investigative journalism in Abuja, Wole Soyinka canter for investigative journalism and the premium times is part of a worldwide consortium on investigative journalism particularly as it concerns the Pandora papers. You have rightly mentioned the Sahara reporters.
What you might find out is that nobody or almost no one has been apprehended based on their investigative reports so it's almost like a futile exercise. There other problem is the short attention span in the age of social media. Investigative reports tend to be detailed and exhaustive there might not be too attractive in the age of social media. In the age of grasshopper minds.
What's more the capacity to shock or provoke Nigerians with news reports seems to be gradually disappearing.so we move from one shocking story to an even more shocking story. a Some may be apprehended and later pronounced not guilty,
How many investigative reports do you want to write in Nigeria? Things have gotten out of hand.
If investigative reports have to work, then you have to have reliable judiciary and police and participating citizens or should i add a critical mass of societally conscious citizens.
If investigative journalism has got to work with the judiciary doing its job and with the right kind of police then it has to be properly funded, fuel bills, hotel bills, refreshment, maybe flight tickets around the world etc. but here you have journalists who are employed but not paid and are t being told that having a by line in a newspaper or accepted as a reporter in a newspaper is a license to print money.
Now if you are told that a former Nigerian leader has a multi-billion-dollar oil refinery in a south American country x
Make the proposal to your editor if he does not kill the story, you at least have to find the money to go to country x to see if there is indeed such an oil refinery. it all depends on whose interest the newspaper proprietor is serving and also the editor of the newspaper, some stories can affect the stream of income of the newspaper like social diary, birthday, supplements or just our right advertisement or outright cheque book journalism,
Personally, i look at investigative journalism as firefighting which is not what journalists should be doing rather i want them in fire prevention, i want them to look forward rather than looking back and digging graves that's why i am in favour of writing stories of those struggling to do positive things. A lot of people are into wrong doing because there is no alternative (TINA ) . our start-up's, Scaled up to unicorns can create these alternatives.
Let me also add there are occupational hazards: no story is worth a journalist's life.
Nigerian police do not have the capacity in many respects to apprehend people who have committed heinous crimes so that it serves as a deterrent to others. People are not afraid of committing crime in Nigeria or even more violent crimes and it is that environment you want some to practice investigative journalism which dwells a lot on corruption, fraud and other criminal activity. No story is worth a journalist's life
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