This Kemi Olunloyo story is heartbreaking. The spineless and helpless response by the journalist community is even more heart rending. Yorubas say you don’t feed a bad child to a hungry lion. The fact is that the evil pastor doing this is not doing it simply because KOO is a bad journalist, or blogger if you like. It is a naked and unchallenged exercise of power which he will one day visit on other “good” journalists even when the story is genuinely investigated as long as it stains his “saintly robe”. People of power in Nigeria: Robbers, Politicians, Pastors, Child molesters and Drug barons who have detained the powers of state in their babanrigas because they are able to influence the apparatus of justice with the instrumentality of cash and evil influence, are observing what is going on and how easy it is to oppress, detain, punish or even kill a journalist while other journalists are busy debating the morality or professionalism of their colleague’s work. The evil
Empire that will deal ruthlessly with the media in the years to come, which is only showing its fangs now, testing the waters, is not swayed by your moralizing or your professional ethics or whether practitioners are adhering to it or not. They are only interested in their selfish personal interest. Our first duty therefore, should be to establish the fact that not one aberrant child of this kingdom will be allowed to be subjected to punishment and humiliation without a loud response from the kingdom. If that becomes the norm, the powerful will
Become careful before they begin to exploit the illegally acquired powers of state to deal with journalists. While it is important to discuss the issue of professionalism, you don’t do that when your colleagues are facing the assault. The other kingdom is creating obnoxious laws and setting precedents that will
Make the proper practice of journalism a hell in the years to come, while we, instead of organizing to oppose, to defend, are debating our friends’ professionalism. Before KOO, though in different circumstances, we have had totally unnecessary detentions of good or bad(choose) journalists/bloggers. There was Chris, there was Seun and many others. Many have gone unreported. Everybody moralizes. Many of our colleagues even argue that they(while been detained o) deserve to be punished for bending the rules. How come powerful
People have turned libel into murder, into a crime that allows law enforcement to arrest and detain, in effect, exacting a great punishment for a “crime” yet to be proven? Does that happen in a ANY civilized country? So now that we have decided to allow our adversaries to help us punish the “aberrant” among us, who is safe? One day, should FAJ or Bob Dee write a revealing story against the government or an individual, they will come after them and subject them to the same humiliation, despite the veracity of such reports(because, trust me, those guys are not interested in all that as long as you hurt their interests). Don’t laugh. They are currently testing the waters, they are perfecting the laws. They are tightening the screws. They got our balls, please allow that, in their palms, or they soon will, so when the day of judgement comes, the innuendos, the jokes, the arguments, the moralisms will end and we will
Know that we are in trouble.
I think many of our colleagues take the rather cavalier or unserious attitude they adopt to matters affecting journalists because they fail to appreciate the role of the 4th estate. The media is special. The media has a specific and functional role in governance and the management of the society. It is not the job of a journalist to worry about the impact of exposure of evil committed by men of power. Media must be aggressive. They must take the gauntlet and expose evil. How do we manage the bad eggs?
Self regulation is it. It is important that the NUJ and the associated bodies address this matter and should be the ones with the power to deal with errant writers to the point of arresting and punishing journalists who stubbornly refuse to fall in line. I would have no problem if it was a body of journalists that is carrying out this internal cleaning instead of this outsourcing of that job to evil men of power.
Journalists, fight for your own. Defend them, know your enemies and do not compromise. Two wrongs do not, and Connor make a right. If a journalist makes an error it is wrong to exploit the law to destroy him and his professional confidence. Every writer has a role. Even the KOOs of this world. If she has met all her bail
Conditions how can she be re arrested? Is she planning a civil war? Let us Fight against the obnoxious laws that allow all these crazy detentions. Let us fight against laws that allow ordinary police to become the terror of journalists. It’s just annoying. If you joke about it today, it will be your turn, or your friends turn, or your child’s turn tomorrow.