Opinion
By Azu Ishiekwene
I met him through Ferial Haffajee, a fellow judge on
The CNN African Journalist of the Year panel for
several years, and also a fellow member of the board
of the World Editors Forum in those early days.
Ferial is one of the most outstanding journalists on
the continent, but this article is not about her. It’s
partly about the lesson I learned from Tony Weaver,
formerly of the Daily Maverick of South Africa,
whom Ferial introduced to me many years ago.
Take it off?
I remember Tony because of a recent request by
Nigeria’s Minister of Information, Idris Mohammed,
and the Director General of the State Security,
Adeola Ajayi, that the press should remove – or
downplay – reports about banditry that have become
a daily fare on the front pages of Nigerian newspapers.
Mohammed and Ajayi are not journalists,
and journalists hate outsiders teaching
them how to do their job.
Their joint news conference on June 19, calling out
journalists, reminded me of my encounter with Tony
in the early days of the Israeli war in Gaza. I had
written a piece for Daily Maverick that was very
critical of the Hamas attack on Israel. I was
unsparing of the Hamas and Palestinian leadership
and would have given them a whooping if I could.
Paying a debt
After days of waiting in vain for Tony, the Op-ed
editor, to use my article, I called.
“Azu,” he said, “Great piece, as usual. But you
know, South Africans owe the Palestinians a lot for
the role the PLO played in our struggle for freedom.
DM does not support any premeditated violence
against innocent people, but the sentiment in the
country is hugely in favour of the Palestinians. I’m
sorry, we’ll be unable to publish your piece.”
That got me thinking. How many times have I
written or published an article, motivated more by
anger and frustration with the system rather than with the
consequences of the impact of what I have written or
caused to be published? I thanked Tony and took the
lesson to heart.
The sins of politicians
The thing is, if you mind politicians or the public
officials, you will offend God. Whether in the
Middle East, Africa, Europe, or America, politicians
are mainly responsible for the mess we’re facing
today, but are often quick to find scapegoats.
Take Nigeria, for example. Even though the situation
in the Sahel, especially after the collapse of Libya,
has worsened violent extremism in the northern parts
of the country, the choices that our politicians – and
I’m talking about Northern politicians exploiting
culture and religion – have made in the last 27 years
have also impoverished more citizens, and fertilised
radicalism. Didn’t Samuel Johnson say patriotism is
the last refuge of scoundrels?
Not everything is political, of course. Changes in
climatic conditions and a weakened landholding
framework, for example, have led to an increase in
violent farmer-herder clashes in central Nigeria.
Yet, the arc of Nigeria’s insecurity has bent from
mainly a north-east jihadist insurgency in 2015 to a
fragmented national crisis 10 years later. Banditry
and kidnapping are becoming as politically and
economically destabilising as Boko Haram/ISWAP,
mainly because of poor choices by politicians.
What can journalism do?
How can journalism turn a blind eye to such a
travesty? As far as trust goes, a surprising 2023
report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of
Journalism found that 57 per cent of Nigerians said
they trusted most news most of the time, placing
Nigeria 4 th out of 46 markets surveyed worldwide.
Yet, there are concerns in some circles that it is not
too much front-page reporting but too poor reporting
– that is, reporting without context, meaning, and
accuracy – that has enabled poor choices by
politicians and those responsible for managing the
crisis and endangered the lives of the troops.
It’s tempting not to take politicians’ complaints too
seriously, especially since those in the ruling party,
All Progressives Congress (APC), today easily
forget how unkind and impatient they were toward
their predecessors, who asked in vain for leniency
and understanding of the same security challenges
that now seems overwhelming.
What goes around…
I’m not sure Minister Mohammed or the DG SS still
remembers that the same mainstream press they’re
calling on for restraint (including this writer), also
called President Goodluck Jonathan’s government
clueless and incompetent, mainly because of that
government’s ability to tackle insecurity. And that
Jonathan’s successor, Muhammadu Buhari, an army
general and patron saint of the APC, didn’t do much
about insecurity, either. Now, the shoe is pinching
where it hurts. It’s the same sauce served to the
despised Jonathan, that President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu’s government is being served, even though
its officials argue that things have improved.
And that’s precisely where the problem lies. As long
as the press treats restraint in the coverage of
banditry and insurgency as a favour to Mohammed
or the DG SS or Tinubu, and not as a duty to
conscience, conviction, and the troops, the country,
not just the government, pays the price.
When US President Donald Trump calls Nigeria a
disgraced country, or we are treated shabbily at the
border of some countries, or when visitors are scared
to come, it’s not a matter of who is the president. It’s
quite often a reflection of the story we have written
and shared about our country.
We may not have written out of spite or ill will
towards our country; however, we may be justifiably
angry at the people at the helm. But in a world where
the touch of a phone button connects billions, what
we have written or said becomes part of our shared
global story. In the minds of many tribal audiences,
there’s hardly a distinction between journalism and
malevolent blogging.
Around the world
When I arrived in the US on holiday on June 10, I
was not as worried about firearm homicides, which
accounted for 76 per cent of all homicides in 2024,
as I was about the trending bad things I had read and
heard about President Trump and hostility towards
immigrants.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Sir Keir Stammer
will be the sixth PM in 10 years, making Britain,
now mockingly called Britaly, looks like Italy in the
1940s. Yet, despite the instability of the last decade
and the viciousness of the British press, you still find
a distinction between attitudes toward government
and country.
The Gulf states and Israel are a different case,
mainly because of the restrictions imposed by the
ongoing conflict in the region. But they are good
examples, regardless.
And yes, South Africa has been in the news lately
for the wrong reason of xenophobia, something
which must make my friends Ferial and Tony cringe
for their fellow citizens. Yet, there has been
considerable measured reporting of this sad episode
in the South African media.
My friend, Tony
What I learned from my friend, Tony, was not a
denial of press freedom or the promotion of self-
censorship. It’s not even an abdication of the duty to
hold power accountable – the first business of
journalism.
It’s an awareness, a pause, and empathy that weighs
the reach and impact of what we say or write,
putting conscience and country first. We’ll have to
rediscover that broken emotional connection with
our country. Not because a minister says so, but out
of conviction that it’s the right thing to do.
***Azu Ishiekwene is the editor-in-chief of LEADERSHIP
and author of the book, Writing for Media and
Monetising It.
F.O
Tags: Encounter with South African Editor