What encounter with a South African editor taught me about Nigeria
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 than by 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 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 4th 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 for the same security challenges that now seem 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 SSS 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.
- Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book, Writing for Media and Monetising It.
