WHILE it is generally agreed that no medium exists without its own bias, the greater truth is that the media is a public trust and its hallmark is integrity established by truth. When a medium publishes falsehood, either deliberately or inadvertently, it undermines the basis of its credibility.
This is the trap that the defeated candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Iyiola Omisore, set for the Nigerian media before, during and after the August 9, governorship election in Osun State.
Senator Omisore asked for the removal of the State Resident Electoral Commission, Ambassador Rufus Akeju, alleging that Akeju is a card-carrying member of the then Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which later metamorphosed into the All Progressives Congress, APC. He did not offer any evidence. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Akeju’s employer, asked him to substantiate his claim, since he who asserts must prove. Almost four years down the line, he is yet to come up with anything. But the media, regrettably, has been amplifying this false allegation for him.
Again, he has been fulminating that INEC conducted the 2011 general elections against a subsisting court order. He trumpeted this lie with a demonic frenzy, regrettably with the help of the media.
The truth, however, is that the PDP went to court asking for an interlocutory injunction preventing Akeju from conducting the 2011 election. INEC agreed and was preparing to replace Akeju when PDP went back to the same court and asked for a ‘stay of execution’.
The judge, Babs Kuewumi, was scandalised. He told them that their demand defied logic since it is the loser that asks for an injunction against an injunction, not the winner, who should be savouring the fruits of his victory. He then granted the stay of execution of the injunction he had earlier granted.
It is inconceivable that Omisore will now turn round to accuse INEC of flouting court order. The media reported this falsehood with reckless abandon, without cross-checking the facts.
Then again, the media on September 2 were awash with an interesting news item – a report that INEC had suspended two Electoral Officers, EOs, for Obokun and Osogbo local governments. The report gleefully and recklessly claimed they were suspended for helping APC to rig the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun State.
The next day INEC came out to rebut the story. INEC was categorical in denying that the two EOs were suspended for helping APC rig the election. Indeed, the EO for Obokun was suspended for diverting election materials and arrested by the police while doing so. What INEC did not mention was that the news actually broke on the eve of the election, how vigilant youths in Otan-Ile had apprehended the EO while taking the materials to the residence of a PDP chief in Ilase and how he was released by police to a PDP national officer from the state.
The second EO for Osogbo was actually suspended following the petition written against him for attempting to manipulate the election against APC. He hid the accreditation tags of APC party agents and did not release them until after accreditation had taken place. He also hid form EC8C in a waste bin and caused the delay in compiling the result for Osogbo until about 2.00 am the next day.
How then could the two EOs have rigged for APC? Interestingly, the same media had reported these events when they occurred. All they needed to do was crosscheck with their own record. However, the report was written by the media handlers of Omisore and handed to the media with a little inducement. The public had been badly served.
The irony is that each time the public read a report in the media that is patently false, instead of Omisore, it is the media that gets discredited. There is no amount of money that can compensate for the loss of credibility for the media. Believability is the media’s daily bread and once it is lost, nothing is left.
Omisore is a mere bird of passage, he should not be allowed to destroy the media that have been built over time with the sweat and blood of our patriots and heroes of the profession.
Tunji Ayandele, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Osogbo, Osun State.
No comments:
Post a Comment