Abstract
In this chapter the results of the interviews conducted with journalists in Nigeria will be presented. A total of twenty-four interviews were conducted with journalists for this book. The journalists cut across the northern and southern newspapers, and others from South Africa and Kenya (see Chaps. 4 and 5) because this book is comparing how newspapers from the two regions of Nigeria cover the cases of corruption scandal. The discussion is grouped into five themes, corruption/scandal, journalism and political culture, fourth estate role of the media, investigative journalism and suggestions and recommendations. The analysis has shown the complexity of the media in Nigeria. The respondents provided different views that sometimes converge, and sometimes disagree with each other. But what is clear is that the press in Nigeria is alive and the journalists have realised this, but there are challenges that must be addressed in order to strengthen the media and the journalists in their political communication role. Evidence of regional and ethnic bias in reporting was provided by the journalists in order to explain the character of the Nigerian media.
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Notes
- 1.
Orji Uzo Kalu was the former governor of Abia State , Saminu Turaki was the former governor of Jigawa State , and Chimaroke Nnamani was the former governor of Enugu State . All three governors served between 1999 and 2007. Kalu and Nnamani were members of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, while Turaki was a member of All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) which is the main opposition party, but he switched to the PDP before the 2007 elections.
- 2.
See Olayinka, Abiodun (2008): EFCC : Before we all fall victim, as a sample of an opinion article in the tribune newspaper on the views of Nigerians regarding the arrest of the former governors.
- 3.
The home video industry is booming in Nigeria, majority of the films, popularly known as Nollywood are produced in the south, the films are mostly in English and marketed across the world. But in the north also the home video industry exists, but the language used is Hausa, and Kano is the centre of the production, and the films produced there are called Kannywood. For more details on both Nollywood and Kannywood, see Okome, Onookome (2007): “Nollywood: Audience, Spectatorship and the Sites of Consumption”. Postcolonial text. Vol 3 No 2 pp. 1–21, and Adamu, Abdalla Uba (2007): Transglobal Media Flows and African Popular Culture: Revolution and Reaction in Muslim Hausa Popular Culture. Kano-Nigeria. Gidan Dabino Publishers.
- 4.
NPN was the political party that won the 1979 election and was in power until December 1983 when the civilian administration was overthrown by the military. Though the party was the most national in outlook at the time, it was seen as party with a strong northern base because some of its key members where from the Northern People’s Congress, the dominant political party in Northern Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s.
- 5.
Between 1960 and 1966 Nigeria was operating the Westminster parliamentary system. The country comprises of three independent regions then; Northern Region, Western Region and Eastern Region, and later the Midwestern Region. Each of these regions had a premier who governs the region independent of the federal government. But after the military took over in 1966, the regions were abolished and substituted by states. The civil war took place between 1967 and 1970. See Chap. 1 for a brief history of Nigeria.
- 6.
Third term refers to the attempt by former president Olusegun Obasanjo to get the constitution amended to allow him to have a third term in office instead of the two terms stipulated in the constitution.
- 7.
This point is not a denial of the existence of the unevenness and regional leaning of the newspapers, but the point he seems to be illustrating is that news about corruption sells, and irrespective of who is involved, the newspapers have to report it. One of the interviewees made this point more clearly by saying that the subjective orientation of the papers is more in the opinion and editorial sections rather than in the news stories.
- 8.
For details about the history of Nigerian newspapers see Chap. 3 “Historical Landscape of Nigerian Newspapers”.
- 9.
This part of the interview was conducted before the establishment of Peoples Daily and Blueprint.
- 10.
For a detailed account of what an elder means in the Muslim community in Northern Nigeria, see Last, Murray (2003): Towards a political history of Muslim youth in northern Nigeria: 1750–2000 available at http://www.ascleiden.nl/Pdf/conference24042003-last.pdf downloaded 24/11/2008.
- 11.
Excessive curiosity or going beyond limit.
- 12.
See the earlier discussion the qualities of mutumin kirki by Kirk-Greene.
- 13.
For reports on throwing out the bill, see http://allafrica.com/stories/200806040567.html
- 14.
Peter Odili is the former governor of Rivers State , one of the oil-rich states in Nigeria.
- 15.
Atiku Abubakar was former vice president (1999–2007); he was together with President Olusegun Obasanjo accused of diverting money from the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF ) by a senate committee.
- 16.
This figure has more than doubled after the interview and also due to the economic recession following the 2015 election.
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Yusha’u, M.J. (2018). Reporting Corruption Scandals in Nigeria: Perspectives from Journalists. In: Regional Parallelism and Corruption Scandals in Nigeria. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96220-7_7
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