Is The Daily Trust Media Also In Support Of GMB’s Power Exclusion Agenda? -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

For the past 24 hours since reading the story: How Igbo Traders Control Critical Sectors In 31 States, FCT published by the Daily Trust newspaper of 30th June, 2021. I have been lost in thought doing critical thinking; the aim of which is to understand the rationale behind such a story – whether it was to tarnish, blackmail or expose an ethnic group to public cum national ridicule and resentment or whether it was done to tell the story of hard work and focused diligence and what that can do to catapult any individual to economic prominence.

I read, re-read and read again the said publication and, came to an inevitable conclusion that journalism in Nigeria has become a willing stooge in the payroll of whoever was the highest bidder. And these are my reasons for choosing to conclude that way. (1). The story was presented with an undertone that reeked of jealousy, envy and defamation of character. For instance, the author quoted a certain youth leader by the name of Mr. Sunday Gazazhin as claiming that the indigenes of Abuja had willingly sacrificed their land to Nigerians but are been denied lands in the southeast Nigeria.

Igbo traders

When in actual fact, not an inch of land was conceded to anyone – Igbos or non-Igbos – without an agreement and a power of attorney that comes immediately after payments are made for the said properties. The same author then went on to quote a former chairman of the Building Materials Market in Dei-Dei; Comrade Anthony Chukwuneke as claiming sympathy for and actually in support of IPOB’s agitation for Biafra. This is coming at a time when the Fulanized federal government of Nigeria is making very open overtures that suggested an intention to subjugate every non-Fulani tribe to second class citizens and, Daily Trust; a media platform is not talking.

(2). The author relied on an obsolete data that put 73% ownership of properties in the FCT in the hands of the Igbos. If that report is indeed current; was it an offense to have traders and not polithiefcians and cievil servants own 73% of property in Abuja or should it have rather been the other way round instead of a thing of joy that hard work pays after all? The author went on to deliver the line that finally nailed him as an agent of division; one that was as guilty of inciting chaos by spreading bias as those (MN Kanu and Mr. Sunday Ighoho) currently pursued for persecution by the FG.

Hausa cattle dealers

This is what he wrote: “While several individuals of Igbo extraction in Kano approached for comment declined on the basis of the sensitivity of the issues, Daily Trust recalls that…..” You could see that despite been rebuffed by the Igbos in Kano; this journalist or media house did not close shop or went home? Rather, he continued to dig to the point of regurgitating a certain statement that was credited to the Eze Nd’Igbo of Kano state. Question is: Why would a journalist not be able to tell the difference between what ought to fly with the audience and the one that could cause trouble?

That publication – for me – was a well-rehearsed attempt to cast aspersions on a peace-loving, ever striving and industry minded people. In fact Daily Trust Media reminded me of a pamphlet that was published and circulated by the Northern Peoples Congress in the first republic. Now, that pamphlet (published in 1964) as the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe rightly pointed out to then Prime Minister – Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa – targeted the Igbo-speaking people of Nigeria for ridicule. In Zik’s words, it was an attempt to isolate, persecute and oppress one of the major tribes in this country.

And much of what happened a few years later both in terms of the reaction of Major Nzeogwu and his troops against the premier of northern Nigeria and the eventual civil war can be traced to that pamphlet. (3). To fully understand Daily Trust’s prejudice, the said report failed to include the fact of the billions of naira of internally generated revenues that the presence of these Igbo traders turned into the coffers of those states. If one was doing a documentary for instance, it was common practice to tell the two sides to the story. This is because anything short of that meant half-baked information that could attract lawsuits.

I said in my opening that journalism in Nigeria has become a willing stooge in the payroll of whoever was the highest bidder and, I mean every word. If that story was meant to excite the reader; the Daily Trust had missed a vital point namely that journalistic reportage was about balance and not about exciting the reader. The country’s drive for more revenues especially since 2015 would’ve been greatly hampered were it not for the fact of the presence of these ever-resilient Igbo traders whose taxes have built skyscrapers in the name of the federation but who benefit next to nothing in the end.

Yet the thieving political class is unrelenting in their drive to continue to build economies of the world using taxpayers’ monies without recourse to the fact that the monkey wey dey work for baboon to chop deserve some share of the pudding. We have seen Kano state destroy liquor worth millions of naira in the name of Sharia yet the shared monthly allocation by the federal government that gets to Kano still included tax monies that came from liquor sold elsewhere in the country. So who is deceiving who?

The power and the security equation of the General Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is deeply lopsided to the advantage of the Fulani’s and the Muslim of the north to the extent that notable leaders like Col. Abubakar Umar Dangiwa, Elder Ahmed Joda, and Engr. Buba Galadima have lent their voices to the calls by prominent Nigerians from the south to have an administration that reflected federal character. Yours truly; Daily Trust Nigeria is yet to take a stand on the issue and, one doubt if they ever would.

There is a group of Nigerian traders who do not contribute to the income generating systems of this federation; all they did was to take and never give. They are excused as being from a poverty-stricken region and barely educated enough to understand what it meant to pay tax. You see them sell fruits, grains and farm produces like onions and pepper at exorbitant prices. You see them at motor parks hiking the transport fare. You see them in the city centers trolling their carts and picking garbage. Daily Trust; Nigeria’s foremost research media is yet to do a story on them.

If Daily Trust na bi number one GMB fan; na who fit convince me say them na bi also supporters of GMB’s power exclusion agenda?

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh; political counselor & advocate for attitudinal change write from Abuja. 08062577718.