Media as the watch dog; A foe of the govt, a friend to the masses -By Ishaq Habeeb

The media, serves as the fourth estate, or the fourth arm of government, that works to ensure that the rights and privileges of Nigerian citizens; rights such as freedom of expression, freedom of information, among others, are well protected and granted, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.

The media carry out the daunting task of holding the government accountable for their deeds, misdeeds, actions or inactions, by informing and educating the citizenry about the state of the nation, which motivates people to insist that the govt keep their campaign promises and are sticking to the rule of law in ways that wouldn’t tamper with the lives and well-being of the citizenry.

In present day Nigeria however, practicing balanced journalism is arguably one of the hardest jobs there is, as Journalists are torn in between two dilemmas, on the one hand, having to own up to their responsibility of informing the people of daily happenings and state of the nation, being as informative and as accurate as possible while at it.

While on the other hand, they can’t do that now without inadvertently having to have given criminal elements, e.g, bandits, unmerited media popularity, which subsequently emboldens them and their heinous activities, plus undermining govt’s small efforts in tackling the state of wanton insecurity, currently bedeviling us in Nigeria.

Take today for example, virtually every news media platform in the Country is carrying a headline, detailing reports of bandit attack on Nigerian Defence Academy, in Afaka, Kaduna state, where two or so officers were said to have reportedly been shot dead and one other, allegedly abducted.

Recently, rumors were that the APC govt, in its autocratic fashion, attempts to gag Nigeria’s media from reporting successful terrorist-attack stories, as part of efforts to demoralize the terrorists, instead of emboldening them with catchy news headlines by the media, especially about such embarrassing attacks on key federal facilities as NDA and/or it’s personnel, whenever there’s any.

The policy, undemocratic as it is may seem, may not be entirely misplaced, although the govt, if there’s strong political will, can do a lot better in handling the insecurity problem, than just gagging the news media for simply doing their job, legitimately.

As I penned this, the bandits that attacked, killed and kidnapped Nigerian army personnel yesterday, at their strongest base, are probably out there somewhere right now, reading the trending news headlines, gloating, having a house party and perhaps, promoting their daredevil commandants behind the brazen attack on Nigeria’s strongest military facility, for their dare devilishness.

Now you can see how the media, by simply doing their job, are inadvertently giving the bandits, undeserved media popularity, which is what the govt was thinking -in their narrow approach- when they moved to regulate the way media reports such news, which is, of course, morale-depleting for the security operatives and morale-boosting for the terrorists.

Ishaq Habeeb is a pubic affairs analyst and a freelance Journalist, he writes from Nigeria and can be reached through simplyishaqhabeeb@gmail.com