NIGERIA MUST GUARANTEE THE SAFETY OF JOURNALISTS.

The greatest virtue of journalism is not that it deliberately provokes controversy, the resolution of which usually gives people a voice, enabling them to ask tough questions and demand answers: it is, perhaps, that it is able to harshly shine light on society`s steepest failures, telling in the process, the most uncomfortable stories.

It was on October 19,1986, in the thick of the military dictatorship of Mr. Ibrahim Babangida that Mr. Dele Giwa, one of Nigeria`s most iconic journalists, was killed by a parcel bomb presumably dispatched by agents of the state. Many years down the line, the spectacular circumstances of Mr. Dele Giwa`s death continue to highlight the many dangers journalists face as they work.

But what exactly do journalists do? What exactly makes journalism, that seemingly innocuous profession, so dangerous to some people found in every society?

The answer to the questions above can be fully expressed in one word: truth. Simply put, journalism and its practitioners go after the truth. When they find it, they uphold their responsibility to the people – the responsibility to report the truth no matter how uncomfortable or how dangerous it is. Simply expressed, journalism recognizes the darkness of ignorance, opposes it, and exposes it by arming the public with the power of information. That is what makes journalism and journalists so dangerous to some people in every society. Who then are these people?

In Nigeria, they include many public officers for whom corruption holds no compunction whatsoever; they include those complicit in compromising the war against terrorism in Nigeria by tacitly supporting and funding terrorists; they include those who stymie education in Nigeria by muddling up transparency in Nigeria`s public schools; they include those who manipulate elections to pervert the people`s will; they include those who abandon contracts beneficial to the public even after they are paid upfront. The list is not exhaustive and so from all corners, the journalist is a target because of the critical contributions they make in upholding democracy. For indeed democracy dies in darkness.

Every year, journalists lose their lives in Nigeria or suffer one form of dreadful attack or another. A handful of journalists are incarcerated in Nigeria for nothing other than offering the public the very healthy serving that truth is.

Nigeria is not alone in the dangers journalists face. Historically, journalism has always proven a formidable menace for dictatorship and oppression no matter how expertly disguised. More than all the heavy-duty equipment that have gone into excavation anywhere on earth, the pen has proven a matchless force for digging up the truth, shaping opinions and forcing conversations. It is why dictators fear the peculiar discomforts that journalism foists on them. Thus, whenever they can, they kill or incarcerate journalists.

All over the world, many journalists languish in prison or have been killed. The countries most complicit in heinous crimes against journalists often have one thing in common: dictators.

Nigeria has been rocked by the disappearance of Tordue Salem, a journalist with the Vanguard newspaper. The police have said it is doing everything within its power to discover his whereabouts. It is important that he is found and that journalists in Nigeria are assured of safety in the critical work they do to support Nigeria through its many man-made crises.

Journalism shines a blinding light into the stygian darkness that dictatorship is. That light must never be allowed to go off.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com