By Ati Terkula
Just yesterday Former minister, Femi Fani Kayode is popularly known as FFK was the trending issue on social media, a tool he has taken to loving and gotten mastery of its manipulation to his (many times) skewed advantage.
In this fateful instance is a viral video that was even posted bragadaciosly by him and other social media actors wherein the egocentric, self-indulgent, had verbally abused a humble journalist for no other crime than performing his duties like a professional.
The clip I was fortunate to watch showed FFK in a fit of anger emanating from a question by a journalist who repeatedly in a cowed tone begged for forgiveness for carrying out his duty, brag that “ I am not a poor man, I have never been and will never be…” because the poor reporter “who is poor, has been poor and will always be poor”, asked him who was bankrolling his nationwide tour- a basic interview question not minding the context.
The basic job of a journalist in an interview is to unsettle the interviewee in a manner that he is irked enough to say the things he has hidden from public view. A good journalist is not limited to a straight line of questions or has he required only a certain kind of question whether related or not to the subject at hand. This the Daily Trust reporter achieved.
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FFK has always been celebrated in the media as a trouble-shooter even when his virtubulation is childish and unbecoming of a public figure as he parades himself; he has severally been allowed undeserving accommodation for his adolescent tantrums and show of shameless residual youthful exuberance, he of all people should have been able to reciprocate such unwarranted gesture by at least pretending to be civil enough through answering the question or proving he is really a man of a profession that works with words and wit (I believe that is what a real lawyer does), parried the question intact and style and not resolved to brutish verbal attacks and braggadocio.
However it is also unfortunate that going through comments on his timeline and other media platform, I am surprised that many have taken to the usual hallelujah, hosanna chant, to hail this irresponsible outburst instead of calling to order such impudence from a man who should naturally express some public reservations especially for a rich one who has decided to embark on a “self-sponsored” trip around the nation on a self-styled nation saving mission.
Even as this public outing may not be the worst from FFK (not forgetting his below the belt exchanges with Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu wherein he took unwarranted, irresponsible and denigrating swipes on the entire Ibo race), it continues to add to the question of his suitability as an elder statesman and the Nigerian perception of the journalist in Nigeria.
The journalist is lip sung to be a mighty and powerful tool for nation-building and agenda-setting; the fourth estate of the realm; the maker and destroyer of persons and nations. The journalist and his profession are described in flowery language fit for kings, unfortunately, they are in the real sense like the lizard who lives in water and believes himself a crocodile- they are nothing but the dust of the land to be tramped upon by any tom, dick and harry.
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The typical Nigerian journalist is either grossly underpaid or not paid at all; subjected to inhuman treatment by his employers and often times ignored by his colleagues/ professional body. He is a friend to the high and mighty in times of such a powerful person’s need and wants, but a bother or common “press boy” when he is in need. The journalist is a brave, courageous, and vibrant reporter when the person in question is unabashed by criticism or praised but a cheeky, uncouth brat when the same person is on the receiving end.
He is to become only a brown-envelop chaser and a Public Relations person nay a town crier without a brain for the high and mighty whose tongue should be cut out for daring to speak his brains out (when he is believed to be already unable to think on his own).
It is my earnest desire that this outburst should bring to fore the plight of a typical ‘professional’ Nigerian journalist amidst his hazards faced daily viz-a-viz society’s rating of the profession; it should be a call to arms fo all journalists to adhere to the ethics of the profession and rise from the abyss of serving as PR persons instead of gatekeepers.
Not minding whatever properly cooked grammar the ‘rich’ Femi Fani Kayode may have concocted in his apology or his claimed longstanding relationship (albeit parasitic and exploitative), it does not wipe away the fact that the courageous poor reporter has allowed FFK to yet again prove his real self.
Ati Terkula is a poor journalist from Benue State, he can be replied via afrochyld247@gmail.com
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Of Fani Kayode’s Impudence And Nigerian Journalism
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