TheCable

Even though I am a member of the fourth Estate of the Realm – as we are often called – I am constrained to admit that some journalists constitute a major part of our nation’s problem.

Otherwise, how do you explain how opinions packed with deliberate falsehood are freely and recklessly published by my colleagues.

An example is an article by Igboeli Arinze titled From Edo to Rivers, it is all shameless politics. In this article, Arinze kept saying the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki is playing shameless politics. I have spent good time going through the article, looking for the premises that back his conclusion without success.

He goes on about the supposed rift between the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu and the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki and then turns the spotlight to Rivers State, pontificating about the scuffle between Governor Sim Fubara and his predecessor and Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike. All the while, he made a feeble attempt to draw false equivalence.

Shaibu has thrown his hat in the ring to run for the office of Governor in Edo and Obaseki has repeatedly acknowledged Philip’s right and freedom to pursue his dreams but none of that will save the likes of Arinze from playing the weak scripts to procure public sympathy for the Deputy Governor which I doubt that he has requested for.

After a visit to the Governor of Bauchi State on November 30, 2023, Obaseki reiterated Philip’s inalienable right to run for governor but added that being just one person, as governor, he cannot guarantee the actualisation of Philip’s dream. He then stressed that the PDP will determine the Deputy Governor’s fate. What more do you want from Obaseki?

Again, at a recent meeting organised by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) for Edo PDP stakeholders, Obaseki said he would support the party’s candidate in the 2024 gubernatorial. But this is obviously not enough for the likes of Arinze.

It is not enough for them because they are playing a script and the goal is to subvert the democratic process which Obaseki is depending on to resolve the issue of who succeeds him.

Mr Arinze, please be kindly informed that Philip Shaibu is no weakling who depends on misplaced public sympathy to gain electoral leverage.

He is well positioned to square his shoulders and chase for the PDP ticket in a fair contest.

He has been a House of Assembly member, a House of Representatives member and then a Deputy Governor. If there is any possible aggressor in the Edo 2024 race, it is most likely Philip himself.

Indeed, shameless journalism helps oppressors vanquish the oppressed.

On the comparison to what is going on in Rivers State, it is curious that Mr. Arinze would toe the shameless path. Pray tell, between Wike and Fubara, who is being oppressed and who deserves public sympathy.

Wike is a former LGA chairman, former chief of staff, former Minister and a former Governor and he is in a battle of wits with Fubara, a former civil servant, who is barely 6 months old in office as Governor. Who then is the oppressor?

There is no basis to try to connect Shaibu’s fate to Fubara in a surreptitious attempt to buy him some public sympathy. Shaibu can carry his cross and doesn’t need people’s pity in his quest to become Edo Governor.

That much is clear. There is no need to parry him about or attempt to infuse him in a narrative that bears no semblance to his life’s trajectory.

Journalists should do better. Spare your ink for the truly downtrodden who need you to be their Robinhood and not the privileged who can take care of their own business.

We should be helping the oppressed not helping oppressors in getting their way and worsening the lot of the oppressed in society.

Osagie is the special adviser to Governor Obaseki on media projects