By Dele Sobowale

“When all think alike, no one thinks very much.” Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974. (VAGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS p 245).

“Zombie O! Zombie! ..Left turn Zombie! Right turn, Zombie!! Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the original Abami Eda of Nigeria.

Two of our Founding fathers, Obafemi Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikiwe, started the Zombie Press in Nigeria. Awolowo established the NIGERIAN TRIBUNE  and Azikiwe countered with the West African Pilot. I was highly privileged to understand, at a tender age, what a “Zombie Press” house is all about.

It is established and funded purely to promote the political ambition of its owner. In the middle 1950s, the two papers arrived unfailingly, in our house everyday. My late father was a die-hard Zikist; and he would probably have considered sacrificing one of his three sons – if Dr Azikiwe had asked him to do so. My eldest brother, and the first to attend a tertiary institution in Zaria, was just as fanatical a follower of Awolowo. Without meaning to bore my readers with repetition, he and late Chief Bola Ige started and finished secondary school at Ibadan Grammar School. While Bola Ige was known as the Kaduna Boy among their classmates my brother late Chief

Sanu Sobowale, was called the Zaria Boy.

Then, as now, youths attending tertiary institutions soon develop certain attitudes – especially independence of thought and actions. It was probably not surprising that while Dad idolized Zik, the son deified Awo. On the few occasions my brother came home, the two papers, TRIBUNE and PILOT landed in the house. And invariably a heated argument was bound to follow.

On the same issue, the journalists and columnists writing for the two papers would inevitably take different positions – each claiming to write the “truth” and promoting the “national interest”. As a youngster, under twelve, who was a captive audience in these debates, it didn’t take me too long to understand that “national interest” as canvassed by the media people in any newspaper ultimately meant what was in the interest of the publisher – if he is a professional politician.

Thus, right from  an early age, I developed an abhorrence for media practitioners (editors, columnists, commentators, government spokespersons etc) writing for any “Zombie Press” house. While it lasted, no criticism of Azikiwe was ever published in the PILOT; and nothing said or done by him could be faulted. Similarly, nothing Awolowo said or did was faulted by the TRIBUNE; he was (and is still) infallible. The “Zombie Press” houses of the 1950s elevated mere mortals to the status of gods who could do no wrong. Given the low level of literacy in those days, one could perhaps pardon the “journalists” of the era. Unfortunately, the disease, which for lack of any other term, I can only called “Mutually Agreed Madness”, MAM, is still very much with us – even in 2015.

Several newspapers in Nigeria today typify MAM. Owned by politicians, or their proxies, they have raised “Zombie Press” to new levels. Irrespective of the issue at stake, all the reader needs to know is where the interest of the owner lies and he can virtually write all the columns, editorials, comments, letters to the editor that would appear in that paper.

Saraki’s emergence as Senate President is a case in point. Once the news of his selection was released, I jotted down that all the “journalists” writing for two “Zombie Papers” would all take the same positions – one for and the other against. Bearing in mind that some of these writers are Professors (including Emeritus Professors), other holders of advanced degrees, I was still confident that the media practitioners would take the same position. They never failed me.

Another example was the debate about the speed of progress under Buhari. Those who tagged Yar’Adua as “Baba Go Slow” in 2007 are now unanimous in asking Nigerians to allow Buhari to operate at his own pace. Meanwhile, the other paper which supported Yar’Adua in 2007 has been carpeting Buhari for being too slow. In each case, the editors operate as if the only view that counts is that of those who agree with their publisher. In fact they are so predictable that one must ask: whatever happened to self-respect? Is it possible that twenty educated and intelligent adults could agree on every important issue – unless “none thinks very much”?..

IDEAS FOR DEVELOPMENT – 3

This is the third part of the engaging work by Obong Victor Attah, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and a professional town planner. In addition to securing a separate state called Akwa Ibom, he was also the promoter of what became Bayelsa state today. Please read on regarding his ideas on new towns.

“Abuja has, ever since, remained the only new town, not based on any comprehensive policy, but on a specific need to move the seat of the Federal Government. Nigeria is, therefore, not only due for a comprehensive policy on new towns, but, there is an urgent need for other new towns to be developed in the country.

Today the situation in the Niger Delta is considerably worse than Europe’s after the war. We must not forget that the ire of these young people, who have turned themselves into militants, was drawn when, during the ill-intentioned two-million man march of Daniel Kanu, under Gen. Sani Abacha, they were brought out of the creeks to see how the oil money had been used to transform an area, much more rural than theirs, into a beautiful city like Abuja.