FOR THE RECORD: Journalists Failed Journalism

WORD-FOR-WORD: Read-for-yourself Editorial By The Nation Newspapers Which Led to a Face off With The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE)

The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) is the prime body of editors in Nigeria and it should be held to high standards. It is supposed to be held to a higher standard than the Newspapers Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the Nigeria Union of Journalists.

Not that the other two should not abide by ethical standards that demand rigour, it is just that NGE represents the top tier in the newsrooms. It is the guild that holds government to account and chides any institution that falls foul of its own set rules, especially when it pertains to the constitution.

That explains why its recent conference in Enugu leaves much to be desired.

An incident occurred in one of its sessions that, if it had happened in any other high-level professional organisation, it would have received the lashings of its wrath.

It was the presence of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), in one of the sessions. He was accompanied by another NDC chieftain, Professor Pat Utomi. There are a number of things wrong with this.

One, he is a presidential candidate, and that inevitably carries a partisan air. This is an election period and the fact that he appeared in a professional venue invests the NGE with a bias. It gives the impression that the representatives of the guild were in bed with a political party and its top candidate.

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He is not the only person running for the position of president. We have over a dozen persons eyeing the post in an election that will take place in January, barely 100 days from now. To single one person out is not charitable and casts the profession, whose bedrock is fairness, in a poor light.

Two, Obi and Utomi’s visit was not in the programme of events. Their appearance was no more than an ambush. For editors who chide governments and public figures when they violate the rule of law, the act by the guild amounts to eating its own flesh. It has not risen to its own standards.

If other candidates were invited, it could have made sense if they did not show up but Obi alone did. Their absence would have been an act of choice.

But what the guild executive did was in bad professional taste. The guild is supposed to represent the whole body of editors. Editors come from all tribes and regions and have private allegiances to parties and ideological tendencies. To single out this one party and its bigwigs steps on individual rights and is a stain that the executive ought to address to the whole society of editors.

Up till the time of writing, we have not heard anything from the executive by way of explanation or apology. It is an impunity of silence.

It was even reported by those who attended that it was not a unanimous decision, and a few members rammed this episode into the agenda.

The guild is a democratic organ, not an oligarchy, and its leaders ought to show, like we expect in the larger society, a sense of collective goodwill. It did not in Enugu.

Even with Obi and Utomi already in attendance, they were even given the stage to articulate their views to the conference. That is like providing them a campaign platform. They turned the conference into a partisan fair. Bad as it was, when some of the attendees propounded questions to the candidates, they were booed and shouted down. A Guild of Editors conference became a mob rule.

It was not supposed to be the case but a wrong act bred another wrong act. An undemocratic action led to a rowdy display akin to a mobocracy.

It is also instructive that such an event that should make news was not even reported for the digestion of the public. It is hard to explain how editors’ conduct could present themselves as models to prospective leaders of the trade. It was an example of when top journalists failed journalism.

The Nation