Journalism can educate as well as misinform

Ipemndoh dan Iyan

My Nature is that if I heard or read something from a non-original Source, I would like to hear or read the original Authority, so that I could know personally what has been said or written. This enables me to respond appositely to what I comprehend to have been uttered or narrated. This Nature was my overarching Guide when I was in higher Education that I frustrated certain of my Tutors, and Supervisors because I contradicted their status-quo supposedly superior 'Knowledge' of academic Literature. Yet, most of these Academics, even Professors, never even lifted the original Texts of their self-attributed Expertise not to talk of leafing through them or consulting them. If they did, they would have known about what I was then pointing out to them. Perhaps they did, but did not get it?

As anyone with the faintest Understanding of Journalism appreciates, Journalists  can educate with the Information they relay, as they can misinform with it. Their propagated Misinformation can be deliberate or can simply be from their limited Grasp of what they had heard and/or read. When Mr Rufai Oseni implied in https://youtu.be/iJDCdJzQXO0 that Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, in his early January 2022 Interview with Channelstv https://youtu.be/QiKxy0VSFkg deployed the Word “Youth” in the Context Oseni was describing, I knew I had to watch the Interview. How could the President of a Country get an ordinary Text Provision of his Country’s Constitution wrong? I asked myself. Even the Aspirant should not be that disoriented with the Constitution of the Country s/he is competing with Others to be the Chief Administrator of. The Nigerian Constitution 1999 (even as amended) in 29(4)(a) states clearly that '"full age'' means the age of eighteen years and above'. Is “full Age” not Adult Age?

As it was, and is, Buhari never uttered the Word “Youth.” It was again Mr Oseni with his alternate Reality. Why does this young Man refuse to get things right on certain pertinent Issues? If some so-called Journalists do not know the Meaning of Clause 29(4)(a) of the Nigerian Constitution, I have written about it many Times, on Blogs and in Tweets, and sent them Copies, including Rufai Oseni, by @ and/or #. Yet, they and their semi-educated Commentators and/or Professors continue to ascribe “Youth” to all young Adults, and Adults in Nigeria over 18 Years of Age, and well over that Age. Are these Persons really that thick? I have noticed a Change in Mr Oseni though after my previous Criticisms. I must not take that away from him. I no longer hear him quote some ‘white’ Folks when talking about Nigeria. He now says “as the Yoruba ... say.” He has evidently taken note of my referring to Yoruba Aphorisms, and using Yoruba Words and Expressions in my Work. I am not Yoruba myself, but Yoruba is the only African Language I speak. I speak it well, and I understand it intimately as much as a "Lagosian" in mid-60s who left Nigeria when in mid-20s, and in that Country twice since and for a total of two Months,1 can. I definitely cannot read it, and I only force myself to write it. I never studied it in Elementary or at Secondary School, but hey, I will push the Language as much as I can in my writing in the English Language. It is an African Language, and I am an African. If I understand a bit of my genealogical Fula (Fulani), I will push that too until ‘Kingdom come’ as I would other African Languages. 

Here is what Muhammadu Buhari said: “Nigerian Population,  35 Years and below are the Majority.” Even the Lady Interviewer did not use “Youth” in drawing out this Response from President Buhari. Was it not the same Stuff(s) I sent to Channelstv I sent to Arisetv, and certain Print/Online Nigerian Media about the legal and social Implications of Nigerian Constitution 29(4)(a)? I can remember the Lady deploying the Ascription “Youth” for ‘young Person' before my (past) Intervention.

No, Ms Tundun Abiola, Muhammadu Buhari did not in the Interview I watched, and to which you referred “dismiss the clamour for restructuring.“ This Interpretation suggests your Prejudice against the Man. I am not enthralled by him either, but I would not refashion what he has said. He sought two Answers: (1) what is meant by “restructuring?” and (2) would some Governors release Parts of their States to form new States? Is that a Person who is shutting down “the Clamour for restructuring?” I do not believe so. Anyway, President Buhari never got those Answers, he says. I have been listening to, and reading about the Nigerian Agitations for “restructuring” and I certainly have not heard those Answers myself or any reasonable Proposal broadcast by the Agitators. Nigerians are screaming for something they have no Clue on how to go about making happen. Might my Work: dan Iyan, I.P., Dulling the Imaginative: “Nigeria” as an example of the Acculturation of the Colonised; the Subservience of non-Western Minds, Amazon 2013, help?

The only Suggestion I have come across, and it is a triumphalist Gesture, regarding the restructuring Demand is Nostalgia for ‘The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1963', mostly from those who apparently have never even sighted it let alone read it. Which Parts exactly in that Constitution do they want to adopt? Everything? Do they even recognize that that Constitution was so badly formulated in Terms of the Executive Arm of Government? That Constitution had an Executive President, but a procedural Prime Minister (PM). Section 34 of the 1963 Constitution mandated that "There shall be a President of the Republic, who shall be elected to office ... and shall be the Head of State of the Federation and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation". Section 84(1) emphasised the power of the President with "The executive authority of the Federation shall be vested in the President and, subject to the provisions of this constitution, may be exercised by him either directly or through officers subordinate to him". Section 85 impressed further that "The executive authority of the Federation shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this constitution and to all matters with respect to which Parliament has for the time being power to make laws". Section 87(1) clearly stated that "There shall be a Prime Minister of the Federation, who shall be appointed by the President." Section 87(2) instructed the Executive President to appoint as Prime Minister "... a member of the House of Representatives ..." Section 87(4) required this Executive President to designate other "Ministers of the Government ... acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister". Note and appreciate that the PM Position in this Constitution is not elected Office albeit the PM must be voted into the "House of Representatives." 

Western Countries with President and PM Roles usually have nominal Presidents and Executive PMs. An Exception is France, but the PM must not hold an elected Office. S/he can thus be brought in from anywhere. See 'France Constitution of 1958' (5th Republic), Article 23: "Membership of the Government shall be incompatible with the holding of any Parliamentary office, any position of professional representation at national level, any public employment or any professional activity." What makes the French Constitution additionally different to Nigeria's 1963 Constitution is the clear Delineation between the Functions of the President and PM. Both have Executive Powers with the President the more powerful. With the 1963 Nigerian Constitution, the executive Power resided only in the President unless or until s/he delegated it. 

The Russian Federation also has the Offices of President and 'Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation' (informally the PM), and the executive Power completely reposed in the President unless or until s/he delegates it much like in the 1963 Nigerian Constitution. See the 'Russian Federation Constitution, 1993', Article 110: "Executive power in the Russian Federation shall be exercised by the Government of the Russian Federation under overall direction of the President of the Russian Federation."  However, we all witnessed what happened when Dmitry Medvedev (PhD) was President, and Vladimir Putin (PhD) was Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. Dr Putin was very much in Charge because he is a 'strongman'. Is this what Nigerians want; a strongman PM contesting the constitutional Authority of the Executive President? Then Nigerians surely do not love Peace. 

The "dual executive" - President/PM - Government is not really that advisable, and the 1963 Nigerian Constitution was one of the worst, if not the worst of its Kind. This Constitution was so wrong that it was easily distorted by the then Nigerian Executive President, Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwi, the "political Prostitute" as he explained himself, to hide his Incompetence, and shift the Blame to his PM, Sir Abubakar Tafewa Balewa. Azikiwe, 'Zik', as he was popularly called, was so good with his political "ducking and diving" that he incited Military Officers of the Igbo Nation as himself, whether by Intention or Accident, to go murdering mainly Hausa/Fulani2 Military Officers and Politicians - Balewa belonged to both Nations - for the Destabilisation of the Country occasioned by the Standoff within the Yoruba Nation between Prince Ladoke Akintola and Chief Obafemi Awolowo especially by the Truculence of the Latter. The Azikiwe Deceit about his Function in the 1963 Constitution is so entrenched that I heard an Igbo Professor some Years ago refer to him as "ceremonial President." Such a Lie. Unbelievable Dishonesty, from a Professor too. What Professor? A Professor who could not read and understand simple Texts in the English Language, the Nigerian 'Lingua Franca', certainly when I was at School. Was he otherwise one of those unmeritorious Professors whose 'stock in trade' is to disinform? This Professor was somewhat older than I, I think. Take it or leave it; the Truth has to be said. At any rate; to return to the 1963 Constitution will mean abandoning the present Form of Presidency. 

As for this whinging about the Need to change the 1999 Constitution, I have never heard anyone speaking out against the statutory Sexism in it. How can they? They have never read the Constitution they are dissing. They are just regurgitating one another. Parroting. Read section 29(4)(b): “any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age.” Do we not know of ‘under-age’ female Marriage in Nigeria? Do we also not know that such under-age Wives are not treated as Adults by their Husbands, and by State and Federal Governments? They are not treated as Persons in/of own Right. So, please, go si don. A beg.

Endnote

1I have been to Ghana twice within the last five Years, and spent a total of 2 Months.

2The Fulani are a separate Nation to the Hausa hence I separated them with the oblique rather than with the hyphen as the wont of Nigerian Commentators. I do not dispute that there is blood intermingling between the two. To continue with the Notion of Hausa-Fulani analogical to the Notion of Igbo-Yoruba, after all the Igbo and the Yoruba share more genealogical Relationship than the Hausa and the Fulani. To learn more about the Igbo-Yoruba Kinship, see Adeyemo, A. A. et al; 'Genetic structure in four West African population groups', BMC Genetics 2005, 6:38 – http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2156/6/38

Ipemndoh dan Iyan PhM©

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9 January