Dilemma of spokespersons

Also published in Daily Trust

Being in a position under whatever job title to speak on behalf of a public office holder as either spokesman, press director, PR adviser, media aid or even commissioner or minister of information, gives one a very tricky dilemma between fulfilling his contractual duty on one hand, and adhering to his moral principles and professional obligation to tell the truth, on the other.

This is particularly dilemmatic in a country like Nigeria where governance is largely characterized by lack of transparency, which is responsible for the endemic culture of corruption and impunity in the land. Obviously, a spokesman operating in this environment faces the difficult task of having to manufacture lies all the time, to justify the acts or omissions of his boss, misrepresent and manipulate facts in order to exonerate his boss and mislead the public. As a matter of fact, he has to be particularly “creative” in this regard in order to “properly” manage his boss’s flagrant incompetence, embarrassing blunders and indeed acute kleptomania.

Though the average spokesman in Nigeria does his “best” in this regard anyway, the sheer primitiveness that defines his boss’s misconduct makes it particularly difficult for him to always cover it up let alone justify it. This explains why while a spokesman elsewhere would eagerly arrange a press conference or contact journalists to speak on behalf of his principal on any issue, his Nigerian counterpart would often dodge journalists, and evade press and media enquiries by ignoring telephone calls, text messages (sms), or by giving silly excuses.

Also when he runs into a situation where he can’t dodge questions, he easily gets confused and beats about the bush in his desperate struggle to justify the unjustifiable or exonerate his boss. He may even resort to telling crude lies, which even the naïve can easily recognize as lies.

In any case, as he ignores all moral principles and relevant professional ethics in order to satisfy his boss, he consciously or unconsciously earns himself the notoriety of being a professional liar in the eyes of the public. This is not surprising after all, because he in fact earns himself the notoriety of being a serial liar even in the sight of Allah the Almighty.

The noble Prophet (PBUH) warned in an authentic Hadith as narrated by Bukhari and Muslim, which partly reads as follows “Beware of telling lies, for it leads to obscenity, which in turn leads to Hell. A man would always and deliberately tell lies until he is recorded in Allah’s record as a serial liar” And it is obvious that when one’s tendency to tell lies earns him such notoriety in Allah’s record, it shall automatically and certainly influence public impression about him accordingly.

Therefore, though for the average spokesman in Nigeria who, having perhaps come from the largely “dry” academic environment or media circle, and who might have anxiously waited for this “opportunity”, the fortune he makes may seem quite tempting, he may not however realize the disproportionate price, which he is paying with his credibility and dignity, before he also stands before Allah the Almighty as a serial liar.

Besides, even by his own flawed reasoning which makes him effectively prefer to incur Allah’s wrath in order to please his principal, the peanuts he makes and apparently gets impressed with, is in reality too insignificant compared to the service he renders to his principal, and indeed compared with the huge fortune the principal makes, or rather loots.

It is unfortunate that, while journalists in other African countries are increasingly playing greater roles in exposing shady deals and corrupt officials in their countries and the continent at large, through excellently documented investigative works, one hardly senses any serious interest from the average Nigerian journalist to follow suit. I would really love to see, in Nigeria, the likes of Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an award-winning Ghanaian investigative journalist. I am sure a few journalists like him can make a great difference in the fight against corruption in the country.

By the way, considering the enormous pressure put by Nigerian journalists, human right activists and the general public, on the National Assembly to pass the Freedom of Information Bill into law, I had hoped that, after passing into law, Nigerian journalists would fully avail of it, and relentlessly pursue Nigerian officials at all levels with a view to extracting as much information as possible on how various government entities at various levels operate.

Unfortunately however, after the initial exuberance that inspired some journalists to partially avail of the new law, they began to relent, apparently due to their inability to endure the stress associated with the process of follow up in the face of the uncooperative attitudes of the government officials approached, or even their (journalists) involvement in the systematic cover-up, which can’t be ruled out after all.

Though I admittedly look at the situation from a layman’s perspective, and I may not be fully aware of the extent of the challenges bedevilling journalism in Nigeria, I believe Nigerian journalists can do much better in terms of investigative journalism, which has proved to be a very effective method to discourage, fight and prevent corruption in many countries around the world.