Plateau, the media and 10 years of harvest of blood
Following the orgy of violence in Jos in September 2001 various explanations were pondered for the cold-hearted bloodletting that disrobed the city of the garment of innocence it once wore. Of all those, two in my opinion, stood out: politicians were blamed for abdicating their duty and for inciting the people against each other; and the media were accused of inflaming the tense situation. Being a journalist and student of conflict reporting/resolution I shall expound the second issue more.
At a point during the recurrent violence in Plateau state the then Governor Joshua Dariye specifically accused a newspaper of waging a holy war against his regime to mark 200 years of Sheikh Shehu Usman Dan Fodio’s Jihad in Northern Nigeria. Similarly, some commentators not only parried back the accusation at Dariye, but also pointed out the complicity of the media from the two divides in the crisis.
Otherness is an endemic feature of politics in Nigeria, including the politics of reporting ethnic and religious conflicts. It determines the prism through which reports are tailored, the frames by which heroes and villains are viewed and, most importantly, sways the opinion of readers/audience. And in the case of the endless Plateau conflict is has continued to provide the fuel that keeps the violence raging, several years after it was ignited.
In reporting crises linked to ethnicity or religion, which in any case are always entwined, the media constitute a major platform for exhibiting and promoting the ‘us’ and ‘them’ syndrome. It was against this backdrop that the esteemed American Professor Rosalind Hackett once observed that the media in Nigeria do not only shape attitudes but constitute a principal location for the promotion of religious intolerance.
No comments:
Post a Comment