By Rose Moses
I was whiling away boredom watching Big Brother with all the scheming, gossip, back-biting, and even fisticuffs that characterize the reality TV show when this video now trending online caught my attention.
In the now talk-of-the-town, former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, is fuming and lashing out, using uncouth language to put down a Daily Trust reporter, Eyo Charles, at a press briefing in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State.
Before the incident and with reports that the Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed had asked the broadcast media regulator, NBC, to shoo Big Brother Naija show off the air, I had decided to port to DSTv Channel 198, which relays BBN live. In other words, I was going to give more interest to the reality show, which Lai Mohammed and anyone else with a grouse against the show is provided with the option to block their screens from relaying the reality show.
My reason, simply put, is: I am sick and tired of the politics of Nigeria, which is so insensitive to the people’s plight.
Therefore, and for my good, I would not like to subject myself to watching programmes that get one boiling inside, and to which, more importantly, one can only but write hapless commentaries.
Since I need all manner of news reports to thrive in writing, I believe the generality of Nigerians is fed up and have chosen to stay sane and not add to their problems with the current boilerplate tension and pressure.
As unbelievable as it may sound for one that is usually a nominal watcher of programmes like BBN, I decided to leave my television almost permanently tuned to Channel 198.
That has been the case for a good number of days now, if I must watch local channels. I am entertained and have a lot to laugh about on how some 20 young men and women, locked up in a house and stripped of their timepieces and cell phones with no contact with the outside world, live their lives in a game that one of them would win the N85 million star prize, among other benefits, just like that!
READ ALSO: https://www.thexpressng.com/2020/08/28/opinion-my-mercedes-is-bigger-than-yours/
This way, I will not be cracking my head, per day, on why and how our leaders act in a manner that confirms they don’t care about us.
Yes, the Coronavirus pandemic may have taken its toll on the world, generally, but the dirty and wicked politics played by Nigerian leaders is another pandemic on its own, completely on a different level and impacting negatively also on the daily life of an average citizen.
Therefore, spending more time at this period of full and partial lockdown watching news channels featuring NDDC-like kind of stories [if you get what I mean] or the rot at EFCC, the tragic incident in the southern Kaduna, the daily massacre in the northeast and elsewhere by deadly elements such as Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and abductors could be quite depressing.
Also, the lies, deceit, fraud, and many irritating and annoying stories coming out of government that are capable of raising one’s blood pressure, are mostly what you get to watch on news channels. And I thought to spare myself of the ordeal, at least for now.
So, the reality television show, which entered its fifth season on July 20, 2020, happens to be a good antidote, if you don’t want to carry a highly misgoverned country’s matter on your head, despite what Lai Mohammed or the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, may think of Big Brother. Any wonder therefore why the show is one of Nigeria’s most-watched shows on cable TV.
Back to the FFK video, where the ex-minister is seen throwing tantrums and verbally assaulting a reporter for asking a question he described as insulting. The development made me shift position, at least for now, with these politicians and most of what they stand for.
Fani-Kayode, not ever elected into office, had been assessing projects in some states, though with no clear understanding of his motivation. It is however a known fact that he has a large followership on social media where he shares his opinions on national issues.
In the viral video, FFK lambasted Eyo Charles whom he said asked him an “insulting” question. The contentious question by the reporter was hinged on ‘who was bankrolling the tour.’ The former minister got livid and told the reporter he was “foolish” for asking him who “bankrolled” his tour to Cross River and other states.
READ ALSO: https://www.thexpressng.com/2020/08/27/in-spite-covid-19-lagos-achieved-81-revenue-in-q1-2020-says-budget-commissioner/
“What type of insulting question is that? Which bankroll? To do what? Who can give me money for anything? Who do you think you are talking to? Bankroll what? Go and report yourself to your publisher,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said in obvious rage.
“I could see from your face before you got here, how stupid you are. Don’t ever talk to me like that,” Mr. Fani-Kayode kept yelling at the reporter who was still standing and apologizing: “I am sorry, sir.”
The former minister continued: “Don’t judge me by your standards; I have been in politics since 1990. I am not one of those politicians that you think will just come…. I was taken; I have been locked up how many times by this government. I have been prosecuted, unlike most of these politicians you follow for brown envelopes!
“Don’t ever judge me by that standard. I spend; I don’t take and I am not a poor man. I have never been and will never be,” the former minister boasted in the verbal assault that many [NUJ included] have condemned.
NUJ President, Chris Isiguzo, said the former minister’s reaction to the reporter’s question was against “simple decorum and civility” and, therefore, “unacceptable, dishonourable, and reprehensible”.
He thus demanded a retraction from the ex-minister, noting that by delving into politics and holding political office, Fani Kayode is very conversant with the watchdog role of the media.
“We are more shocked that the same Kayode who had used his social media handles to call leaders to account is querying a journalist’s right to know those behind his nationwide tour.
Describing the incident as terribly disappointing, Isiguzo noted that by denigrating the journalist, “Fani Kayode has exposed himself the more as an intolerant and unstable person, who will not want his activities closely scrutinised by the media.”
The man at the centre of it all, however, has a different explanation. Fani-Kayode said during his tour of the South and after a “long and successful press conference…a journalist put up his hand for the last question and said, “Well, we do not know who is bankrolling you.”
The problem here, however, is that there is no way to confirm the exact framing of the “offending” question because the clip that went viral did not feature the question to that ex-minister described as an assertion and an insult.
Assuming, though, what the ex-minister alleged was how the reporter framed his question, the reaction was uncalled for. As a public figure, one would have expected him to handle responsibly any kind of question from a journalist in the course of duty.
Expectedly, the management of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust, has come out to completely stand by their reporter, while condemning what they described “reprehensible actions of Femi Fani-Kayode….”
Among other things, the statement claimed that the video clip, also released on one of the ex-ministers social media accounts, was conveniently edited to exclude the question asked by Charles, which it said was devoid of mischief… The said editing, it argued, paved the way for a social media lynch mob to rain expletives on their reporter, labeling him as ‘rude’.
The Fani-Kayode’s attack on a reporter doing his job, to the organization, was, therefore, an indication of the chilling disregard he has towards the media and its work in investigating and reporting on issues.
To that regard, it alerted the police that should anything happen to their reporter, Fani-Kayode should be held responsible, especially due to the intensity of the verbal threats, which they described as not only reprehensible but one that also constitutes a setback to press freedom… This kind of assault, it further said, raises major concerns over the safety of journalists in Nigeria.
Fani-Kayode responded, describing the media house’s statement as lies, deceit, double-standard falsehood and absolute crap. The newspapers’ claims are not just outrageous but also downright asinine, he said, insisting he can’t be held responsible for whatever happens to someone, whose character, he describes as questionable.
He wondered why the organization, as well as the NUJ, did not seek his side of the story before going public with their statement, even when the video allegedly put out by him is so clear on his side of the story.
The popular position, however, is that as one that has held important public offices, Fani-Kayode should have deployed some form of diplomacy and statesman-like behaviour, no matter the question asked. That is a mark of leadership. He must have known by now that questions put to him at press gatherings ought not to massage his ego.
That way, he would have avoided the irascible public display that has now put him at loggerheads with the media, a position that hardly does anyone any good.
