MEDIA AND RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN NIGERA: ANY
CONSONANCE?
Liad Tella, Snr. Research Fellow, Mass Communication Department, Faculty of
Information and Communication Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin.
Awaiting publication by Centre Point Journal, Unilorin
ABSTRACT:
The media is generally recognised as a potent instrument of information, education,
entertainment and most importantly mobilisation and moulding of public opinion. Most experts
have agreed that one of the most awesome challenges or our time is the increase power and
pervasiveness of the media. That is why the question of compliance with professional standard
and ethics has become important globally. Around the world today, there is growing concern
about the media behaviour and journalism practice. Nigeria is not an exemption. An expert also
posited that the mass media constitute one of the principal locations for the religious propagation
and (self-) preservation of religious groups. Based on this positions a critical examination of the
role of the media to affirm or negate this proposition in Nigeria is very important. Media as agent
of information, education, sensitisation and mobilization is a key and central aspect of living and
socialisation in the country, including religion. That Nigerians are very religious is a product of
the age long traditional attachment to the concept of Godliness as a moderating influence on the
tendency of man to over apply himself to extreme personal aggrandisement that may put peace
and peaceful coexistence among peoples of all races, ethnicities, and religious faiths at jeopardy.
Godliness is epitomised by individuals or groups in two ways. It is either dovish or bullish.
Whether in Nigeria, Indonesia or Myanmar, Pakistan, Gabon, Ivory Coast or anywhere else in
the world, the story is the same. When religious propagation becomes bullish it can become a
source of communal tension, conflict and crises of unimaginable proportions. The behaviour of
the media in this circumstance is therefore central in the promotion of inter-religious peace or
conflict. This paper will therefore x-ray the role of the media in the promotion of peace and
harmony and in the moderation or aggravation of the crisis in the present state of war of all
against all in the country and its import to other parts of the country. In examining the role of the
media in the moderation or aggravation of religious crisis in Nigeria, this paper shall adopt the
historical and institutional approaches to create a clear understanding on how the media has
performed in this regard.
INTRODUCTION.
According to Rodney S. Ciboh (2007) The history of the print media is interwoven with the
history of the Christian religion. Even though this deposition is incontestable, a critical
examination will however reveal that the history and the course of Nigerian newspapers actually
rested on a three pillar edifice viz. Religion, public service and the struggle for national
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emancipation and independence. Religion was however the central pillar and plank used by the
colonists to take over governance of the various units that makes up what is known as Nigeria
today. And it was the Christian religion that opened the gates of mass media in the country.
According to Rodney and Duyile(1984), Henry Townsend, a British missionary, founded “Iwe
Irohin Yoruba” a Christian weekly bulletin designed to inform enlighten and educate returnees of
the slave trade era from Europe and America who came back Nigeria via Sierra Leone to settle in
Egbaland and the indigenous converts into Christian religion. Though the publication did not last
long on the news stand, it non-the-less remained the pioneer of the industry. Subsequent
publications were owned and ran by Christians who never put religion on the front burner. These
early media entrepreneurs, according to Dayo Duyile (1986) included but not limited to the
followings: Robert Campbell’s “anglo-Africa”1863, Beale Blaise’s “Lagos Times” 1883, Blaise
and Pyne’s “The Times” 1890, John Pyne Jackson family’s “Lagos Weekly Record”. The
“Nigeria Pioneer” owned by Kitoye Ajasa and Victor Bababunmi and later Herbert Macaulay’s
“Lagos Daily Times”. The first magazine in Nigeria was also published in Nigeria by the Sudan
Interior Mission based in Jos, Plateau State for the propagation of Christianity. In spite of this
history, the subsequent newspapers and magazines in colonial era were not used for religious
purposes. They were rather dedicated to the anti-colonial struggle. There were no dedicated
pages for religion and there was no distrust, bickering and fault finding from any quarter.
However, the media has since then remained perpetually controlled and dominated by Christians
while most contemporary investors in the media industry are also Christians except, the defunct
Concord group of newspapers founded by MKO Abiola, The Monitor by Arisekola Alao, the
Reporter by late Shehu Musa Yar’adua, The Democrat by Ismaila Isa, the Covenant, by a group
of Muslims with the Daily Trust as the only survivor. The “people’s Daily” owned by a group of
Northern Muslims is a new entrant into the market. It is also important to point out that despite
the tremendous growth of the media in Nigeria today less than 15 percent of practicing
journalists are Muslims.
Could the Nigeria media under this circumstance be objective, fair, neutral, impartial, accurate
and professional in the coverage of religion in a conflict or even non-conflict situation among
religions and religious groups? Is there a direct correlation between media ownership and bias in
the coverage of religion and religious conflicts in Nigeria? Could there be a correlation between
religious persuasion of journalists and their reporting of religious affairs in Nigeria?
PRE-INDEPENDENCE PRESS AND RELIGI turned out to be the firstON.
When the missionaries came into Nigeria, they came with the twin objective of spreading their
religion and spread western civilization among the people. One of the potent instruments used to
achieve this objective was the media. Advertently or inadvertently, the floating of a newsletter to
inform followers on the activities of the church and other developments in the polity according to
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Rodney Ciboh (2005) turned out to be the birth of the first newspaper in Nigeria. It was ‘Iwe
Irohin’ founded by Henry Townsend. Subsequent newspapers were not particularly devoted to
promotion or propagation of Christianity. They focused mainly on the struggle for the
emancipation of the country from the shackles of imperialism, colonialism and the struggle for
national independence. Religion did not play any significant role and there was no page
dedicated to religion in virtually all the papers.
The reasons for this could be due Ito the facts that Christianity was just gaining root in south
western Nigerian where Islam was the predominant religion; Christianity was then mainly among
the emerging Western educated elites and population was very small. The clusters of educated
Yoruba elites were limited to the Lagos colony and Egbaland with few outposts in Ibadan, Iwo,
Oyo and Ogbomosho and few other coastal towns of Benin, Calabar and Afikpo etc.
Until the last half of the 20th century, these segments of the population were the newspaper
readers. Even then there was no record of significant conflict between the traditionalists and
Muslims or Christians that could have attracted media attention. There was also no significant
friction between Islam and Christianity. Religious conversion was by persuasion and the
approach was dovish not confrontational. The only recorded event was the conflict between
traditional Oro worshipers and Apalara in Ikorodu in the early 1950s. That event was out of form
because Muslim clerics have always adopted persuasive approach in the propagation of Islam
and Christian evangelisation was also by socialisation or via educational institutions own and
controlled by missionaries. Rather than this leading to conflicts, the Muslim missions responded
by establishing their own schools. It was a fair competition. The brotherhood of faith between
Muslims and Christian was consolidated by Yoruba social settings that was and to some extent
still rooted in communal living without acrimony or discrimination till today
However, the foundation for conflict was laid by the imperial governments when it took over the
missionaries’ entities and compensated them by making Christianity the Religion of the State.
Most Christian won’t admit this. But was the colonial government in Nigeria not under the
Queen of England? Is The British Crown not the founder of the Anglican Church? Was and Is
the Queen not the custodian and head of the Anglican faith till today? Because of this heritage,
the colonial government was not sensitive on matters concerning other religions. Anglicanism
was therefore the state Religion in colonial Nigeria. There was discrimination against Islam and
the tag primitive was also placed on all traditional religions. There was no equity in the
application of human right and granting public holidays for religious festival. Christmas, Good
Friday, Easter Monday and New Gregorian calendar year (January 1st) were and are still a public
holiday. The Muslims were neglected and the media pretended ignorance.
There was no agitation from Muslims before mid-1960s because they were not in a position to
challenge the colonial authorities due to the low-level of awareness and the number of western
oriented Muslims and no consciousness to engage the media in the struggle for equity and justice
in government relations with and outreach to religion.
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Agitations for equal right for Muslims grew gradually following the establishment of the
Muslim students Society in 1954 under the leadership of late Dr, Abdulatif Adegbite. The
agitations did not make much progress the media played ignorance on the merit of the demand.
Until the early 70s, Moalud Nabbiyi and Eid-el Fitri were not public holidays i Nigeria and the
media saw nothing wrong about it. The traditional religions are too many for consideration and
none was recognised. The Muslim agitations on this did not attract media advocacy and were
sparingly covered. When the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria in secondary schools were
engaged in one form of activity or the other, to promote better public understanding or
appreciation of Islam, they were ignored. On the other hand crusades and evangelization
activities were not only given good news coverage and featurized with glitz and glamour on
important Christian festivals.
Granted that the press was too committed to the struggle for national emancipation from
imperialism and colonialism, after independence, there was no justifiable reason to neglect Islam
and Muslims in media outreach. Granted also that the nationalist instinct was also deep and the
quest for a modern and Areopagite society was too challenging to give attention to religious
matter should stereotyping Muslims and Islam in one form or the other continue unabated in
commentaries and articles published in newspapers, magazines and the electronic media? This is
where the notion of Konner (2005) that what is read in the newspapers dominates the mind of the
reading public as the objective truth become relevant. Because the people trust the media,
whatever was published and read is perceived as true or the objective truth. Editorials written to
mark Muslim holidays were written with insulting prejudices, stigmatisation and stereotype of
Islam with violence, extremism and intolerance. This is the perception planted in the mind of
many Nigerians by the media since the colonial days and up till date. The situation in Nigeria is
the same with the British and European media of today. Richard Keeble (2005) citing a critical
report of the European Union monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia ( 20020 said the
British media was accused of using “damaging stereotype of Muslims and asylum seekers”.
In spite of the obvious government biases on religious issues against Islam and other religions,
there was and there is still no record of any newspaper editorial calling on government to be
equitable, fair and even-handed on matter of religion between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria.
This obvious situation notwithstanding, there was no conflict between Muslims and Christians or
Islam and Christianity until 1977/78 constitutional debate which will be x-rayed later in this
paper. The Muslims were almost completely absent in the media and were therefore no in a
position to challenge the status quo.
Another reason for Muslim/Christians pacific relations was that the colonial and immediate post
independent newspapers pagination was not more than eight. Religion was a non-issue in the
sales and circulation of newspapers. It was rather seen as a personal matter. The radical anticolonialists perceived it as an appeasement shibboleth designed for colonist political domination
and economic exploitation of the nation. As posited Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa,
when the colonist came to Africa, they came in the gab of religion. They gave us the Bible and
4
asked us to kneel down and close our eyes to pray. We did and by the time the prayer was over
when we opened our eyes our lands were gone leaving us with the bible in our hands. To the
nationalists, religion was the opium of the people and was therefore not considered as a potent
marketing or editorial material.
The first Republic newspapers were also not more than sixteen pages except the Daily Times
which ran between 16 and 24 pages depending on the advert intake. Religion was also regarded
as personal affair that does not matter or worthy of consideration as a newspaper product. The
anti colonial flavour was too recent to allow thoughts about religion in newspapering except
reflections on sermon during major religious festivals particularly Good Fridays, Easter and
Christmas celebrations. There was no public holiday for the end of Ramadan fast during the
colonial period and the immediate post independent era in the East and Western Regions of
Nigeria. . It is important to also that in spite of the oblivious discrimination , there was no
aggressive propagation of both faiths except indirect activities in Christian Missionary schools
which saw many Muslim students, who attended these schools converted to Christianity, many
after their education reverted back to Islam while some never did. But consciousness among the
emerging Muslims educated elites started to witness resistance to religious conversion in schools
in Western Region. Those resisted the conversion “mission” schools were tagged fanatics by the
media.
Also noteworthy is the fact that the newspapers of the late colonial era were either owned by
public spirited people or nationalists leading the struggle for the emancipation and independence
of Nigeria from colonial rule and imperialism with little or no interest in religion. A few were
also owned by entrepreneurs who are interested mainly in profit and influence, not religion.
MEDIA AND RELIGION: THE FIRST REPUBLIC.
Two unnoticed events IN MID-1950s however laid the foundation for rivalry among Muslims
and Christians in Nigeria and between Islam and Christianity. First was the 1955 Free education
system introduced by Chief Obafemi Awolowo led pre-independence self government in western
Nigeria(1954-1960) , the replication of same in Northern Nigeria created a large army of
Muslims in virtually all the schools in Nigeria except the Eastern Region. Most Muslims of that
time and even now had multiple wives with chains of children some up to twenty or thirty most
of whom could not have ordinarily made it to school. The first set of graduates from the
Awolowo free education schools started emerging as University graduates from 1971/72. Jobs at
public and private sectors which were hitherto the exclusive preserve of Christian educated elites
became competitive with the emerging Muslim elites. That was a potential land mine for rivalry.
Awareness on equality before the law as guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution and the United
Nations Universal Declaration on Human Right also gave impetuous for agitations, al- bait
peaceful agitations by Muslims for equal treatment equal opportunity and equal right under the
law with their Christian brothers. There was no record of media backing for these peaceful
demands rather the media chose xenophobia and call them extremists.
5
The 1963 constitution sections 24 subsection 1.Unequivocally declared that Nigeria shall not
adopt any state religion in these words:
“everybody shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including
freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest and propagate his religion or belief, teaching,
practice and observance”.
This is a declaration of unambiguous neutrality by the State in mater of religion and there are
basic assumptions that could flow from it, includes but not limited to the followings:
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That the government at all levels shall not be involved in matters of religion
That religion will be a private affair of citizens
That government funds shall not be used to promote or advance the course of any
religion.
That government, at all times, shall be neutral on matters of religion.
That any citizen is free to change his religion as individuals or in group.
That every citizen shall have the right to practise and behave in accordance with his/her
religious ethics including dressing and the use of hijab by female Muslims either at home
or in public.
If these assumptions are right, then the question must be asked as to whether or not the
government and the media not have been neutral in matters or religion. Have both of them
been able to keep fate with the letters and spirit of the provisions of the various sections of
the constitution? Has the media acted witin the compass of the Fourth Estate of the Realm?
Should the colonial and subsequent national governments have been involved in grant-aiding
missionary schools established to further religious interest and propagation and conversion
from one religion to the other? The colonial government of the Queen of England, Scotland,
Ire Land Wales had to do it because the Queen/King used the instrumentalities for the
missionaries to establish colonial supremacy over Nigeria and other British colonies.
Christian devotional service became the tradition when schools are opening and closing
every day. Schools built under community efforts like Ibadan, Ilesa, Offa, Ogbomosho
Abeokuta and other community grammar schools reverted to the British Crown and the
Anglican Church. Should the spending of tax payers’ money to fund mission schools have
continued after independence? And should the media have lay host or turn the blind eye to it?
The media new and still know all these but chose to ignore it or collaborate to further extend
the frontiers of evangelization through Western aducation. An example is the current
Christian missionaries’ agitations for the return of primary and secondary schools
nationalised in 1976 by the Muritala/ Obasanjo military regime back to the various missions
after 36 years of government investments in infrastructures and physical constructions in the
schools. Where such agitations have been considers like Lagos State, under what rationale
6
will government continue to pay salary of teachers and grant aid the development of the
schools now or in the future? Is the nation therefore a secular state as always claimed by the
media and by Christians using the media? What is the meaning of the editorials written about
freedom of religion and the secularity of the Nigerian state? The media has continued to
ventilate these agitations not minding the facts that these schools were actually public
schools in the robe of missions and were not equitably developed during the military
regimes. Oppositions by Muslims were stereotyped by the media and reported as Islamic
extremism or fundamentalism. In this circumstance, the Muslims are helpless as far as the
media is concerned.
The 1963 constitution introduced elements that took religion beyond the personal level in subsection 4 (b) thus:
“for the purpose of protecting the right and freedom of other persons, including
their right and freedom to observe and practise their religions without the
unsolicited intervention of members of the other religions”.
The 1999 constitution repeated the same elements in subsection 38 sub-sections 1-4 which is a
complete clone of the 1979 constitution but differ in subsection 4 which specifically banned
cultism which was declared as a corruptive instrument in both the private and public sectors of
the polity. Section 38 of the 1999 constitution also guarantied right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion including freedom to change his religion or belief. An addendum in
bracket revealed the unnecessary definition which is a treatise for perpetration of religious
tension in Nigeria thus:
“either alone or in a community with others, and in public or private, to manifest
or propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance”.
Sub-sections 2 and 3 further aggravated the situation by granting the right to religious
propagation in publicly owned educational institutions as if religion is the beginning and end
solution to national problems. While these provisions might have been borne out of genuine
intentions, once granted, nobody has the right to abridge the right. Any attempts to do so,
especially by the media, will limit the interpretation of the above clause to the advantage of one
religion over the others. This, to me, has been a major source media complicity in the promotion
of conflict and tension, particularly between Islam and Christianity
Another major contributor to the negation of brotherhood among people of all faiths was the
collaboration with or acquiescence of the media with the military governments divide and rule
approach to governance using religion as appeasement shibboleth. The military rulers in a bid to
maintain a strangled hold on the citizenry explored and exploited divisive tactics whenever they
run into the storm of opposition from the public over unpopular policies. Religion was exploited
to the maximum. Religion and religious leaders were pitched against one and the other. And the
media was a handy tool, cannon fodder and partner of the military in this regard. The media
7
coverage of the 1977 constitution drafting committee’s and 1978 constituent Assembly debates
on the constitutional provision for Shariah law laid the foundation for Muslim/Christian distrust
and intolerance. The provisions of the independence and the 1963 republican constitutions made
Shariah personal laws which were not contestable because its application was taken as cultural in
the north even before the coming of the British colonists and were limited and applied to
Muslims only. The penal code is the pivot of criminal justice in the North till today. The media,
rather than present the facts as they were, joined Paul Unongo’s minority campaign for the
elimination of the clauses on shari’ah from the constitution. The media presented it as if it was a
new interjection surreptitiously smuggled into the constitution. Again as posited by Hackket
(2005) the subsequent Constituent Assembly imbroglio confirmed the emergence of mutual
suspicion and antagonism among Muslim and Christian political elites. The media was a great
player the promotion of the conflict.
The next sign post was the introduction of aggressive American style of Christian evangelism
into Nigeria and the invasion into the fortresses of Islam. The main target of evangelization
scheme was the Muslim homes and the stereotyping of Islam by Christian stand-up speakers.
Evangelism which was hitherto done dovishly and persuasively became a public sphere matter in
buses, offices and other public places with open assault on Islam and Muslims using the media
especially teli-evangelism. If Muslim responds in kind, it leads to open confrontation even in
media house owned by Muslims. The media acquiesced or was accessory to the orchestrated
assault on Islam and Muslins. This was the personal experience of this writer in at the Concord
newspapers between 1984 and 2000. The orthodox churches and the African churches were even
assaulted by the Pentecostalists and the Deeper life Church. The media again capitulated for
commercial reasons. Journalists even added the prefix pastor to their names.
The emergence of prosperity churches using the media as outposts in Nigeria with emphasis on
miracle rather than hard work and commitment to national service also compromised the media
as an independent and objective arbiter in any situation of conflict between Islam and
Christianity. Hitherto, before the introduction of America styled evangelism in the country,
Muslims and Christians treated one and the other with respect, accommodation and brotherhood.
Chief Sunday AWoniyi, erstwhile Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum ACF and a
Christian (2008) wrote about himself been a Northerner thus:
‘I took advantage of the education and every other opportunity available to any
Northerner, and I have no regrets. I attended Barewa College, Zaria where out of
a student population of 360; only 26 of us were Christian. General Yakubu
Gowon a Christian Angas from Plateau Province was a House Captain. I, a
Christian Northern Yoruba from Kaba Province was a House Captain out of six
houses. Nobody looked at your religion, nobody look at your tribe.’
8
The Pentecostal churches broke the bounds and even the orthodox churches had to change their
service mode and content to retain their membership and arrest the exodus of their member to
Pentecostal and prosperity Churches like the Charismatic Catholic Movement CCM.
The media was and is still silent on a publicly declared policy on the evangelisation of Muslim
homes, first in the South West Nigeria and later in Northern Nigeria. The Redeem Church came
up with a policy to establish braches at 100 metres apart throughout the country even in Muslim
populated areas. The media saw all these developments and never editorialised or warn on the
consequence of the development. Since most journalists were and are still Christians and most
media owners were, and are still also Christians, it has been difficult for them to perceive the
danger of deliberately confronting Muslims in their homes. They either join the evangelisation
train or played host to the sentiments. Perhaps the bobble bust could have been avoided if there
was no deliberate radicalisation of Pentecostalism in Nigeria.
The traditional Christian doctrine and gospel of love among people of all faiths was replaced
with the gospel of hate and mutual suspicion took over with aid and complicity of the media. As
observed by Liad Tella in a clumn article in Newswatch Daily newspaper (2012);
“Trust was replaced with distrust; mutual collaboration was replaced with mutual
antagonism. Healthy completion was substituted with bitter and fratricidal rivalry.
The centrifugal forces became dominant over the centripetal forces and the centre
of brotherhood and harmony among people of all faiths in Nigeria could no longer
hold”.
Who is the author of this script of hate, mutual antagonism and fratricidal rivalry and distrust
between Islam and Christianity and amongst Muslims and Christians?
One major events exploited to wit by the patrons of religious antagonism as stated earlier was
the 1977/8 Shariah debate at the Constitution Drafting Committee CDC. That debate marked the
beginning of open media complicity in the aggravation of religious intolerance in Nigeria. The
debate was so fierce and intense in the media that it brought in a dichotomy between Muslims
and Christians. Some Fraudulent intellectuals with access to the media jumped into the public
sphere to misinform and negatively mobilize unsuspecting Nigerians against one and the other.
Sadauna of Sokoto sir Ahmadu Bello was disparage by the media editorial on his jihad to
Islamise the Nation by Deeping the Qur’an into the sea some will credit the same stament to Late
Alhaji Ribadu father of the estwhile EFCC boss Nuru Riabadu. This was according to Chief
Awoniyi was far from the truth. Ahmadu Bello, he recalled, actually the mentored many
Christians in politics, the military officers including Gowon who later became Head of State,
general T. Danjuma and numerous other businessmen; and District Heads who were not
Muslims. He wrote:
“every one of our governors today is a beneficiary of the Sadauna heritage”.
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Where then did the media fund the stereotype against Sir Ahmadu Bello or Alhaji Ribadu?
The then Head of State, General Matthew Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo, a Baptist Christian who
midwife the Second Republic, had to intervene and in the end the provisions of the 1963
constitutions were retained but the damage had been done. Every move by government from then
on began to attract religious interpretation even by the media. Meanwhile the newspapers made
huge sales out of the debate at the expense of national harmony, cohesion and peaceful coexistence among all peoples of the country. Journalists, according to Ferguson et al, (ibid) are
expected to be neutral observers of events and issues. Like or dislike must not be reflected in the
ways stories and comments; were and still presented today in the media in Nigerian.
Though Donald Ferguson (2005) observed that
“many journalists are profoundly idealistic and concerned about ethical issues and
are determined to improve standard, yet the dominant attitude in the mainstream
press is getting the stories and meeting demand for deadlines above all other
issues including ethical considerations”.
The media, which most of the time acted as custodian of morality according to Gohen(1998)
cited by Keeble (2005) :
“Often climb the height of sanctimonious preacher, is expected not to place news
value above the responsibility of the press”
But the reverse have been the case reporting inter and intra religious relations in Nigeria. John
Pleger (1998) cited by Jenny Mckay (2000) also observed that:
“journalists hypocrisies is prevalent and exaggerations by journalists has
got to the level of destroying lives and systematic wickedness goes
unreported.”
The media handling of the 1982 Maitatsine intra Islamic religious crises in Kano was a typical
example and another major debacle in the coverage of religious conflict and intolerance in
Nigeria. Media reports on the crisis inflamed ethno-religious passion. Rather than focus on
Maitatsine ultra-radical and negative teachings which lacked foundation in Islamic theology that
he is the expected messiah, the media chose to paint the crisis in ethno-religious and racial
cleansing against the Igbos in Kano not minding the facts that many Yorubas lost their lives in
the conflict. The reports on Maitatsine led to a huge exodus of non-indigenes particularly the
Igbos from Kano. The military was drafted to put a bloody end to the sect. The leader and most
of his followers were killed. Hundreds of Muslims lost their lives the process. The press ignored
or played down that facts for sensationalism. Once the riots ended, reports on what caused the
emergence of the Maitatsine sect was ignored by the government and the media failed to conduct
further investigation into what led to the Maitatsine phenomenon and why the government failed
10
to make public the findings or why government failed to implement the recommendations, if
any?. The media also failed to prod the government to go beyond ending the riots. That was the
consolidation of a reinforced media stereotype and stigmatisation of Islam in Nigeria.
Another major event where the media took bias and partisan position was the reporting of and
editorialization on Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Conference OIC.
Professor Omo Omoruyi(2001) one of the media tiger opponent of Nigeria’s membership
betrayed his anti-Islamic sentiments and forgetting the fact of his professorial Chair wrongly
credited Nigeria’s membership of the OIC to late General Muritala Ramat Mohammed who
came to power in 1975 instead of General Yakubu Gowon who led Nigeria to join at the
observer level in 1969. If the media had played the expected role it ought to have refused to
publish Omoruyi’s aletter to Obasanjo. Also, it should have recognise this fact, dig into the
history of the OIC and the events that led to the formation of the organisation so as to present the
right perspective to the general public rather than engage in stereotype
A close examination of the history of the OIC will showed that Northern Nigeria under the semiautonomous 1963 federal constitution was part of the pioneer efforts that led to the establishment
of the international organisation called Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to serve as a
bridged head for addressing issues of underdevelopment and poverty in third world countries of
Africa, the Middle-East and Asia. The movement crystallized into an international organisation
under the United Nation Banner in 1969. Nigeria was under military dictatorship led by General
Yakubu Gowon and was engaged in a bitter civil war against the break away and ill-fated
Republic of Biafra led by Colonel Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. Nigeria was officially invited as
a founding and full member but opted for the observer status pending the end of the civil war. If
the Nigerian journalists of the time were oblivious of these facts, the library records and
encyclopaedias should have been consulted for basic facts before placing the tag of plot to
Islamise Nigeria was placed on the organisation. The chatter of the OIC was not and is still not a
secrete document and the list of member nations was available to the media. Rather than
published the facts as they were, the media went partisan on matter of religion. OIC was reported
as Organisation of Islamic Countries instead of Organisation of Islamic Conference thus evoking
negative passion among Christians that Nigeria membership was a ploy to Islamize the country.
Even professors of high repute Omoruyi one of those whom Plato, the great philosopher of all
times classified as philosopher Kings join the ranks of miss-informers, distorters and
manipulators of information to further heightened religious tension and distrust among Muslims
and Christian in the country using the media as accessories.
It is on record that Ivory Coast, the home to the second largest Catholic basilica globally with
above sixty percent catholic population, has been a full member of the OIC since inception,
Granted that only the Concord newspaper was at the Moroccan city of Fez in 1986 where Nigeria
finally joined the OIC as full member, why was the contemporaneous and on the spot reports by
two senior journalists, one of whom was Liad Tella the paper’s Foreign Affairs Editor (the writer
of this paper) and Senior Correspondent Femi Abbas, ignored by the Editor of the National
11
Concord Ben Onyeachonam who happened to be a Catholic? Reasons for the suppression of the
reports by the Editor were too far from professionalism. Thus leaving the field for the Tribune
Newspaper to use a terse redrafted three-paragraph AFP story to inflame passion that: ‘Nigeria
joins Organisation of Islamic Countries’ instead of “Nigeria Joins Organisation of Islamic
Conference.” The then President of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN Bishop Anthony
Olubunmi Okogie led the fight against the government decision to upgrade Nigeria membership
to full status on the pages of virtually all Nigerian newspapers, magazines and the electronic
media. He mobilised Christians, using unprintable words, threatening fire and brimstone against
Nigeria’s membership of the organisation. The media became a partner in the anti-OIC
movements. The media evoked negative passion among Christians and Muslims in Nigeria with
inciting reports and editorials.
The way the newspapers reported the OIC issue portrayed the OIC as an organisation designed to
Islamize Nigeria and other member nations. These reports were against the backdrop of the
following facts:
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

Ivory Coast, Benin Republic Togo, Uganda and Gabon were founding members of the
OIC and are predominantly Catholic populated countries
That Benin Republic which declared voodoo as state Religion is a member of the OIC
That the chatter of the OIC is clear on non-interference in the internal affair of member
nations
That OIC was designed to provide econo-financial and infrastructural support to member
nations using the instrumentality of zero interest loans from the Islamic Development
Bank IDB as against the excruciating and oppressive interest rate regime of both the
International Monetary Fund IMF and the World Bank.
That no international organisation under the United Nation has ever been used for
religious propagation except the security council that has been used unashamedly to
protect the state of Israel even when it failed to comply with or recognise several UN
resolutions. Such out of form behaviour never attracted media criticism but Iraq was
destroyed and its president assassinated by US/UK and their allies.
That no international law has municipal jurisdiction therefore, membership of the OIC or
any other international agency cannot Islamise Nigeria the same way the Vatican cannot
use the Nigerian mission in Papal Basilica to evangelise Nigeria.
That India with predominantly Hindus and Buddhists population is a member of the OIC.
The Nigerian polity was heated up and attempts by the concord reporters to put the correct
information to the reading public were to no avail. For publishing the facts as they were, the
Christian Association of Nigeria CAN ordered total boycott of all tittles of the Concord
newspaper by all Churches, Christians and companies or business concern owned or run by
them. If M.K.O Abiola was not the owner of the media house it could have gone under.
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Most media in the wake of the global economic crises and the economic downturn in the nation
took refuge in religion to take advantage of rising Pentecostalism and evangelisation flavour
among Christians to sustain circulation at a time when corporate demand for newspapers had
plummeted due to crippling economic recession. Pastors became newspaper columnists and got
their members to patronise the newspapers. There was no balance with other religions especially
Islam. Tribune had two pages, Vanguard four, Punch two, This Day four, Guardian 8-page
pullout on ecumenism etc. while every Sunday pastoral writings were undertaken by very strong
writers and most of them grudgingly gave half a page to Islam which were confined to well
known tenets of Islam and were written by inarticulate writers. The Guardian 8-page ecumenism
was an Anglican vibe to reflect the belief of its owner while allocating only one page to Islam
and none for other faiths.
As observed by the former chief Justice of Nigeria, Fatai Williams, in a validitory speech when
he retired as Chief Justice of Nigeria CJN
“When men and women are driven away from the arena where debate is free, they
are driven to the silos where revolutions are born”.
By extension, when the media become partisan perpetually in support of one religion against the
other(s) they precipitate tension, anger, resistant, resentment and frustration that promote
recourse to self help in resolution of religious conflict and subsequent socio-political instability.
Also important to mention was the media attack on the establishment of the Islamic University
in Kano by the World Muslim League (WML) in collaboration with the Islamic Development
Bank IDB. The opposition by Christian groups on the ground that the establishment of the
University was another ploy to Islamise Nigeria led to the transfer o the project to Niger
Republic. The media that led the debate had been silent since the establishment of more than 30
universities funded and run by various Christian organisations in contemporary Nigeria. Till
date, there is no record of any opposition from any Islamic group. The Media was there when
NASFAT and justice Bola Ajibola were refused licences by the National University Commission
simply because Islam was used as part of the names of the two universities?
There were other flash points between the OIC debate and the un-enacted 1990 constitution
which was designed to usher in the Third Republic. The same scenario at the 1977/78
constitutional debate on Shari’ah also reoccurred with the media playing the same role. The most
significant was the 1999/2000 legislation of Shari’ah personal law and the expansion of the penal
code to include some aspect of Muslim life by the Zamfara State Government. Though the law
excluded Christians from the application and guaranteed the rights of Christians in zamfara State,
North Western Nigeria. The media ignored this to orchestrated anti-Shari’ah sentiments that
further aggravated Muslim-Christian relations. The debate almost led to personal attacks among
Muslims and Christians all over Nigeria. The media towed the traditional lines without adequate
reference to the provisions of the 1999 constitution or the Christians going to court if indeed the
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law enacted by the Zamfara State Government was an infringement on Christian rights or
unconstitutional. The recourse to the court of public opinion and public sphere debate, to me,
showed that the anti- Shari’ah law media and critics were economical with the truth. Like the
OIC debate it was directed at the currying of the sympathy of the international community on
persecution of Christian in Nigeria and a ploy to suppress Islam. I challenge the Nigeria media to
come up with statistics on the number of Churches in Nigeria before 1986 OIC debate and the
number today. In Iju area of Lagos State, there was one Catholic Church, one Anglican Church,
two celestial Churches, one African Church, and four C&S churches. Today there are more than
50 churches, mostly Pentecostalism in the same area. One may ask the media to come up with
the record of Islamisation of the country since Nigeria became full member of the OIC. There is
also no record of any Christian convicted under Shari’ah law in any part of Northern Nigeria
where the penal code was expanded to accommodate more aspects of Muslim life.
RELIGION AND MEDIA INTSTITUTION BIAS
I have gone through the historical approach to locate the point where and when disharmony crept
into Christian/Muslim relations in Nigeria. An institutional approach to locate the reasons for the
media role in fuelling or containing the crisis may further help in understanding the depth of the
conflicts and chart a way for positive media role in re engineering a new journey towards better
understanding, harmony, love and brotherhood among people of all faiths in the country
particularly among Christians and Muslims.
Most professional organisation has established guidelines on entry and practice of the profession.
Many also have rules of engagement with laid down sanctions for violation by any practitioner.
It is however regrettable that this does not apply to the practice or journalism in Nigeria. There is
complete absence of institutional check and balances against possible excesses by media
practitioners and media houses. Nigeria and Nigerians still fix journalism profession into Lord
Northckliff deposition that journalism is an art that can be learnt in four days, an innuendo that
the profession is an all comers affair. Past attempts by government to regulate media practice had
been resisted by media men as a ploy to cage the media. Unfortunately, as it is in Europe, the
Americas and Asia so it is in Nigeria journalism, the profession is not strictly regulated and
newspaper industry or the print media is so fluid that anybody can float a magazine or newspaper
without going through any professional body or regulatory agency. This is a major institutional
weakness in the control and discipline in the newspaper industry. The electronic media is better
because it is under strict regulatory control of the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC). But
this control is not absolute. Under the self financing regime of federal agencies including
broadcasting houses owned by the federal and state governments, Pentecostal churches took
advantage of the policy to buy the air waves in western, eastern and central states of Nigeria
where tendentious, inciting and provocative sermons were delivered against Islam, Muslims and
even disparaging remarks on Prophet Muhammad were not checked or control. Reverend Father,
Dr. Kukah cited by Hacket (ibid) on the contrary to the reality, alleged that Islamic broadcast
ruled the waves in Northern Nigeria and Christians were not given one minute 24 hours of the
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day and seven days of the week. This is negative propaganda without root. First there is no 24
hours broadcast in any radio station in Nigeria till date (2013) except Africa Independent
Television Channels, both owned and run by Christians, no television house in the country runs a
twenty four hour service. Up till date pastor Ashimalowo still run a one hour stand up sermon
every Friday morning on AIT, LTV, CHANNELS and Galaxy televisions every Friday supposed
to be a dedicated service day for Muslims. Kukah statement therefore runs of reality and against
the current of written testimonies Chief Sunday Awoniyi’s (2011) on the Northern Elders
meeting held 0n June 6th 1987. Chief Sunday Awoniyi a Christian, in a statement dated 7th July
1987 reconted memories of deliberate cultivation of religious understanding, brotherliness and
harmony by the Political leadership especially by sir Ahmadu Bello. According to him the
meeting was called to ‘discuss the unprecedented religious disturbances in the Northern States
and to see what could be done to prevent a reoccurrence and to restore harmony and confidence
across the religious divide.’ Awoniyi was reacting to negative media reports which tended to
paint the meeting as subversive to the then military authority. In western Nigeria between 1990
and 2010, paid Christian sermons dominated the television and radio air waves from morning to
bed time on AIT, MITV owned by a Muslim. Yet the world is fed with information on the
persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
The media in news and editorials p[antrd miss governance in Nigeria on Muslims who were
alleged to have ruled the country since independence. This claim is fraudulent and a dangerous
declaration to blackmail Muslims and Islam by the media and their patrons. From the records,
the following facts should be considered. Dr, Nnamdi Azikiwe a Christian was Governor
General and president of Nigeria for six years with power to convene and dissolve parliament;
Major-General J. T. U Aguyi Ironsi was Head of State And Supreme Commander (not
Commander –in-chief) of the Nigeria Armed Forces for seven months; General Yakubu Gowon
was Head of State and Commander-in-Chief for eight years; General Olusegun Obasanjo was in
power for three and a half years as Military Head of State and later eight years as civilian
President; Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will complete six years by 2015 with potentials for
additional four years. By 2015 Christians would have occupied the presidency for more than 35
years of the nation’s 53 years of independence. Can the media claim ignorance of these facts?
Why stereotype Muslim with poor governance in Nigeria? Because this has been repeated by the
media over and over, stand up speakers and contributors on radio and television have
successfully planted it into the mental faculty of most Nigerians including up-coming younger
generations and even “liberal” Muslims. Current Affairs Presenters and interviewers ask
tendentious questions slanted against Islam and Muslims on radio and television programs.
Government messages on Muslim festivals are reported by the media from negative angles such
as:
“Muslims advised to shun violence’; ‘Muslims advised to embrace peaceful coexistence’
“Muslims urged to shun drug trafficking during Hajj’
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and many more. During Maolud Nabbiyi, celebration of the birth of Prophet Muhammad, until
very recently, no programme is dedicated for the day even in government run electronic media
stations. Christian music interlude dominates the air waves. On the contrary, Christian carol
music heralding December 24th Christmas, the birthday of Jesus Christ, dominates the air waves
from the 15th day of November every year and it remains dominant till 15th January. The Nigeria
Broadcasting Commission turns a blind eye on this issue or play accessory to the situation. The
front page of virtually all newspaper in Nigeria is given a Christmas flowery graphic expressions
two weeks before and after 24th December.
RELIGIOS REPORTING AND JORNALISM ETHICS
The ethical question in the practice of journalism is universal. The American media had its own
period of yellow journalism before the rise of ethical, crusading or muckraking journalism in the
19th century. Even after the epoch of crusading journalism, according to Donald Ferguson et al,
the ethical question is still as confronting as it was in the post yellow journalism era. Ferguson
(ibid) recalled:
“in 1981, Jareck Cooke had to give up her Pulitzer Prize when it was discovered
that the main teenage Heroin addict character in her prize winning story did not
exist. The stories were fabricated. Stephen Glass was fired by the Republic in
1998 ‘for using false information, fabricated quote and out rightly making up
entire articles while Jayso Blair admitted to plagiarism and was fired by the New
York Times”.
There is however no reported case of criminal prosecution for these and other ethical violations
across the globe. Forfeitures, resignations or dismissals are the common phenomenon. But is that
a sufficient remedy?
The universal assumption is that whatever you read in a newspaper MUST be TRUE. It is
therefore mandatory for the press to ensure that facts paraded in a news report or features are
true, factual and correct. Most journalism teachers, professionals and authors of journalism
books are in agreement that the fundamental ethics of journalism rest on the followings:
 Facts are sacred, comment is free.
 Credibility and accuracy of facts occupies the lofty height and peak of journalism
profession.
 Objectivity is the main pillar of journalism ethics.

Flowing from these are:
 credibility, trust and integrity.
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Where all these are absent, the media is held in contempt and the medium will not be able to
sustain itself in the market. There are however some challenges faced by the media with respect
to objectivity and accuracy. These challenges include but not limited followings: commercial
interest; financial inducement; government influence or interference; social influence; racial,
ethnic, gender and religious influences.
The questions to ask are: has the media been objective in the coverage of religious crises in
Nigeria in the light of the above historical presentation? Has the media been factual in their
reports of religious conflicts in Northern Nigeria? The answers must be in the negative.
The 19886 Sango Kataf according to Chief Sunday Awoniyi was misreported by the media. the
reprisal attack by the Muslim Student Society Members was reported without mentioning the
primary attack by a Christian group. The Biron/Angas conflict with the Hausa/Fulani’s over
indigene and settler dichotomy in Plateau State was first presented to the public as religious riots
against the Christians and the Igbos. The media played ignorance to the facts that there are
Birons/Angas who are Christians and Muslims as much as there are Hausa/Fulanis who are
Christians and Muslims. There are also thousands of others who are neither Muslims nor
Christians. The media in Nigeria habitually divide the population of the country between Islam
and Christianity which in not factually reflective of the true religious settings in Nigeria, be it in
the Eastern, Western and Northern Nigeria. There are adherents of traditional religion and other
faiths which have been constantly disregarded by the media.
Tested against the accuracy of facts, objectivity, balance and fairness, the media will score low
if the example of the OIC and others cited above are further used as yard sticks.
Yet there is no established order, G to remedy ethical misconduct by journalist and media
houses. It is only when it runs against the current of what the government consider as a threat to
governance, national security or the President’s/Governor’s interest that the State reacts by
closing down or proscribing the media house. Journalism ethics globally is a moral order and not
a legal regime. There is no established institution that deals with ethical misconducts in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Press Council has been calling on the public to report media misconducts and ethical
violations; there is no record of any perceivable action in this regard. The council has not played
any major role in containing media bias and excesses especially misreporting of religious affairs
and conflict thus giving way to a regime of impunity by the media that is controlled majorly by
Christians. This has aggravated Muslim Christian relations across the nation to the point of
constant tension, mutual distrust, suspicion and conflicts on virtually all national, ethnic or
religious issue.
The absence of institutional frame work regulating media practice in Nigeria is also aggravated
by the fluidity of entry into and exit from the media industry. It is therefore easy for traducers,
quacks and fake journalists to flood the industry. The Newspaper Proprietors Association of
Nigeria NPAN is not a mandatory institution for all print media owners. Many magazines and
17
newspapers were established without the knowledge of the association. It is therefore difficult to
track and enumerate the number of newspapers and magazines on the news-stand.
The Nigeria Union of Journalist NUJ also remains a voluntary association till today. You don’t
have to be a registered member of the NUJ before you can practise journalism as a profession.
There is no register of professional journalists in the country. The Nigeria Guild of editors is
equally helpless in ethical policing. Membership is not mandatory for all Editors. The
environment of journalism practice is therefore too fluid, exploitable and open to abuse.
In a situation of misreporting, publication of falsehood, and deliberate negative incitement of the
public, there is no existing machinery to punish professional misconduct, blacklist or suspend or
impose outright ban a reporter from practising journalism as applicable to the Medical and
Nursing Council of Nigeria, the Nigeria Bar Association and other professionalised unions.
It is therefore not out of form for the media I Nigeria to exhibit bias and engage in direct or
indirect incitement to violence and negativity in the society or polity as it is with media reports
on religious conflicts in Nigeria. All these apart from personal bias may be link to commercial
reasons, interest of the owner and government influences.
CUNCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
The media remains the most potent means of social mobilisation, sensitisation, education and
entertainment. It has tremendous influence on the society because of the age long perception that
whatever appears in the media must be the gospel truth. Trust, reliability and credibility are what
sustain the integrity of the press. Unfortunately the integrity and credibility of the press has been
called to questions in several ways and forms from different directions by those who govern and
the governed. One of such, as we have seen above is in the coverage of religious conflict and
crises in Nigeria. Media bias has negatively affected intra and inter religious relations so much
that harmony has be replaced with acrimony, gospel of love had been substituted with gospel of
hate, mutual suspicion and antagonism. The media has promoted centrifugal forces over and
above centripetal force which has become a major source of econo-political and social instability
in Nigeria today. Facts were sacrificed for fiction; truth became subjective, ethno-religious bias
replaced objectivity; fairness and balanced reporting was sacrificed or suppressed for personal or
group interest and it no longer matter to consider issues of responsibility of the media or watch
over potential land mines in news and feature that can threatened the collective interest and even
the existence of the nation is endangered. Nigeria has been put on the cross road and it now
require urgent and collective action to arrest the slide into multiple national conflagration that
precipitate the Lebanonization of the country. Nigeria is not a mono-linguistic entity like
Lebanon. With multi-linguistic situation, up to 400 languages, Nigeria can ill afford fratricidal
and violent religious wars of the Middle-East. The resultant instability will be too difficult for
Africa and the entire world to manage. For Nigerians, it will be too destructive to contemplate.
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The media and media owners and government must therefore be encouraged to come together to
institutionalise media control mechanism to regulate media practise and ensure the promotion of
not only religious harmony but promote ethical and cultural re-orientation in the country.
Responsible reporting of religious conflicts and deliberate effort to promo religious harmony and
brotherhood of all faiths should be made paramount. The Professional journalists, government
and media owners should make conscious effort to come together to adopt national code of
ethics for practicing journalist in Nigeria. The government and patrons of the media should
jointly put up a bill that will lay out conditionality for the establishment of newspaper and
magazine the way entry into the broadcast media is regulated. This to me will contain entry of
fraudulent investors and exploiter in the print section of the media industry. The Nigeria Union
of Journalists should climb down the lather of unionism and climb the height of professionalism
to be on the same pedestal with other profession organisations. The bill should also spell out the
entry qualification and standard should be established under the law. In the alternative, the
freedom of information act may be amended to incorporate these suggestions. The legal dictum
of where there is society, there must be law and where law exists, there must be remedy is
relevant to today’s journalism in Nigeria. A society without law and remedy for misconduct is on
the road to anarchy. Journalism practise, like any other profession, must be regulated no matter
the misgivings of practitioners or the danger of abuse.
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