WHY NEWSPAPERS FAIL IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

By

Danladi Adamu Mohammed, MA History UDUS 

There are several reasons for the failure of newspapers in northern Nigeria and in fact it was the subject of discussion in the defunct Sentinel and the issue has remained very debatable since. The media is the arena of participation in the society and any segment of the society, which is left behind in that competition will eventually be marginalized. In the Nigerian context we have seen how the vocal southwestern media was used in ensuring political power shift from the North to the Yoruba enclave of southwest.

Many people including seasoned journalists such as Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf have been wondering about the careless attitude of the northern elites with regards to media participation here is what he asked: “How did it happen that in this part of the country where politics and Administration is virtually the only industry, there are so few media outlets to articulate the values, vision and aspirations of its people? How come that there is not a single, private daily newspaper in the whole of northern Nigeria at the beginning of the 21st century? Why are there three private television stations in Onitsha, Benin and Lagos but not in Kano, Sokoto and Abuja? Is a political class that has made no provision for modern means of communication, but is instead busy consuming the products generated by rival groups, not setting itself up for intellectual and possibly other forms of subjugation?” (See the paper he delivered in Kano on the 27th September 2000 p.1). Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf is certainly the best person to answer these questions because he started the daily newspaper in January 2001. This paper will briefly attempt to survey some of the reasons for the failure of newspapers in northern Nigeria.

History of the press in Nigeria could be traced to late 19th century with the early missionary papers but it became vibrant during the struggle for independence when most of the nationalists used the press to agitate for legitimate demands hitherto suppressed by the colonialists. The press was also the scene of bitter rivalry between the nationalists where their human weaknesses were exposed. This formative period was virtually in southern Nigeria (for more information see Fred Omu’s pioneering work: Press and Politics in Nigeria 1880-1937 London 1978). The vibrant nationalist press of the North came up with the emergence of NEPU when Dr. Azikwe allowed the NEPU activists to publish Hausa section in his Comet newspaper with Magaji Danbatta as the editor.

Therefore historically the south was ahead of the north in the newspaper industry this experience has been an advantage for newspaper proprietors and journalists in their fierce competition to eliminate northern rivals.

Colonial rule made the south economically more prosperous than the north hitherto the most prosperous domain on earth inhabited by black people. This was because northern trade was shifted from the Sahara and Ghana (Gonja) to the south coast of Southern Nigeria.

The trade in Kola in Kano was worth 38 million Deutse Mark per annum in the 19th century (see Lovejoy, P. E. Caravans of Kola: The Hausa Kola Trade 1700-1900 Zaria 1980 for more information) and even Okwudiba Nnoli has acknowledged that the Hausa traders were the most prosperous and most widely traveled merchants amongst the pre-colonial peoples. The Ibos were so primitive that they never engaged in trade but primitive economic activities of gathering and subsistence agriculture. With the shifting of the source of northern trade to the south, northern prosperity was turned into poverty and the majority of the people were forced to become producers of export crops to pay for tax imposed by the colonial government. The Ibos whose civilization was primitive (as acknowledged by Professor Nwaubueze in his book Constitutionalism in the Emergent States) quickly adopted Western civilization and they acquired skills that accompany the acquisition of western education. Their region was poor economically and culturally therefore many of them migrated to the north and west leading to intense competition with the Yoruba and Hausa peoples of those regions. Their patriarch Azikwe was so exhilarated that he claimed: “It would appear that the God of Africa has created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of ages. . . . . The martial prowess of the Ibo nation at all stages of human history has enabled them not only to conquer others but also to adapt themselves to the role of preserver. . . . .The Ibo nation cannot shirk its responsibility. . .”(Coleman, J. Background to Nigerian Nationalism 1986 Benin p.347).

The Ibos were indeed successful at some point in time they were even ahead of their Kwa brothers the Yoruba who had an earlier contact with western education but Awolowo the Yoruba ethnic leader appeared in the political scene. Awolowo and other Yoruba irredentists were the first to introduce ethnic politics in Nigeria in order to marginalize their Ibo competitors. Azikwe was frustrated out of the Western region thus truncating the dream of a truly united Nigeria based on equity and fairness. Awolowo was a master strategist after chasing out Azikwe and ensuring the firm control of the Lagos economy by his faction of the predatory Yoruba elites he went ahead to consolidate the mass base of his grip on power by providing free primary education in the Western region. This strategy ensured that the Yoruba reproduced artisans who competed and even replaced the Ibo semi-skilled workers in the Western region and later the Yoruba also produced highly skilled manpower that competed favorably with the Ibos. The location of the main port in Lagos ensured the establishment of import substitution industries in the area. The cultural proximity of the Yoruba to the Hausa also ensured that the northerners felt more comfortable in Lagos than other Eastern ports. These factors consolidated the prosperity of the Yoruba over the Ibos. The Yoruba have since remained arrogant that they are more civilized than their Nigerian brothers but at the same time just like the Ibos they feel inferior to the Europeans. Awolowo was reported to have said: “In embracing western culture, the Yoruba take the lead, and have benefited immensely as a result. The Efiks, the Ijaws, the Ibibios and Ibos come next. The last four named are particularly ambitious, and are doing all they can to overtake the Yorubas. The Hausas and Fulanis on the other hand are extremely conservative, and take reluctantly to Western civilization….and if the race is to be swift, in spite of their lower cultural background, the Ibos or the Ibibios would certainly qualify for self-government, long before the Hausas” (Awolowo, O. Path to Nigerian Freedom London 1947 p. 49) It should be noted that it is not only Yoruba Christians like Awolowo as observed above but also most African Christians feel inferior to the Europeans because they abandoned their civilization and adopted Western civilization, which is imperialistic and inhuman having lost its pristine Christian values because of renaissance and the French Revolution.

The Yoruba finally eliminated their Ibo rivals when they deceived them into secession, which ended in disaster and Yoruba snatched all the positions that were left by seceding Ibos. Now the Nigerian economy is firmly under the control of the insatiable Yoruba elites. Since their defeat and subsequent rehabilitation the Ibos have tried to regain their lost confidence some of them like the writer Arthur Nwankwo feel so inferior to the Yoruba that they openly promote Yoruba agenda of perpetrating ethnicity. Their current control of political power has also ensured their further consolidation of their grip on the economy.

It is very clear that whoever controls the economy controls the media. Sometime ago one naïve writer in the Yoruba newspaper the Tribune wrote that the issue of the Yoruba control of the media is only an allegation because many of the powerful media houses are owned by Delta State indigenes for example The Guardian is owned by the Ibru family who are Urhobo and Thisday is owned Nduka Obiagbena an Ibo of Delta State. But this analysis as expected is very simplistic from a journalist working in an intellectually poor quality newspaper. The Yoruba who control the economy control advertisement the major source of funds for any newspaper. Therefore who ever wants adverts must dance to the tune of the Yoruba agenda. Christians such as Abraham Adesanya, Olu Falae, Ayo Opadokun and Bolaji Akinyemi lead the greedy Yoruba elite faction. The major fear of these irredentists is Islam, which will integrate Yoruba Muslims with Northern Muslims and subsequently eliminate ethnic politics the major source of wealth for these Yoruba Christians.

Using Nazi like strategies they terrorize the Yoruba Muslims who agitate for Shari’ah personal law in Yorubaland whose demand has been persistent since 1898. They fear that once Shari’ah personal law is introduced the Muslims will demand for more by calling for the extension of the Shari’ah to include the criminal law as the case now in the North. The Yoruba Christians have used Nazi like strategies to terrorize the Yoruba who oppose their ethno-genocidal agenda epitomized in the personality of Bola Ige who was consumed in the culture of hate that he propagated. There is no doubt that both The Guardian and Thisday detest Shari’ah and they promote bigotry and hatred of Islam and the Muslims. Thisday even concoct lies to tarnish the good image Muslim communities. And most importantly these papers propagate lies that the Hausa-Fulani elites who are the rivals of the Yoruba elites are the cause of Nigeria’s current predicament because some of them ruled the country. While as a double standard they have deliberately refused to associate Obasanjo’s ineptitude to his ethnic background In this case both papers are serving the interest of the Yoruba Christians.

The northern elites refuse to encourage journalists of northern origin when they were in power. While on the other hand they gave maximum support to southern entrepreneurs who ventured into the newspaper business. The first business mogul who enjoyed this patronage was Chief MKO Abiola and after his fall out with the NPN he used the paper effectively against the NPN and the North. Even during the Shari’ah debate of 1999 Abiola’s paper the Concord (whose proprietor is a Muslim) was against Shari’ah (see Aliyu Tilde’s paper delivered in Kano) because it conflicts with the mainstream Yoruba elite faction dominated by Christian fascists. The Pilot newspaper was the first to observe this fascism: “Henceforth the cry must be one of the battle against Egbe Omo Oduduwa, its leaders at home and abroad, up hill and down dale in the streets of Nigeria and in the residences of its advocates. . . It is the enemy of Nigeria; it must be crushed to the earth. . . There is no going back, until the Fascist Organization of Sir Adeyemo has been dismembered” (Coleman op. cit p. 346).

The Guardian used northern elites during its quest for acceptability, an African media analyst wrote: “The Ibru promoters of The Guardian sought the participation of Muslim Northerners when the paper was established in the early 1980’s; the reason for this strategy is very obvious. First Northern Muslims were in power at that time and secondly the paper needed credibility. They got the support of the "blue blooded" descendants of the institution that later became The Guardian's number one enemy, the Sokoto Caliphate. Amongst those used by The Guardian were the late General Shehu Musa Yar Adua (Tafidan Katsina), the late Alhaji Aliyu Dasuki (a descendant of Danfodio), Alhaji Ahmed Joda (an Adamawa aristocrat) and Alhaji Aliku Mohammed (Dan Iyan Misau). Ambassador Hamza Ahmadu (Walin Sokoto and son in-law of former Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki) and Professor Kyari Tijjani (Borno intellectual) are currently members of one of the boards of The Guardian” (Ado-Kurawa I. Shari’ah and the Press in Nigeria: Islam versus Western Christian Civilization Kano 2000 p.341).

And even during this republic northern political leaders have continued to empower the Yoruba dominated southern press by patronizing it. One of the most irresponsible of such patronage was by the Kano State government, which gave Newswatch four million naira and one million naira to Tell for the publication of supplements. But the same slothful Kano State government was not even aware of a paid supplement by Delta State that was spitefully directed at it.

Obasanjo on the other hand has continued to promote his own faction of the Yoruba elite in the media as observed by Ado-Kurawa thus: “Thisday also enjoys the patronage of the current government at least during the period under review. As stated earlier it was honored with the privilege of covering the first hundred days of the President and one of its columnists who is also fanatically anti-Shari’ah received the highest honor of staying with the President for a day. According to him the last time a journalist was so honored was when Alhaji Shehu Shagari hosted the late Dele Giwa. But Obasanjo unlike Shagari who could have hosted Mohammed Haruna or any other Muslim journalist of Dele Giwa’s calibre he opted for a non-Muslim Yoruba kinsman, instead of any better and more seasoned journalist from the North. For example Weekly Trust’s Kabiru Yusuf or Today’s Aliyu Hayatu” (Ado-Kurawa op. cit. p. 347).

One of the commentators who wrote during the debate in Sentinel stated that one of the reasons why newspapers fail in the north is because the society is closed and that it does not tolerate criticism. This is far from the truth. Because the most successful newspaper group in the north now is the Trust group. And this group has been the most critical and subjective section of the press in the north and they still enjoy the patronage of the bulk of the people. Aliyu Tilde in his paper: ‘The Press and the Shariah Debate’, which he delivered in Kano in December 1999 showed beyond any doubt that the Weekly Trust employed the same strategies with the southern press in its contribution towards the killing of the Shari’ah. In Tilde’s words: “It is important to investigate the strategies used by these various groups in playing their roles. Those who opposed the Shari’ah do not seem to have moderated their approach of sensation and blackmail. To capture a glimpse of such strategies, one only needs to read the cover stories especially those published at the time the shariah was about to be launched last October. They include…”. He then listed eighteen cover stories of which 3 belonged to the Weekly Trust and they were: “Islamic State of Zamfara (Weekly Trust, Vo. 2. No. 31), Shariah (Weekly Trust Vol 2. No. 36) and Northern Christians: Our Fear on Sharia (Weekly Trust Vol. 2 No. 39)”. Tilde further observed that: “From the above titles, it is clear that the strategies of opponents of the Sharia are intimidation, insinuation, sensation, etc. They intend to intimidate not only the public but also the leadership that shariah is something dangerous capable of breaking up the country. They are also very much ready to insinuate that the shariah application has a hidden agenda”.

Tilde had earlier in the same paper complained about the position of Weekly Trust on the Shari’ah like this: “Good as your paper is in balanced reporting and editorial, there is one flaw that you must come to terms with quickly. Every now and then issues arise in our polity that other papers come out clearly to either support or oppose. Such issues have no middle-of-the-road position for one to sit. It appears to me that your paper is sitting on the fence on the issue of the Shariah. This is a national issue and you cannot wish it away. The earlier you declare you stand the better”. According to Tilde: “The Chief Editor of the weekly humorously told me that if you do not sit on the fence in journalism, you would not be able to see its both sides. He is right, but only on the assumption that the fence is not transparent”.

Weekly Trust is indeed an excellent paper managed by seasoned journalist it quickly found an “intellectual” in the person of Sanusi Lamido who will interpret for Northern Nigerian Muslims the type of Shari’ah they should have. They should abandon the Shari’ah interpreted by Imam Malik and other scholars and then adopt the one interpreted by this “intellectual” whose pen is a sharp as the one of Ibn Hazm because once who oppose him he will pieces you like he did to Dalhatu Yola. He declares all those who disagree with his interpretation as neo-fundamentalist who are opposed to intellectualism. It has deliberately refused to publish any scholarly rejoinder on the writings of such people like Sanusi. When one writer responded to Murtala Nyako his article was reduced to a letter while Sanusi Lamido has been given ample space in the Trust to respond to his critics who wrote elsewhere.

The paper has refused papers written by Muslim intellectuals who are versed in both Western and Islamic intellectual traditions like Mallam Bashir Aliyu Umar who responded to Lamido’s facileness called the Adulteress Dairy instead it published selectively some shabby responses very much unlike the Gamji website. Similarly the paper rarely reports any thing positive about Ahmad Sani because of its determination to paint him negatively this is despite the fact that he patronizes the paper. The New Nigerian and Vanguard made more favorable reports on Zamfara than the Trust group. Any newspaper paper could survive and prosper commercially in the North if it identifies its target audience and works towards fulfilling their propaganda expectations. The Trust has identified its target audience who are the lethargic northern Muslim elites.

This group of people detests the Shari’ah because they believe it is capable of antagonizing the southern elites and it may result in secession and therefore the loss of oil their means of wealth acquisition. Sanusi has done admirably well as their leading “intellectual” by attempting to re-interpret the Shari’ah. He has tried very well to promote himself as an alternative to Imam Malik and other scholars by bookish quotation of Arabic sources. As a trained economist and banker he never came up with any idea that will improve his poverty-stricken people very much unlike Dr. Yunus who pioneered the poor peoples bank in Bangladesh. Instead Sanusi uses the poverty of his people to promote himself by claiming he is fighting for them against the ruling class, a very clever Marxist indeed. Sanusi and the Trust are the same like all other modernists they have no original idea of improving the economic status of their constituency.

The anti-Shari’ah posture of Trust and its modernist intellectual wing is purely for economic reasons and not for democratic or social welfare reasons because the paper like its leading intellectual has never come up with any concrete idea in that respect. They have prospered despite this posture and the fact that the Shari’ah is a mass based movement as observed by Tilde: “On October 27, 1999 however, the Zamfara state government did gather a crowd of well over a million people. No one could claim that the people who trooped the city of Gusau from near and far that day were sponsored. Their transport feeding and accommodation arrangements were personal. The governor himself could not hold back his tears at the unimaginable and unexpected assembly. Those who would like to know what the Muslims masses in the country care for most should give this event the relevance it deserves. There is no doubt that the incident alone shows that Muslim masses are interested in their religion more than any other thing, including the ongoing political hype called democracy.”

And this has also been acknowledged by Thisday: “Northern sources say that contrary to what the media would have us believe, pressure to institute Sharia has been a bottom-up phenomenon. The elite are said to be under a lot of pressure from the common people to give them Sharia. The man who speaks against the law, or opposes it in any form; becomes very unpopular.

These same sources say that Shagari, like many of the governors who would eventually join Sani on the Sharia bandwagon, was initially lukewarm about the whole affair. And so with all the pressures, what does a wise man do? Just keep quiet and not comment at all.

Is it any wonder why it seems so quiet on the Northern front?” (Thisday the Sunday Newspaper 26th March 2000 p. 37). The reason for the survival and prosperity of the Trust and its modernist intellectual wing is because they promote the ant-Islamic ideas cherished by the dominant faction of the voracious northern elites who depend on usury for their survival.

A mass based and people orientated paper could hardly survive in the north because of poverty and low literacy level. Islam is the only ideology that could have mass appeal in most parts of northern Nigeria.

Therefore for any paper to be mass based it most promote the most widely acceptable version of Islam and not Shiism, Ahmadiyya or modernists or even the Ikhwan versions. At-Tajdid has not succeeded because its philosophy is based on Ikhwan ideas. A mass based paper cannot depend on adverts, which are controlled by elites who dislike Islam because of their usurious means of livelihood. It will have to depend on circulation and the majority of the Muslims are poor they could barely maintain themselves therefore newspaper is a luxury to them. Many of them depend on the radio for news, which is cheaper. The current attempt by NEPU veterans to start a mass based paper will fail because they have refused to understand the fact that NEPU struggle was sustained because it drew its inspiration from Islam and the worldview of the NEPU veterans is now materialism which is the opposite of Islam.

One of the major reasons why most northern elites are non-challant in modern media ownership as observed by Alhaji Kabiru Yusuf is because they always got what they wanted without the media during military rule.

Things will now have to change with the advent of democracy because of popular participation and the mass media is the space where public opinion is manipulated. The Northern elites will try the cheapest means first before they venture into other areas. Even in cyber war they are far behind despite the fact that the most popular Nigerian site is Gamji founded by a northern intellectual with out the help of the big shots because they feel they cannot use it to promote their self-indulgence.

It is hereby concluded that newspapers in the north fail as commercial ventures because they refused to identify the aspiration of their target audience and then work towards satisfying those aspirations. The Trust group is now successful because it has identified its target audience and it is doing very well to satisfy them therefore even those it made its opponents in the north have to patronize it. Just like how the lazy governor of Kano who has been patronizing Newswatch, Tell and other junk papers because naively he thinks he will be free from their scathing criticisms and evil propaganda.

(Being a paper presented at Graduate Seminar Centre for Journalism Studies Wales)

Feb 2002