A guilty media

For the most part, Nigerians are responsible for all the woes they face as a nation and an attribute to blame for this is our inherent tendency to adjust to every situation and carry on with it like it was normal no matter how inconveniencing it is.

We are all guilty of this but even more guilty because of the strategic role they are supposed to play in ensuring that the common man whose voice at best can not reach beyond the dwarf walls of his home is heard and his needs addressed by a government that is obviously deaf, is the Nigerian media.

Currently, the nation suffers from the excruciating pain of fuel scarcity but nobody is talking about it. The crisis, which started in November last year, has obviously come to stay. The queues have become a normal sight around town especially at filling stations that are kind enough to sell at the official price of N65.00. The others who are in the majority fix whatever price they like and sell at what ever suits their various owners.

The result is that Nigerians have been left to go through unimaginable trouble to secure fuel and at equally outrageous amounts. This situation, which has lasted for months, doesn't seem to be getting anybody's attention, certainly not from the NNPC who have consistently played the blame nor the marketers who have conveniently used the NNPC as an excuse.

While ordinary Nigerians have simply adjusted to the situation, accepting it as another symptom of our bad luck, cursing silently under their breaths and perhaps praying more fervently for financial breakthroughs from the all-generous God, it is baffling to note that the Nigeria Media has also been silent.

Aside the reports last year during the early days of the crisis, all our news houses seem to have gone both deaf and dumb on this issue presenting a scenario I consider a conspiracy of silence and a colossal failure in their responsibility. The front pages of our dailies are devoted to gossip, the date of return of President Yar'Adua being popular of late.

The electronic media reports on the daughter of some rich man marrying or of another rich man burying his mother.
It is this tendency to close our eyes and get used to the problem that has perpetuated our suffering all these years. We cannot continue to live at the mercy of situations we can change.

We must stop wishing for change, treating the word as something that comes out only from Obama's mouth. We must act the change and this begins with speaking out loudly against it over and over until the government is moved whether by shame or sense of responsibility to do what they ought to do to make things right.

The Nigerian media both print and electronic must wake up to their responsibilities. The fuel crises mentioned above is only an example. Daily our children are enslaved, women are trafficked, fake drugs are returning, murders remain unsolved, public funds are looted; infrastructure collapses and our people are groaning; yet none of this is in the news.

The fuel crisis provides a good point for action. The evidence is everywhere: the long queues, the wasted man-hours, the long gloomy faces, our lean pockets. We can't let this be. We must shout till we lose our voice and the media must lead this effort.