Nigeria: Sijuade's loss of fight and media's reputation question
August 12 2015. By Abi Giwa
Gov. Rauf Aregbesola, Adetokunbo Sijuade and traditional chiefs at the media briefing (Courtesy: Premium Times)
Oba Okunade Sijuade, Ooni of Ife, has lost the fight, the un-winnable fight for life, news report in the Nigeria's Premium Times revealed on Monday. The King's palace chiefs have confirmed the worst that is usually the end of every mortal. The information also said that one of the chiefs, whose responsibility it is to break the news will officially proclaim it on Wednesday, between 10:00 am and 04:00 pm.
But on Wednesday, it was the son of the King, Adetokunbo Sijuade, who announced his father's loss of the fight and he said the body will arrive Nigeria on Thursday, against earlier media reports that the body had arrived the country under the cover of darkness, preserved with traditional means and being moved one ritual ground to another for rites, within the palace. Almost two weeks after the report, it has now just been announced that the body has not arrived in the country.
The Monday's announcement by the palace chiefs ended the hide and seek game between a section of the Nigerian media and Ife natives over the issue of tradition, when to announce the end of a King's life and when not to. It should also remind professional journalists the importance of the profession's code of conduct, which is there to guide the real professionals and how it has crushed in the reporting of Sijuade's last fight. Adetokunbo's announcement would make some of the reporters who wrote some of the stinking reports to hide in shame.
The Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ, in its code of conduct enjoined its members to seek the truth and report it with courage and accuracy. Rumors and un authoritative hearsay used as leaks isn't journalism. The SPJ code also say among other things for professionals to avoid stereotyping and to examine the ways values and how experiences may shape their reporting.
The disagreement in Nigeria over how the media has reported the demise of Oba Sijuade cannot be swept under the carpet. It needs to be examined to see where the reporting was wrong to help in the experience and values to shape future reporting. Respect for the culture is still important among African people, just like it is among the educated and well informed people in civilized world.
The first report about the King's demise was a Breaking News. It gave details about how the King had fallen ill as the beginning of his fight for life. The report said that the fight ended in a London Hospital and that the that King may have lost the fight. But the word 'died' used in the report angered Ife people; prompted the chiefs who denied the report, because according to them, the King was still alive and hearty and that in Yorubaland a King never dies.
Then the debate began over whether or not the King was alive or had lost the fight for life. Reports began to be published by a section of the media without strong attribution or confirmation, all in effort to prove that the first report was right. Along the line, the Ife tradition was brought into a sort of ridicule in comparison to the modern times. The worst tragedy to the Nigerian media was incorrect reports that the Kings body was smuggled into the country under the cover of darkness and that the body was being preserved with traditional means in a palace where there is no morgue.
In effect, it was like some people were saying there are other traditions that are better than the Ife tradition and using every means in news reports to strengthen their position. Along the way, some people who said they are journalists began to insert their own life history into the story, because they said they were born in Ife and knew about the recesses of the palace, etcetera. But that was not the argument at stake. This reporter also had lived in Ife and he knew all the recesses of the palace.
Telling the story of one's life in Ife and how one had played around the recesses of the palace was not the issue at stake, but how a section of the media seemed to have rubbished the Ife tradition, and the need at that point to establish the truth. One began to think that if the New York Times or London Mail had continued with the publications about the King's demise; speculations about its truth and otherwise, one would have forgiven them. But not by a section of the media in a country, where the culture is still held in very high esteem, as it has been witnessed argued for the rejection of the same sex marriage.
Not to forget, The King in context, Oba Okunade Sijuade will live forever in the mind of his subjects, and all who know him. My memory of him as a child before he became a King was that anytime his white Mercedes Benz car cruised into the city, the horn blared, "Asese be re Aiye jije" - meaning we have just started enjoying life. Ever since, he had won so many fights and became a King. As a King, I knew he was humble and accessible.
However, there is nothing that has a beginning that will not have an end, whether for the rich or the poor. There is reality in the words of those who say human life is a line of revolving fights and that everyone will lose the last fight - the fight to live against the allotted time to leave the mortal world. The world had witnessed both old and young, rich and poor lost that fight, just like Oba Sijuade recently did.
Ile-Ife - the city of my birth, where I learnt it is customary to greet people in the morning and ask if they wake up well, and the reason the city is called 'the land of good morning, did you wake well?' - "Ile karo ojire", is once more enveloped with mourning. Rest assured that the elders charged with responsibility of choosing a new king are imbued with wisdom that make them to always arrive at a choice of a new King, appropriate for the city and a new beginning.
But on Wednesday, it was the son of the King, Adetokunbo Sijuade, who announced his father's loss of the fight and he said the body will arrive Nigeria on Thursday, against earlier media reports that the body had arrived the country under the cover of darkness, preserved with traditional means and being moved one ritual ground to another for rites, within the palace. Almost two weeks after the report, it has now just been announced that the body has not arrived in the country.
The Monday's announcement by the palace chiefs ended the hide and seek game between a section of the Nigerian media and Ife natives over the issue of tradition, when to announce the end of a King's life and when not to. It should also remind professional journalists the importance of the profession's code of conduct, which is there to guide the real professionals and how it has crushed in the reporting of Sijuade's last fight. Adetokunbo's announcement would make some of the reporters who wrote some of the stinking reports to hide in shame.
The Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ, in its code of conduct enjoined its members to seek the truth and report it with courage and accuracy. Rumors and un authoritative hearsay used as leaks isn't journalism. The SPJ code also say among other things for professionals to avoid stereotyping and to examine the ways values and how experiences may shape their reporting.
The disagreement in Nigeria over how the media has reported the demise of Oba Sijuade cannot be swept under the carpet. It needs to be examined to see where the reporting was wrong to help in the experience and values to shape future reporting. Respect for the culture is still important among African people, just like it is among the educated and well informed people in civilized world.
The first report about the King's demise was a Breaking News. It gave details about how the King had fallen ill as the beginning of his fight for life. The report said that the fight ended in a London Hospital and that the that King may have lost the fight. But the word 'died' used in the report angered Ife people; prompted the chiefs who denied the report, because according to them, the King was still alive and hearty and that in Yorubaland a King never dies.
Then the debate began over whether or not the King was alive or had lost the fight for life. Reports began to be published by a section of the media without strong attribution or confirmation, all in effort to prove that the first report was right. Along the line, the Ife tradition was brought into a sort of ridicule in comparison to the modern times. The worst tragedy to the Nigerian media was incorrect reports that the Kings body was smuggled into the country under the cover of darkness and that the body was being preserved with traditional means in a palace where there is no morgue.
In effect, it was like some people were saying there are other traditions that are better than the Ife tradition and using every means in news reports to strengthen their position. Along the way, some people who said they are journalists began to insert their own life history into the story, because they said they were born in Ife and knew about the recesses of the palace, etcetera. But that was not the argument at stake. This reporter also had lived in Ife and he knew all the recesses of the palace.
Telling the story of one's life in Ife and how one had played around the recesses of the palace was not the issue at stake, but how a section of the media seemed to have rubbished the Ife tradition, and the need at that point to establish the truth. One began to think that if the New York Times or London Mail had continued with the publications about the King's demise; speculations about its truth and otherwise, one would have forgiven them. But not by a section of the media in a country, where the culture is still held in very high esteem, as it has been witnessed argued for the rejection of the same sex marriage.
Not to forget, The King in context, Oba Okunade Sijuade will live forever in the mind of his subjects, and all who know him. My memory of him as a child before he became a King was that anytime his white Mercedes Benz car cruised into the city, the horn blared, "Asese be re Aiye jije" - meaning we have just started enjoying life. Ever since, he had won so many fights and became a King. As a King, I knew he was humble and accessible.
However, there is nothing that has a beginning that will not have an end, whether for the rich or the poor. There is reality in the words of those who say human life is a line of revolving fights and that everyone will lose the last fight - the fight to live against the allotted time to leave the mortal world. The world had witnessed both old and young, rich and poor lost that fight, just like Oba Sijuade recently did.
Ile-Ife - the city of my birth, where I learnt it is customary to greet people in the morning and ask if they wake up well, and the reason the city is called 'the land of good morning, did you wake well?' - "Ile karo ojire", is once more enveloped with mourning. Rest assured that the elders charged with responsibility of choosing a new king are imbued with wisdom that make them to always arrive at a choice of a new King, appropriate for the city and a new beginning.
