All over the world, the media exercise serious control over the politics of any country. And many a time, what the media do is to weave perception into reality. That's part of media control. In real politics, perception is most likely to be taken as reality. Even a lot of the well-read in more advanced climes fall for this trick.
This brings us to the emerging trend the Nigerian media have begun weaving about President Buhari since he began to make some key appointments. It does not look too good especially when one considers the longer implications.
Before we proceed, let us cast our minds back to the gigantic efforts it took some of us to change the negative perception the Nigerian media weaved about General Buhari for almost three decades before his dramatic ascension to power again.
It was not a small re-branding campaign. Only those who know will understand and appreciate what we’re saying here. It's easy to downplay it as some folks have started doing. When it's time again, we need to remind these folks!
President Buhari was seen as a religious zealot, ethnic jingoist, a parochial northern irredentist and many other sad metaphors. And all these were largely believable by the Nigerian voting public until a surgical re-branding was done on the People's General to become what he's today.
It's saddening today to know that while he's yet to settle into his presidency substantially, the same media that played a significant role in installing him have started calling him an ethnic jingoist, either directly or by inference.
Few days ago, what started on the Social Media, majorly by the people that never wanted Buhari as president, and some genuine supporters of the president, about the seeming lopsidedness in the appointments made so far by the president, was given coverage by the Punch newspaper (“Appointments: Uproars as Buhari Favours Northerners”, July 4, 2015). Punch basically echoed the popular sentiments on the social media. Earlier, Sun newspaper had run a news report of how northerners are scheming to take over NNPC (“North Set to Take Over NNPC”, The Sun, June 29, 2015).
This may be perception which is no reality but a lot of Nigerians believe it's real. And that is worrying to us. Personally, we believe these sensational news headlines are unfair to Buhari, but we don’t know these newspapers for frivolities, especially Punch, which appeared to be the most professional and probably most unbiased – or should we say, friendly to Buhari - of all the South-based newspapers, during the last electioneering period. Hence, we take these reports seriously, and we want the President to do too.
A good number of the people that use Social Media, especially Twitter and Facebook, are enlightened enough to know what to take from reports, but the issue is, from experience, the millions of probably semi-literate “newspaper stands analysts”, once they form their opinion based on what news headlines say, are difficult to see every other move of a leader beyond ethnic prism.
To be frank, if we were in the shoes of the president, we would not appoint a Daura as replacement for an Ekpeyong. There are some moves that no matter how sincerity-driven they are, are impolitic. We are not asking the president to be “politically correct” at the expense of good governance, but we believe there are ways to marry both. He doesn’t need to ask “how will people interpret?” before every step, but all we are saying is exercising some circumspection in some moves. Having nine of ten appointments so far as northerners, no matter how good intentioned one is, will invite uproar and negative press in a country like ours where ethnic and religious suspicion is rife. Buhari cannot afford not to give a damn.
We spent too much efforts and resources rebranding Buhari. This is why it is difficult for us to fold our arms and watch the new image go down in dirts – real or imagined - again.
This is the reality today. And the moment his media handlers realize this, the better. If the trend is not halted now, the negative name will tag along until he finishes his tenure. Whether he re-contests or not, it is sure going to affect the fortunes of the party.
Come to think of it, if there's any genuine polling that's done on the popularity of the president today, many will agree with us that it's fast waning than it was before he was elected. It's a sad reality. Only the President and his media handlers can correct this. Some of us social media believers in the Buhari project to change Nigeria, have never lost hope and are still doing our best on the social media. But they should please make our self-given roles easy.
If morning tells the day, it's not too early to reverse some of these obvious mistakes so as to restore the President's popularity. Some of us have the ability to see ahead of others. We don't know whether it's a gift or not, but it has a higher probability of happening eventually.
May the President succeed in correcting the numerous ills the PDP plunged this country into in the last 16 years!
Williams, a media practitioner, and Oyewale, a chartered accountant, are Facebook friends and firm believers in the New Nigeria that Buhari is the face of. They can be reached via [email protected] or [email protected]