What has not been said in the last 24 hours about the viral video which showed Ex-Minister Femi Fani-Kayode lambasting the Daily Trust Correspondent in Calabar, Eyo Charles, who dared to ask him how his current tour of projects in Cross River State and other parts of Southern Nigeria was being funded?
The offending word used by the reporter was ‘bankrolling’, obviously. Daily Trust, the employers of the journalist said on Twitter that their man asked: ‘Who is bankrolling the tour?’
The Ex-Minister claims on his own handle that the reporter said: ‘Well we do not know who is bankrolling you’, which he insists is not a question but an assertion.
Some of us have had to check the dictionaries again to find out if there is a difference between the words ‘bankrolling’, ‘funding’ and ‘paying for’ or if ‘bankrolling’ has a negative connotation.
Somehow in the video making the round, most people have not even seen the part where the gentleman asked the question. The beginning of the now popular video shows Mr. Ex-Minister saying: ‘What type of stupid question is that?’ Whereas, he then goes to say on Twitter that it was not a question. Who is confused here or who is trying to confuse us?
Secondly, in one breadth he said ‘I don’t often get annoyed’. In another breadth he says, ‘I have a short fuse’. Getting more confusing, right?
But, that was how the fight began, according to our people, although it was a one-man rant against the hapless journalist who looked confused and even scared, from what one could see from the side view and he even confirmed later that he apologized to the big oga for making him angry.
Fani-Kayode harangues journalist for "bankrolling" question pic.twitter.com/Gi5b9TCLcv
— Daily Trust (@daily_trust) August 25, 2020
The video is there for everyone to see. If the purpose of the press conference was to let the world know how well the projects have been constructed or how fine the state government is doing or if it was to brush up his own image in preparation for something in future, then that purpose was definitely not achieved. The video showed a man who was not and cannot be in control of situations when riled. And he said it himself.
Some of the comments by several people also condemned the journalist for asking a rude or inappropriate question. The impression some of the commentators have given is that if a reporter knows that a man he is interviewing has a short fuse, they should handle him with kid gloves. I beg to differ. This position is untenable and against all known journalistic training that some of us received years ago. In fact, such an interview or press conference subject should be a delight to an interviewer who is really prepared, knows his onions and wishes to receive newsy answers to his questions. It is not the duty of the reporter to pamper anybody, especially a public figure who is expected to provide answers to enable the public know what is happening in their country. Unfortunately, our journalism has not been practiced in the way we expect from the Fourth Estate of the Realm which is supposed to be the conscience of the people so many journalists are treated with disdain.
So, our Ex-Minister has a short fuse; because of his inability to control his temper, everyone should make allowance for him? Nothing we won’t see in Nigeria. Instead of such a person to be embarrassed and apologetic, we are to condone and even harbour his inadequacies!
A school of thought believes that journalists have no business making interviewees happy with nice questions. They are there to ask questions, even embarrassing ones, to get answers, no matter whether you consider the question immaterial or imprudent and they don’t have to be diplomatic about it. Diplomacy may help some people but I repeat that it is not the reporter’s duty to pamper his subject or massage his ego. And especially not over-bloated ones!
Throughout our Ex-Minister’s diatribe, all the colleagues of our friend the journalist just sat there. No support. No nothing. And their colleague was being verbally assaulted.
And do you know that this press conference did not take place yesterday or Monday or even the weekend? It took place last week in Calabar and we are only just knowing about it because the video surfaced, otherwise it would have gone unnoticed. Can you imagine that some reporters would have written all that the Ex-Minister cum lawyer said with nothing about the outburst? Their report will be only on the man – what we call ‘he said, he said’ journalism.
If it was just the insults and the branding of the reporter as ‘stupid’ that featured in the ‘fight’, we may be tempted to say the ‘big man’ only used harsh words. But that was not the whole thing. He publicly accused the journalist of taking bribe or ‘Brown Envelope’. If that is not defamation of character, then what is? As a lawyer which he openly said he is on the video, he should know what is actionable because that is a serious accusation.
The reporter has formally told his own side of the story. It does not look different from what we can see in the video. He said he started by saying, “Sir, please you did not disclose to us who is bankrolling you…..” and the big man “did not allow me to land with the question when he threw caution to the wind and shouted at me, and said the press briefing was over”.
His employers at the Daily Trust newspapers say they stand by their man, saying the Ex-Minister’s actions “are not only reprehensible, but also constitute a setback to press freedom, in a most dire form. This kind of assault raises major concerns over the safety of journalists in Nigeria”.
The Nigerian Union of Journalists was furious in its response signed by the President, Mr. Chris Isiguzo, who said the ‘NUJ condemns the gangster-like outburst’ by the Ex-Minister.
I hear that the Ex-Minister cum lawyer has ‘apologised’ after learning from advisers and is therefore withdrawing the use of the word ‘stupid’. But the ‘apology’ does not look like it is directed at the reporter whom he verbally assaulted but to our Ex-Minister’s friends in the media whom he has wronged by losing his cool. Very cool, isn’t it?
But this in Nigeria. This will blow over quickly. When the ex-Minister gets to another State, they will call another press conference. Like Mumus, all the reporters, genuine and quacks, will head to the venue, forgetting what transpired in Calabar on Thursday, 20th August, 2020, a day that has now been immortalized with T-Shirts bearing the legends, ‘Who is Bankrolling You’ and ‘I have a Short Fuse’.
Hmmmm the journalist should have used appropriate language to achieve the same result, however,the Ex-Minister should be mature to respond such questions from anybody.