According to Othman Dan Fodio, “truth is an open wound which only truth can heal.” Fodio was a renowned fulani scholar,Islamic religious teacher, poet, revolutionary, and philosopher who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.
His quote: ” conscience is an open wound which only truth can heal,” emphasizes the importance of honesty and integrity in healing moral wounds. He believed that when one strays from the truth, one’s conscience suffers, and that only by embracing the truth can one find healing and peace of mind.
Fodio, as a leader, advocated for justice, honesty, and modesty – he criticized corruption and oppressive tendencies. His teachings remain a positive reference point and guiding principles in many vocations – including journalism.
As a noble and dignifying profession all over the world, journalism requires truthfulness, honesty,modesty,and selflessness for the practitioner to excel. It is unarguable that there can be no democracy without true journalism or a free press with integrity.
Ideal Journalism practice drives any democratic principle and is derivable from Fodio’s ideology of truth and honesty. That is why the press is generally regarded as the “fourth estate of the realm and conscience of the society.” Because of the importance of the press to democratic governance,it has become imperative to ensure that the profession is not polluted by those who either do not know what journalism entails by seeking the truth or those who erroneously believe that it is an all comers affair.
Regrettably, quacks bereft of the ethics of the noble profession,have of late, tended to abuse the sanctity of the journalism profession. These days, many without any formal training or orientation pose as journalists to either defraud or manipulate unsuspecting members of the public – thus rubbishing the ethical demands of truthfulness, honesty, modesty and integrity.
This ugly scenario has become more alarming since the advent of social media. These days, anybody who has an android phone or who has access to data automatically metamorphoses into a self-made journalist.
Embarrassingly, this group of untrained “citizen journalists” portray the journalism profession in bad light, ridicule the trained and professional practitioners, and give the profession unpalatable image. This is against the ideal principles Fodio enunciated.
Nigerian Horn is of the firm view that both the Nigeria Union Union of Journalists(NUJ)and the Nigeria Press Council(NPC) should wake up to their responsibilities and rid the journalism profession of quacks. Quackery in any profession is highly distasteful and reprehensible. It is like a pariah no one wants to associate or be identified with.
Allowing quacks to infiltrate the journalism profession in Nigeria is a threat to our democracy. This is because the essence of the press in a democracy is to serve the public good and hold those in public offices accountable.
In a democracy, the journalism practice is also self regulated. There are ethics and code of conduct, which all trained journalists abide to. Unfortunately, citizen journalists, who are gatecrashers into the profession without any requisite training or journalist background, have brought nothing but disrepute to this dignifying profession – this has to stop now.
Nigerian Horn demands an end to the bastardization of the journalism profession in the interest of Nigeria’s fledging democracy. The noble ideologies of our forefathers like Othman Dan Fodio must not be allowed to be abused.
