There has been so much fuss about CNN Jeff Koinange’s acclaimed ‘staged’ report of MEND activities in the Niger-Delta and of the Niger-Delta crises. The Nigerian government out rightly condemned the report while the Nigerian press were simply disinterested in the outcry of the government.

In television nowadays most of the reports are not too far from staged programmes; from CNN’s reports of activities in Iraq, the Middle East and other places, to Al -Jazeera’s counter reports of CNN’s reports. What would you say of our NTA reports which are mostly almost always about numerous achievements of the Nigerian government and that of our politicians?

What we should be talking about here is how close Jeff Koinange’s report is to the realities in the Niger-Delta or how far it is from the truth. Does Koinange’s CNN report on the crises and the activities of MEND in the area a true reflection of what is going on?

Recently I was watching a blockbuster Hollywood movie called ‘Blood Diamond’ and what I asked myself was that, did these things really happened in Sierra Leone the way it was portrayed in the movie? Blood Diamond depicted the activities of rebels and the government and the soldiers of fortune during the Sierra Leonean civil war which cost thousands and thousands of lives and millions of dollars worth of Sierra Leonean Diamond through an illegal mining and illegal trade route which had its headquarter in heart of European diamond trade. I called my friend Osman Kana, a Sierra Leonean residing in Cyprus who was in his country during the war and we discussed the movie ‘Blood Diamond’, and one thing he told me was that the movie was so real it seems like some of the real life experiences out of Sierra Leone.

As a journalist Jeff Koinange is expected to report facts, but I guess journalism is changing fast that when there are facts but because of logistics or the danger it is okay to fabricate the facts through staging dramas. I have seen something like that on the History Channel and Discovery Channel documentaries. What’s the big deal about staging something similar to the truth anyway? CNN is redefining TV journalism.

The Nigerian government has still not done much in the Niger-Delta area or anywhere else considering the amount realized from the oil windfalls in the past eight years of Obasanjo’s regime. The state governments of the Niger-Delta area have not done up to the expectations of their people and most of the funds allocated for public infrastructures and developments have somehow found their ways into private bank accounts. The Niger-Delta kidnapping problems is still far away from being solved due to the inability of the Nigerian government to come up with a realistic programme to handle the issue and to bring real development to the Niger-Delta area because of dirty tribal, ethnic, cronyism, nepotism politics of putting incompetent people in charge of sensitive areas and all that. The most annoying thing is that with all the noise and amount spent by the Obasanjo administration on what it refers to as ‘Poverty Alleviation Programme,’ the reality of poverty in the Niger-Delta and the entire country is still alarmingly scary. And the regime does not tolerate criticism or observation from any other avenue, be it the press or the international communities.

My favourite columnist in Weekly Trust newspaper, Mr. Farouk A. Kperogi, in his famous column ‘Notes from Atlanta’ seemed affected by Anderson Cooper’s introduction of Jeff Koinange’s staged report aired on US domestic CNN where he introduced the Niger-Delta report as, “CNN’s Jeff Koinange takes us to the heart of darkness.” Racism is intrinsically Western because Western societies seem to encourage such prejudices and at the same time discourage them. From the beginning Westerners referred to any civilization they come in contact with as barbaric and the people barbarians, and from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to CNN reports of today nothing much has changed in the year 2007. But then if the Nigerian government had used all the wealth from the resources of this nation to develop the country and its people like Saudi Arabia, UAE, or even Libya, I doubt if any reporter would say something like that. We have exposed ourselves to ridicule and when we are made fun of we shout out racism.

Because the Western media of today always sell their citizenry the bad news from other places and misinform them about other people they have left their people in the dark. I rather live in the dark and know the light than live in the light and be an ignoramus. For these same reasons the tension between Moslems in Europe and the United States has risen over the years. And when you talk of being ignorant you would be surprise how people are really ignorant in the United States. I was watching MTV the other day and people, both youngsters and the elderly, on the street of Los Angeles, were being asked how many countries make up the United Kingdom, but out of the over ten people asked, none knew the answer. Some answered, “ London, France and Australia,” “ London, Paris, Oxford,” “ England, France… Scotland.”

A Nigerian friend of mine who lives in London was telling me recently that he was in the US recently and was appalled at the arrogant ignorance of the typical US citizen. I am not exaggerating that he said most people in the US do not even know that one needs an international passport and a visa to travel to other countries. He lodged in a five star hotel in Las Vegas and anytime he came in to pass to his room some white receptionist asked where he was going to as if he was not supposed to be there because he is black and had an accent or perhaps because of his skin colour. In a country with the third largest number of black people on earth one was still treated as if he was supposed to be poor and different because of his skin. These are the reality that is the United States.

George W. Bush, the current United State president, son of an ex-president and one of the wealthiest and most influential families in the US since the time of Rockefeller, two time governor of Texas, an international businessman, never travelled out of the US until he became the president of the US after Bill Clinton. So much for all the gaucheries and blunders of a statesman in his early years as president of the US because he has grown mature over the years (my friends do not seem to agree that he has grown at all). What do you expect from people who love their country so much they never travel out, and all they know about other places is what they see in Hollywood blockbusters and staged television programmes?

There would always be a Jeff Koinange to do the dirty job for the CNN of this world. He is black and reporting on his own. What a believable story! Sometimes it is better to get a white man to report Africa than a black-white man. But then Jeff Koinange ‘staged’ report is not far from the realities in the Niger-Delta and Nigeria as a whole; a story of a people so rich but completely impoverished by their shameless crass corrupt elites. Someone need to tell this story to the world whether staged or not. And maybe, just maybe, we should be giving credit to Jeff Koinange instead of condemning him. Koinange has lived among us and seen all the destitutions amidst so much wealth. I’d be pissed if I were him.

Robot  Villager

# 1 There has been so much fuss about CNN Jeff Koinange’s acclaimed ‘staged&...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 09.03.2007 16:18

Papino  Villager

# 2 That report was essentially revealing the hard realities of squalor at the backyard of the naturally endowned Niger Delta region.However,the basics of journalism was shoved in the air.Nobody saw the side of the story of the Nigerian government which would have at least given Jeff's report a kind of balanced character.He claimed to have waited for five days in futility with serious efforts to interview either the Information minister or the president after recording that report and none of them "had time"to see him.The rantings that came after the release erodes my attempts at who to believe. Like you explained above,the efforts of the Nigerian and Niger Delta governments are not good enough but CNN should have at least mentioned those "not-good-enough-efforts"other than giving the day to the sophisticated weapons wielding MEND boys that are yet to show how best to solve the problem.At least,we are yet to see a school/hospital built by MEND with the enormous ransom money paid eachtime they kidnapped oil workers.That would stand as an example to the governments on how best to attend to the obvious problems of the region. Unarguably,agro and aqua live is non-existent in that region because of the harzards culminating from the activicties of the oil exploring multi-national companies.Portable water is a luxury for a people sorruonded by water and the list can go on and in every sense of the word theirs is a genuine and urgent call for immediate action regardless of how one views it. Posted by Papino| 09.03.2007 19:14

Yankari  Villager

# 3 People should realise no one CNN, BBC or whoever will do our PR for us. Thats the precise reason the moslem world have set up aljazeera and france has set up, is it France 24, to give the world a french view of things! The foreign media serves their countrys interest first and foremost, why else does one US soldiers death in Iraq carry much more weight and newstime than 10 iraqis killed! One thing that struck me after 9/11 was how for serveral days CNN said they had no idea or estimate of how many people died. Eventually (after the yankie GOV, had set up its PR and spin Machinery in motion) they came up with a figure which they later revised down. Have you ever seen CNN anywhere else not having an opinion on the number dead? even a guestimate, from the sunami to religious riots in Kano where the whole place is unsafe and they have no man there they always seem to have numbers, yet in their own backyard they couldnt come up with a figure! Jeffs report might be staged biased and all of that , and we should shout injustice, but at the end of they day the governmet needs to take the niger delta seriously , begin to develop the place, then put a positive spin on it! Posted by Yankari| 10.03.2007 03:12

Forshow  Villager

# 4 look what is the probability that jeff meet this people.. The probability is less than 5%.. so that film na hook up's Thank you yankari... for making that point that no other country media can help us do it for us.. I have ask for $2 million dollar.. some people they shout.. What nonsense... I would do a better work than CNN.. I still tell the minister to give me $2 million.. ok, let consider it as investment... I would give them some % of the company.. if minister does not know nigerian have tried buying up one of america largest television network.. Nigerian own the major share of that television network for some month.. if I am accurate , that network had over 70 television station.. What the minister do not know that the web is the second largest media medium in the world.. and america govt pump money indirectly to google, msn, yahoo to control the world. It is a game of who get control first and american are ahead.. the minister need to join up in this mission.. we know all about the technology and even do the hosting and write the code and software ourself.. google, msn, yahoo are worth more than $100 billions.. which is 100 time the worth of NTA network.. Naija radio and Television can be recieve in over 190 countries, may be it is time for the minister to use the money on naija radio.. we would push listener to 10 million in less than 1 years and run world telephone company.. Serious radio brought another rival for $15billions. google brought youtube for $1.3billion, Ebay brought skype for $2.3 billion.. the minister can imagine what it would mean if a nigerian company is worth $26billion like google.. our people life would change.. It would also bring Nigerian in the media and art industry to the world.. Can the minister imagine how many billion it would be if American buy Nigeria film and music.. but you need to take over with technology, we would provider it.. Oga minister no be small money we pay go school.. na million for naija O.. joke.. Posted by Forshow| 10.03.2007 04:34