I began a foray into this topic last week but space in the 12-page print medium failed to allow me end it appropriately. I was touched by cheap grandstanding being exhibited by publicists of Imo State Government, to consider who NOBEL laureate, Wole Soyinka should be included” in the Republic of Liars”.
My initial thoughts focused on who deserves a space in the commity of liars, according to Professor Wole Soyinka. According to the literary icon, one of his latest adversaries in the struggle for the leadership of a UNESCO project in Osun State and a former governor, Olagunsoye Oyilonla, should have a place in the new literary work he is moulding for public consumption.
I tried to bring the Osun State scenario back home and attempted to ask who Soyinka should include in the “ Colony of Liars” if the sheer display of error-afflicted responses from media managers of the Imo state government, are anything to reckon with.
The crux of the matter was that Trumpeta and some likely media channels had in recent previous editions suggested that civil servants in Imo State are likely to forfeit their May and June salaries if the policy of payment of July, August and September salaries by the state government are considered.
Trumpeta and others who used the story pointed the Imo State House of Assembly Service Commission, as a case study. The commission who is in charge of workers of the Imo State House of Assembly were the first set of workers to receive their salary arrears from the state government when the bailout from the Federal Government was received. Instead of getting full pay, the two months of May and June were omitted, warranting this newspaper to come out with the news.
However, the accompanying release, that is supposed to act as a rejoinder to the story, instead of addressing the issues raised appeared more to be an ethical misadventure on the part of government mouth piece who came out with a statement suspected to have been authored by a media quack not worthy enough to be the governor’s spokesman. In an attempt to employ innuendo to ridicule the media houses that carried the story, the official in his usual characteristics of insulting the sensibilities of people of Imo State and the general public, through suspected quackery, dished out half baked truths. Apart from failure to prove that Imo State House of Assembly Commission workers did not receive May and June salaries after getting that of July, August and September, how can the person now reconcile the claim about nonpayment of parastatals` workers when Trumpeta said that there would be no pay for them until there establishments are privatized? Today, the same organ he used as a purveyor of falsehood was also employed to inform the public that the parastatals have been offered for “concession” by Okorocha without mentioning the critical aspect of nonpayment of their salary arrears, ranging from eight to fifteen months. With the latest developments, who between the medium and the spokesman should be included in the upcoming Soyinka’s “Republic of Liars”? The sojourn to voyage of falsehood contained in the counter release of the government spokesperson unarguably regaled his usual primordial tendencies and primitive inclination of displaying his avowed hatred for the medium, which he gleefully showcases at any given chance. Instead of either reconfirming or refuting the Trumpeta story with respect to the issues relied upon, the PR misfit laboured in vain to show antics of a demagogue in the media industry as his watery defence only expressed a distasteful ad hominem piece, meant to deride the newspaper and its Publishers.
After Trumpeta’s repeated unshaken stand on the earlier content of the news, the originator of the scary rejoinder was expected to have jumped out again to back his jaundiced claims with facts since newsmen and to a large extent lawyers believe in the common Latin denominator of “Rex Ipsa Loquitur, “meaning the facts speak for itself”.
Even as those in charge of laundering governor Okorocha’s image, proudly call his witch doctors are expected to redefine their tactical maneuvers and approaches in managing his PR., the era of tendentious statements and misleading releases to hypnotise the populace in swallowing hook, lime and sinker anything from Douglas House as Government House, Owerri, is fondly called has gone, because the populace are becoming wiser and no longer cajoled by “My people My people” mantra or the talisman of free education Granted, Okorocha was railroad into power through the popular will of the masses who it was believed expressed lethargy for his predecessor, abuse of such privileges and the fading popularity of the governor which has exposed him to public challenge should not be underrated by his image launderers.
It is not in the character of Trumpeta to join issues with a nondescript in the governor’s information unit, who can also be classified as a bugaboo in the pen pushing sector. But the malodorous venom oozing from his quarter any time the official feels his principal’s image has been dainted, speaks volumes of his pseudo media chicanery label. I am aware that the figure who dishes out the unsavory press releases is merely a victim of a dysfunctional PR ideology encased in the abrasive Rescue Mission pattern of “cut and sow” brand of governance. His approach to media relations smacks of nothing less than a shameful exit from the real tenets and guide to PR practice, if his styles are subjected to any form of analytical experiment.
Irrespective of their wishy-washy rejoinders, Trumpeta cannot be distracted from upholding the very tenets needed for responsible journalism. The editorial team of the newspaper which I am part of has discovered a dangerous trend that is eating deep into the fabrics of the local media industry where some hitherto public oriented information outlets have dangerously transformed into government mouth piece for the sake of the little crumbs from the master’s table. I am not surprised that this newspaper while reviewing the said government bilious reaction noted that some have now transcended “from clapping to Jesus to clapping to Owelle”.
This disturbing development cannot stop Trumpeta from failing to uphold the highest standard of editorial integrity, quality news, and information and to give voice and enlightenment to the unheard in the society in line with its avowed creed of “Voice of the People “
