Following the recent death of the Guardian Publisher Mr. Alex Ibru, there was a mushrooming of appreciation for the kind of discursive and intellectual journalism created by the newspaper he bankrolled. Famed essayist the not so pseudonymous Tatalo Alamu described as a cultural renaissance the meeting of town and gown, as well as the straddling of the Ivory tower and the newsroom which are distinguished hallmarks of this kind of journalism. And this brings us to a discussion of the media as an alternative university and a fertilizing ground for policy relevant and informative ideas.Professor Fred Omu famously described the colonial press as 'the most distinguished intellectual forum in Nigerian history' underscoring the rudimentary scholarly origins of the media and their conversion into a training ground for the emerging intellectual class. If you assumed that the colonial press was all agitation and propaganda bereft of cultivated thought, you are widely off the mark. At the turn of the last century, the Lagos Standard representing the emergent gentry of colonial Lagos lamented in an editorial that the youth of those times were growing up without 'the sober joys of intellectual research, literary improvement, profitable debate and informed thought and opinion' suggesting that it was a quality paper that lent to anti-colonial agitation an intellectual verve. Go on from that point to recall the belle lettres and accomplished prose of star journalists such as Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Mokwugu Okoye ,Nnamdi Azikiwe ,Babatunde Jose, Abiodun Aloba, Bisi Onabanjo, among others and you will begin to appreciate that in a sense, Nigerian journalism began as a fairly intellectual vocation . The interesting thing about what you may call the old school of Nigerian journalism is that it was populated by professionals and freelancers who did not boast high sounding academic degrees but nonetheless attained mastery of the English Language to a level comparable to those available in some of the best newspapers in England. Recall in this regard the biting satire of Alade Odunewu described famously by Zik as 'the Dean of Satirical Journalism' in Nigeria ;the wit and mocking tenor of Peter Enahoro ;the barbs and pungent humour of Bisi Onabanjo (Ayekoto) and you will marvel at the comprehensiveness and depth of the informal education which this men of letters received. For anyone in doubt of the thoroughness of that generation of journalists, a reading of Babatunde Jos's magnificent book :Walking A Tight Rope: Power Play at the Daily Times will dispel the fog. I had the opportunity to be exposed to this generation of intellectuals in the mid 90s when the late Professor Femi Sonaike and myself were assigned by the Daily Times to edit a book to commemorate Alhaji Babatunde Jose's 70th birthday. Sonaike and I were the only academics who contributed chapters to the book but you will hardly notice or perhaps you would for academics tend to write in a fairly turgid style; both of us had a lot to learn from the virtuoso and display of literary mastery of the other contributors such as Peter Enaharo, Segun Osoba, and Felix Adenaike. The book itself was strikingly titled Jose: The Ideas Man in appreciation of the intellectual stature of the media mogul.The point I had been labouring to make is that although The Guardian is justly credited with blazing a trail in high brow journalism, the profession had well before its debut harbouring generations of intellectuals and writers who although were not self consciously eggheads, educated the nation as much by the substance of their writings as by an elegant prose style. The Daily Times produced many star journalists who contributed seminally to the development of the profession and here names like Gbolabo Ogunsanwo , Tola Adeniyi, Lade Bonuola, Areoye Oyebola, Sam Amuka, Doyin Abiola, Frank Aigboje, among others come to mind. Interestingly, it was from the Daily Times that Stanley Macebuh, Patrick Dele Cole, Lade Bonuola, Femi Kusa, Amma Ogan and others went on to become pioneer staff at The Guardian hence pointing to continuity of the intellectual character of journalism as it evolved over the years. True, our public and media culture is not as philosophical as you will find in a country like France where journalism is often a breeding ground for eminent writers and philosophers; indeed as is well known, the French tradition of the public intellectual boast of names such as Albert Camus who had a distinguished stint as a newspaper editor, Bernard-Henri Levi, as well as Jean Francois Revel all of whom are well known philosophers and journalists. Similarly, the French public culture was enriched by the journalistic writings of eminent social theorists such as Raymond Aron who brought his intellect into the market place in order to educate the nation. In general, the journalist as social theorist or distinguished writer, is a tradition associated more with continental Europe than is the case in many countries around the world. Howerver, programmes such as writers-in-residence now exist in many countries as a way of leveraging on the intellectual and literary underpinnings of the journalism career. It should be noted that in the contemporary period many Nigerian journalists such as Odia Ofeimun, Kunle Ajibade, Reuben Abati, and Mohammed Haruna have regalingly carried forward the intellectual legacy of the journalistic profession while academics and writers such as Olatunji Dare,Adebayo Williams,Olu Obafemi, Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare and others have deepened the Nigerian configuration of the public intellectual through their incisive opinion columnsWhat then is the future of the educational role of the media and the tradition of the public intellectual' Like most things in Nigeria decline and devaluation has set in to the extent that although many journalists now parade several academic degrees, they probably are not as informative or as readable as was the case a decade or so ago. In the same vein, fewer and fewer academics are venturing into public debate indicating that the older tribe of public minded academics are not being replenished. What needs to be done to revitalise the public sphere is to narrow rather than widen the gap between the academy and the stratum of intellectual minded journalists by for example as is the practice in other countries creating opportunities for star journalists to take part in the training of mass communicators in our universities. Additionally, the journalism schools should be retooled in such a way that they can genuinely midwife a new generation of public intellectuals.Text only to:07055841236.
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