THE GUARDIAN: CONSCIENCE NUTURED BY ARROGANCE AND DECEIT
The lingering industrial dispute at the Guardian Newspapers Group in Nigeria is now a hot topic of discussion in enlightened international circles. Concerned professional Journalists all over the world have been posting enquiries to know the facts behind the current worker-management face-off.
When the Guardian Newspapers started out in the early 1980’s, it promised to be the active flagship of democratic ideals in the then Nigeria second republic nascent democracy. Powerful intellectuals like Dr. Stanley Macebuh, Dr. Olatunji Dare, Mr. Femi Kusa and Mr. Lade Bonuola amongst others were assembled as the driving engine towards the realizations of the set objectives.
However, it became very clear to many Nigerians shortly after the take-off of the promising enterprise that the financiers of the project, that is, the Ibru family, represented by Mr. Alex Ibru, desired more than a conscientious nurturing of the truth, they were immediately committed to the goal of subjugating and exploiting their fellow human beings. The management was sold the idea of discouraging any form and every form of workers and Journalists Unionization. The strategy that the Ibrus used for a long time was to make Lade Bonuola and others believe that they were co-owners of the enterprise and as such they should do everything possible to discourage “trouble makers” otherwise known as union leaders from “destroying” their source of daily bread. This style of divide and rule worked for a long time but in due course Macebuh, Bonuola, Kusa realized that they were mere managerial puns in the cunning proprietorial chess game of the Ibrus.
Journalists at the Guardian have been through a lot. Starting from the arrest, detention and subsequent imprisonment of Mr. Nduka Irabor and Mr. Tunde Thompson under the draconian Decree 4 of 1984 by General Muhammadu Buhari, the Ibrus never failed to demonstrate to Nigerians that they do not care for workers welfare but the milk from the cow-Money in form of questionable profit. It took the heroic intervention of Nigerians particularly students, the Labor Congress and elites like professor Wole Soyinka and co to secure freedom for the two prisoners of conscience. The owners of the Guardian pay little attention to issues of welfare and nurturing environment for hard working journalists. The larger Nigerian society especially political leaders and other professional class often take a cue from the example of contempt and disdain from the Ibru family. It is estimated that the Guardian Group net close to N4 Billion every year in profit, yet what it concedes on salaries and other forms of entitlement to Journalists is less than N100 Million. This is an unmitigated, unacceptable level of exploitation. For instance, the world renowned Journalism teacher and essayist who was for many years the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Guardian, Dr. Olatunji Dare once wrote in the defunct The Comet about the pitiable and laughable salary he was paid while with the Guardian. Apart from the monetary insult which was around N6, 000.00 per year, his life was also threatened for his principled defiance of the cabal that annulled the June 12 1993 Presidential elections. He subsequently left Nigeria.
The same military junta that visited unspeakable repression on Nigerian journalists would later appoint Mr. Alex Ibru as Minister of Internal Affairs. While serving in the same administration, the Guardian Newspapers was shut down by the same administration. It was an ample opportunity for Nigerians to see the true character of Ibru. As Minister of Internal Affairs, he was fully aware of the plight and suffering of the journalist while the organization was shut down. Ibru never resigned from the administration that shut down his company. As usual, it was of little concern that journalists would be hungry.
After Ibru left the Military administration at a near cost to his life, The Guardian was again thrown into another major labor crisis. In 1997, Gbolahan Gbadamosi backed by the Adams Oshiomole led Nigerian Labor Congress took on the management of The Guardian, demanding a more humane package of service for Journalists. The response was to embark on a mass purge of “the troublesome few.” Wale Adedayo was one of those sacked. The flimsy excuse for throwing him out of The Guardian was that he was using the company’s property to prepare a proposal for a rival news organization. Several international organizations mobilized world opinion against the decision of the management of The Guardian.
History has a way of repeating itself. It is de ja vu, traveling the same road by The Guardian again. Workers who have decided to be real men and women are being purged into hopelessness by the management and the publisher of The Guardian.
Pointblanknews.com believes that The Guardian has over these years deceived Nigerians into believing that it stands for the principles of democracy and labor democratization. We believe that it is gross injustice, moral hypocrisy and shameful insensitivity to sack striking workers who are making legitimate demands for fairness, better salary package and collective bargaining. We condemn every form of ambiguity and false process of restructuring as excuse for emasculating the genuine demands of the striking journalists at The Guardian.
Pointblanknews.com believes that the present tactics employed by the management of The Guardian negates the time proven aphorism from the Great Othman Dan Fodio of blessed memory who said “conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it” which has now been amplified by The Guardian as its motto: “Conscience Nurtured By Truth.”
We demand an end to the principle of use and dump, exploitations, disrespect for the person and dignity of Journalists and deceit often employed by not just The Guardian but all media owners in Nigeria.
Pointblanknews.com call on the Nigerian Press Council, National Human Rights Commission, the Nigerian Labor Congress, The Nigerian Union of Journalists and other relevant bodies to intervene on behalf of workers of the sinking flagship called The Guardian. It is time to allow conscience to be nurtured by the truth and not arrogance and deceit.