Between the Media and Oil
-By Mahmud Jega
The petroleum industry is Nigeria’s economic lifeline in the modern day, the source of most government revenue and foreign exchange earnings while the mass media is central to the country’s democratic health, national discourse and agenda setting. You would think that the two have found healthy areas of interaction. But no; not from the rich perspective of major oil industry players and media experts.
Valuechain Magazine’s Third Annual Lecture and Awards, which took place at Abuja’s Fraser Suites on October 12, brought the two key national elements into a rare sharp focus. The event’s theme was ‘‘Role of Media in Nigerian Petroleum Sector Reform and Investment.’ Top oil industry players were there, including the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timpre Sylva’s representative, Garbadeen Mohammed, NNPC Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari and all the corporation’s top management. The media too, was there in force, with key industry players from print, electronic and social media as well as corporate information managers.
It was an ideal occasion to examine the interaction of these two major national sectors. Dr. Omar Faruk Ibrahim, who delivered the key paper, has his legs firmly in both sectors. He is currently Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers’ Association, former spokesman of both NNPC and OPEC, and once a controller in Daily Times and Managing Director of New Nigerian Newspapers.
No expert or industry place at the event thought the interaction of media and oil in Nigeria is optimal. Valuechain Magazine’s publisher Musa Bashir Usman readily acknowledged that the media has underperformed in its role of bridging the information gap in the petroleum sector and holding government and stakeholders accountable. A key indicator of this failure, pointed out by both Ibrahim and NNPC boss Kyari, is the Petroleum Industry Bill [PIB] that has languished in Nigerian parliaments for two decades. This only happened because of inadequate public awareness of the bill’s importance, Ibrahim said, which would have brought public pressure to bear of legislators for the bill’s quick passage. Lack of adequate public awareness, on the other hand, was attributed to the media’s failings. In turn, Dr Ibrahim blamed this on the Nigerian media’s shortcomings, not the least among them being improper knowledge and education about the complex energy industry by reporters and editors charged with covering it.
Sure there are other factors beyond the control of either the media or the oil industry that have a bearing on this situation. Ibrahim listed several of them, which include presence of a legal and political order in the polity that protects and supports journalists; minimum professional standard for the practice of journalism; and unavailability of tools, equipment, human capital and funds for the professional practice of journalism.
One can argue that the legal and political order in Nigeria, while more conducive to journalism practice than it is in most other African countries, is not yet ideal. Freedom of Information Act, for example, is still observed in the breach by most public officers and institutions. But this is a work in progress; it should steadily improve over time.
Professional standards is also a problem. Nigerian journalism is infested with quacks. The government-established Nigeria Press Organisation has been stymied in its policing work by the hostility of media proprietors and practitioners. In its place there is supposed to be self-regulation, which frequently fails, especially in the recently arrived social media space. As to adequate tools and funds for media practice, this is probably tied to the parlous state of the national economy. Too many media outlets fail to pay salaries to journalists their other workers, for example.
What is the way out? The most interesting suggestion to come out of the event was Dr. Ibrahim’s idea of a specialised fund for the training of energy journalists, fashioned after Petroleum Technology Development Fund [PTDF] or Industrial Training Fund, ITF. He drew richly from the experience of NPO with respect to its funding and management. It should be funded by government agencies, oil industry players and media houses, he suggested, according to a mutually agreed formula which should also be built into PIB. And government should not appoint its head, one of the biggest objections to NPO by media practitioners.
Training alone may not solve all the problems of media/oil industry interaction. GMD Kyari said at the event that some of the media coverage of NNPC’s activities “leaves one with mixed feelings.” Some of the representations the NNPC in the media “were not reflective of the real issues,” he said. He added that “greater engagements could have led to appropriate clarity.” Maybe they could, but in an industry bristling with money, powerful players and not a little internal greed and mischief, even education will not be able to combat all the sponsored mischief and deliberate misrepresentation fuelled by vested interest. But it is a good start.
