Funmi Iyanda

I encountered him at a recent trip to the airport to pick up a post Accra vacation Shrimp. Very agitated as he walked into the throng at the arrival lounge, he broke free and made a beeline for me. Funmi right? Yes right. Look Funmi, people listen to you and you have got to do something about all these people who paint Nigeria bad outside of Nigeria. They ruin all our work (he owns a tours and travel coy). What happened l asked as my eyes continue to search the crowd whilst my mind sighed at this unofficial ombudsman thing. I just came from SA he continues and there was this stupid Nigerian on SABC who was saying bad things about Nigeria, people like him should not be allowed on TV and countries whose stations air them should be sanctioned by Nigeria! I smiled inwardly at yet another expression at our militarization, then explained why that approach would be puerile as l caught a glimpse of an energy force hustling towards the door. The Shrimp was here.

I remembered him a few days later when l read a newspaper report that the Nigerian government is planning to ban or sanction foreign news media and TV channels who air bad stories about Nigeria and consider severing some levels of relationship with countries where such emanate. I laughed as l was clear in my mind that someone out there was just exercising his or her vocal cords in the presence of a friendly journalist. The mantra of the business of new is "if it bleeds, it leads." Bad news sells, especially bad looking news from a country that you already have a poor opinion of. Same bad news sticks because few other kinds of news or story or movie is coming from a multiplicity of other directions especially from within that country in formats and techniques that meet basic standards of journalistic ethics, creative ability and technological flexibility. We will never get balanced (dislike that word which has come to mean rabid censorship and influenced fence sitting) view of Nigeria from sources outside of Nigeria. Frankly it is not part of the business of media to be fair. It is however part of the business to report, analyse and serialize everything and anything from a myriad angles in vibrant global media environment. Translation, if we tell our own stories, analyse our own news, produce our own movies and distribute our own information with intellect, creativity, wit, knowledge and applying increasingly cheaper but effective technology we can have alternatives to the current stream of unending bad stories. However it is true that a lot of bad does happen and its no use asking that juicy bleedy news be ignored by those who profit from it. We must face the task of fighting corruption (l stand with those who believe that corruption should become a capital offence, it is mass murder), entrenching the rule of law and its enforcement, building infrastructure and capacity, reducing inflation, increasing access to non crippling credit, job creation as well as holistic education, agriculture and health reforms which are the building blocks of a prosperous society. That way, some of those bleedy stories will reduce automatically, a lot less of our people will go into economic exile and you know what, we actually wont care so much what the rest of the world's media chooses to say because good news travels quick and fast. Ask China and India.

On this issue of Nigeria's bad international image and world's unbalanced views of Africa, the latest edition of Farafina is a must read. I particularly like Yemisi Ogbe's piece. It is guest edited by the deliciously smart (firmly on the list of younger men l want in my virtual harem). The magazine gets better with each edition.