It is not today that the Media Industry in Nigeria began to be associated with spurious awards to individuals based on pecuniary or other selfish interests. Such awards have been defining the cash and carry proclivity of various media houses in the country.
However, such awards seem to have hit a crescendo lately with some serving public officers and politicians receiving all manner of awards by the media. It does not matter to such media houses whether such awards are deserving. All that matters is cash.
Thus, anyone with money to splash around in the country today, can become a prime candidate for a media award. If a politician, it doesn’t matter whether the person has been performing well or not; and if a public servant, the same applies. As long as such people are deemed capable of parting with huge sums of money, the charade goes on.
Recently, the country’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was given the Man of the Year Award by a popular television station, a development that did not go down well with many Nigerians who wondered whether said television station was rewarding the President for making life difficult for the Nigerian masses.
While there have been awards that were adjudged genuine and fitting, the majority of awards in Nigeria by media practitioners have begun to assume alarming proportions, due to the quality of the awardees and the undisguised motive behind them.
The media is supposed to be the moral compass of its society upon which the citizenry can look forward for direction and guidance. The media is supposed to lead the way, with others following. But, alas, the almighty media appears to have been bitten by the same bug that bit others and so, the madness of selling awards to those often totally unbecoming is set to continue.
Thus, the recent award to the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as its Man of the Year by the said television station, was like a slap on Nigerians, judging from their reactions on social media.
No one in Nigeria needs telling how difficult life has become in the country, no thanks to the failure of the Tinubu-led Federal Government to stop the trend. There are also others that such awards given them do not fit at all, but the media houses involved have continued to cash out.
This practice does not augur well for the nation, even if the media houses involved, have raked in money or garnered other favours.
It is a shame for those media houses to place parochial interest, purely based on pecuniary reasons, ahead of merit and this sends a wrong message across to society. It casts a huge question mark on the perception of the media as the watchdog of society. The sooner this charade stops, the better for the country and much better for the dwindling image of the Media Industry in Nigeria. I’m Not Going to
