By Gele Agbai
Awards are rewards for excellence and hard work. They are never given to failures or those who turn in shoddy performance in their works. Awards spur the recipients to raise the bar of performance; to do more.
Though awards have been bastardized in the country, there are still few which are insulated from primordial sentiments. I dare say the maiden edition of Governor Hope Odidika Uzodimma’s Media Merit Awards is one of such awards.
Being a member of the committee that actively participated in the appraisal of the entries and eventual selection of the awardees, I can say with all sense of responsibility that the committee did a professional and unbiased selection of the winners. No sentiment was allowed to rear its ugly head or influence unduly the work of the committee. What we looked out for was excellent delivery and adherence to standard best practices.
The rules were clearly spelt out. The awards were for 2020 works done by media practitioners practicing in Imo State. In other words, entries must be works/reports/documentaries done between January 2020 and early January 2021. Submission of entries terminated on 8th January, 2021.
Clearly, some media practitioners who have issues with government or consider themselves to be in opposition to the government did not consider submitting entries in any of the seven categories. For others, it was let’s see how the maiden edition panes out before throwing our hats into the ring in subsequent contest. Some others might not have any story/work to submit since this was the first time such awards are being organized in the state.
The seven-member committee charged with the responsibility of selecting the awards recipients comprised Chief Fidel Onyeneke, a former chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Imo State Council; Sir Kennedy Amanze, Director of Information in the state Ministry of Information and Strategy (Secretary); Mrs. Chinwe Asogu, Director, News and Current Affairs, Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Chief Kenneth Njoku, a journalism lecturer and former Editor-in-chief, The StatesmanNewspaper; Mr. Gele Agbai, Publisher/Editor-in-chief, National Newsbreak Newspaper and Mr. Chris Dimgba, a media marketing communication expert while Sir Collins Ughalaa served as Media Officer.
At the close of work on 8th January, the committee had several entries. Let me point out that we painstakingly sorted out the entries as some contestants failed to properly label their entries. One breached the rule by submitting a flash drive instead of a Compact Disc (CD). Another submitted CDs which failed to open which means he didn’t think it wise to play his CDs after burning it to ascertain whether it was good for the contest before submission.
It was in the print category that we made startling discoveries. Some of our colleagues do not know the difference between a feature story and an interview or opinion article or column or editorial. One who supposedly is an editor of a newspaper submitted his newspaper editorial comments for the best feature story writer’s award. Same for another who submitted his column for the feature story writer’s award. Two others submitted opinion articles while another submitted a feature story that fell outside the time frame.
Why is it difficult for colleagues to understand what a feature story is all about? The case of the editor who submitted editorial comments of his newspaper in place of feature story is truly pathetic. What is he editing if he does not understand the different forms of journalistic writing? Some in the news story category submitted what I call run-of-mill or routine stories in a contest they want to win cash prizes! Even then, the stories lacked finesse and were filled with ‘parasites’.
This is essentially why Chief Onyeneke while submitting the report of the committee to the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon. Declan Emelumba on Friday canvassed the periodic retraining of journalists in the employ of both public and private media houses in the state.
I have always maintained that the difference between two individuals is the training they got. Yes, people have gone through the four walls of the university or polytechnic or other tertiary institutions. Some spent four or five years studying mass communication. Some studied other courses like political science, psychology and sociology before obtaining a diploma in journalism to qualify them to practice.
But it seems some of them have lost touch; it appears that they have forgotten what they were taught or have failed to teach themselves or refresh their memories by reading literature in journalism.
Clearly, the pressure of day-to-day life has conditioned the minds of many to seek money above skill and excellence in their chosen fields. Some don’t mind how well they perform on the job because skill and excellence aren’t the only factors that keep people on their jobs. Both are also no guarantee to the attainment of material sufficiency. However, excellent delivery or performance is still a desideratum when other factors do not come into play.
Since the announcement of the winners, critics have been on rampage on the blogosphere deriding the awards. Some believe the absence of certain media practitioners on the winners’ list rubbishes the awards. Others assert that government shouldn’t give awards to journalists because the awards are bound to corrupt the media practitioners.
These critics are mainly spokespersons of the opposition parties.
One thing that stands out about opposition in our clime is that it hardly sees anything good in the ruling party or administration. The opposition more often than not, fails to appraise issues dispassionately; it also refuses to gather all the facts about a matter before jumping into the fray. Unfortunately too, some media practitioners are partisan. They see their media platforms as extensions of their preferred political parties. Their partisanship rings a bell in the programmes they present if they are working in electronic media or in their opinion articles or even news stories, where their opinions are completely abhorred.
It was Chief MKO Abiola who said no man’s head could be shaved in his absence. The Igbo also assert that no one could drown in a river without stepping into the river. Again, Rev. Jersey Jackson of America averred that no politician who refuses to contest ever wins the poll.
The 2020 Governor Uzodimma Media Merit Awards are not tailored to be given to any media practitioner who refused to submit an entry.
After submission of an entry, the practitioner’s entry is considered/appraised alongside other entries using spelt out parameters. If it meets the parameters, you are selected whether you are good-looking or ugly, whether you belong to or sympathetic to or opposed to the 3R administration.
In this maiden edition, the committee had free hand to select winners. There was no interference or undue influence from any quarters to favour any particular person or medium. The job of the committee was purely professional. It was not a civil service job in which zone or connection to powerful forces determines the winner.
The opposition should consider contributing its quota to enhance journalism practice in the state by helping in the retraining programme of journalists plying their trade in the state. This is the minimum it could do to help journalism practice rather than canvassing throwing away both the baby and bath water.
The awards cannot corrupt the journalists since reports critical of government’s policies and programmes are entitled to win the awards provided they are properly crafted and conform to standard best practices. It is germane to point out that the fact that a particular journalist or media practitioner is more popular than his colleagues does not make him the best in the profession. If there is a category for the most popular and he entered for it, the award will surely go to him. Finally, God wired mankind in a manner that none becomes irrelevant; everyone has that uniqueness that stands him out of the crowd.
* Agbai is a columnist and Publisher of Newsbreak newspaper.