Journalist Who Accused T.B Joshua Of Bribe Speaks At Length About It

Nicholas Ibekwe, the journalist who accused T.B Joshua of
bribing reporters so that they will be mild on reporting about the collapsed building
in his church premises has said he will be relocating his family soon. He also
spoke about the love he got for standing up for truth and how others also chastised
him saying he only wants to be a social media celebrity. He sadly also spoke
about how Nigerian journalists of today live, and how they are more concerned
about money than reporting the truth. It’s a long read tho, but I tell you, it’s
an interesting one.

The last 48 hours were probably the most intense in my life.
The love, kind words and support I’ve received in that period from, mostly,
total strangers have been overwhelming. I want to thank everybody who saw the
good in what I did. Though, to be honest, I think it was a little stupid. What
was I thinking putting my life and probably my career on the line in an attempt
to change something so entrenched it seems unchangeable? But really I’m not
fazed by the trash talk from those allergic to the truth.

It’s a long time coming and someone has to put the Big Ben
on the fat cat, I guess.

During the same period I’ve also been insulted like never
before. I’ve been called the most uncomplimentary names and all the curses in
Deuteronomy hurled towards me. They should be ashamed that the brushed ego of
their spiritual godfather meant more to them than the over 90 lives that
perished under the rubble.

I can deal with the trash talk and name-calling. But I’m
also not naïve. I’ve made plans to evacuate my family to safety at the shortest
notice in case things escalate. I hope they don’t. But one can never be so sure
with these fundamentalists.

They said I’m an attention freak; that I published the audio
clip because I yearned to be a social media celebrity (whatever that means).
Well, I won’t lie; I enjoyed the 15 minutes of fame. I loved the thrill of
being in the eye of the storm. In case my accusers are reading this, I got over
2,000 followers on Twitter within the period. I don’t know what to make of that
yet. I’m not so sure about this Twitter thing, but if there’s a way I can
convert that to money, that would be something. Gbenga Olorunpomi, how much
does one twitter follower exchange for a dollar these days?

So why did I publish the audio?

I had recorded the audio six days before posting it on
Twitter. To be sincere, I didn’t think much of it until Saturday morning (I’d
explain later). I was intently watching the way the collapsed building was
being played out in the media after the rather disappointing way Lagos State
Governor, Babatunde Fashola, dodged reporters through a back door after his
private meeting with TB Joshua on September 14. I observed that the Nigerian
media were being too gentle on TB Joshua despite the glaring irregularities
surrounding the collapse. I read more reports about the “hovering craft” and
how Boko Haram could have sabotaged the building and other poppycock the televangelist
wanted the world to believe.

Very little was reported about the structural defects of the
building. Not much was written about the fact that the building originally had
two floors and was being illegally refurbished with four additional floors when
it collapsed. We didn’t come hard on the Synagogue Church goons who attacked
first responders. We didn’t highlight the fact that many of those that perished
could have been saved if NEMA officials weren’t barred from the site for almost
three days! We didn’t make an issue of the fact that our colleagues who had
gone to report the collapsed building were molested on Saturday.

So when I woke up last Saturday morning and saw the picture
of President Goodluck Jonathan shaking hands with a grinning TB Joshua with
headlines like “Jonathan consoles TB Joshua,” I said damn it! I couldn’t
stomach this blatant impunity.

TB Joshua is perhaps the most powerful preacher in Africa
and politicians all over the continent fawn at him. But as watchdogs,
journalists must hold entrenched powers to account. If Nigerian politicians
didn’t realise that more than 90 lives had just perished underneath a building
without requisite permit and that those responsible should be held accountable,
then the responsibility falls on journalists to force them to do the right
thing.

Journalists shouldn’t be seen or heard telling the prime
suspect they would write “just like you said” after he offered to buy their
consciences with N50,000.

Some of the reporters who collected the N50,000 have called
me after the audio went viral to complain. They told me they have been getting
calls from colleagues and family members who recognised their voices in the
recording. One even accused me of a breach of trust. I told him I didn’t sign a
pact of silence with anybody. For me. the decision was between covering the
ethical shortcomings of my colleagues or doing that which is right to make sure
those who died and their families get justice. The decision was easy.

Why didn’t I publish the audio the same day I recorded it?
Nigerian journalists habitually ask for gratification at press conferences and
corporate events that it has unfortunately become a norm. Reporters actually
think you’re a fool if you turned down what they call “brown envelope”.

There are several excuses to justify it: “We’re poorly
paid,” “We have not been paid for months,” etc. Honestly, it’s hard to dismiss
some of these excuses sometimes. Nigerian journalists are perhaps among the
worst paid in the world. This is where the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ,
should do more.

Its officials should stop paying courtesy calls to
politicians (of course, we know what exchanges hands during these visits) and
do more to force Jet-flying owners of media organisations to pay reporters more
and on time. We deserve it.

Journalists should also explore other related and legitimate
means of making money like researching, writing and editing reports for NGOs,
writing and editing of brochures and reports, working as fixers to foreign
journalists, blogging (I recently met a Nigerian television reporter that make
quite some money monthly from his blog), etc.

Like everything in Nigeria, this “brown envelope” thing has
been stretched beyond the limit of ridiculousness. I’d give some examples: On
August 15, 2010 a truck belonging to Dangote Sugar Refinery caused an inferno
at the Ojodu Bridge outside Otedola Estate in Lagos. More than 50 lives
perished in the fire. An inquest was initiated by a non-governmental
organisation, Access to Justice and Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana.

Please, take a deep breath before reading the next sentence.
During the inquest, officials of Dangote Industries distributed cartons of
spaghetti (and some money, probably to buy ingredients) to court reporters at
the Ikeja High Court to probably skew their account of the hearing. In case you
missed it let me repeat: Some Nigerian Journalists collected packs of spaghetti
as bribes!

Are we that hungry? Some reporters got as little as 12 packs
of spaghetti. My friend, Ben Ezeamalu, was almost beaten up for speaking
against it.

In fact, they erected a wall of hostility around themselves
whenever he came around. According to him, a very senior journalist pulled him
aside and told him it was easy for him to turn down the brown envelope because
he wasn’t married and had no school fees to pay.

Ben said his curiosity was aroused while he was researching
for material on the internet for an article he was writing days before the
coroner’s verdict on the inquest. To his surprise, there was very little
material for an inquest that involved Africa’s richest man and had lasted 19
months! After the coroner delivered his verdict, in which he indicted Dangote’s
company as well as the Nigeria Police, the (short) article was tucked away in a
remote corner in almost all the newspapers the next day. The fact that the
coroner indicted Dangote was also carefully left out in the articles.

Other journalists have tagged Ben, “a spy” for consistently
refusing to collect “brown envelopes”.

Nigerian journalists no longer know where to draw the line.
A father, who lost his son during the last Dana plane crash, was forced to pay
journalists during his son’s wake-keep before it was reported. There are more
puke-inducing instances but I’d stop here.

For those of you saying N50,000 ($300) was too little to
entice Nigerian reporters, I’ve seen reporters scuffle over N2,000 ($12) during
a press conference.

During last year’s gubernatorial election in Ondo State,
reporters literally came to blows at Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s home after the
latter released “appreciation money” for journalists who covered his polling
unit. The sharing formula was N10,000 per head, until the cash ran low and the
formula switched to N7,000. Cue bedlam. The governor’s PA, looking on with
contempt, threatened to evict them from his employer’s residence if they failed
to conduct themselves with decorum. One fellow even started arranging for
another group of journalists to go meet the governor for another “appreciation
money.”

Editors should also monitor their reporters too, but we all
know that some editors get theirs through subtler manner (Bank transfers).

I’m a Nigerian journalist I want to change things the only
way I know how to – going public with it. I’m not saying anything new here,
everybody who has one thing or the other to do with journalists knows that
these things happen. Maybe I’m the first journalist to go public with it in
such a manner.

Corporate organisations and individuals should also stop
offering these bribes (I still insist that they are bribes and nothing else).
Journalist will report your events whether they like it or not. They want to
stay in business. My heart skips anytime I get a call from my editor or receive
that email with a subject that reads: “Pending stories”. I know I’m required to
deliver. I don’t need that “brown envelope” to turn around that copy. I know in
the Punch for instance, reporters are required to fill a certain number of
pages every week. They can’t sit around waiting for “money to fuel your cars”
to write stories to fill those pages. The threat of losing one of the most
lucrative jobs in the industry is enough “inducement”. In PREMIUM TIMES, where
I work, you must deliver exceptional copies that do not smell of bribes. But
the truth is most pressers aren’t news worthy so PR officials feel they need to
induce reporters to write about them.

And for the fundamentalist followers of TB Joshua, this
isn’t about your spiritual Godfather. I would still have gone public with this
if the Pope was involved. I can’t say I’m sorry that his ego was bruised. He
clearly meant for the money to influence the reporting of the event. “So what
are you going to write?” He had asked. That makes it a bribe. Simple. I can’t
help you if you couldn’t decipher that. I’m a reporter not a brain surgeon.

This is the last I’m going to say on this issue unless
something drastic happens. Let the personal attacks continue.