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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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A toast to The Guardian
WHEN The Guardian Newspaper set out in 1983 to publish a newspaper that would rank among the best 10 in the English-speaking world, it was quite a tall order. The world was not quite a global village then " the internet was only heard of in far-away lands and desktop publishing was at its rudimentary stages in Nigeria.
News gathering was tedious, what with unwilling news sources and a secretive bureaucracy. Production relied on the best-forgotten cut-and-paste make-up with its attendant stresses and inaccuracies. The once buoyant economy had also begun to show early signs of shrinkage occasioned by the external debt burden and declining oil revenues.
The Guardian was thus born into an uncertain environment. Save for the vision and resolve of its promoters to publish a quality newspaper, nothing else was certain. It blazed the trail, nonetheless, to become the flagship of the Nigerian press, vindicating the pioneer team's claim that "Sooner or later, you will read The Guardian." Many embraced the paper for its unique intellectual depth, in-depth stories, incisive features and opinions, attributes that it has maintained over the past 21 years. Like every good newspaper, The Guardian has amply addressed the what, who, when, where and what next (probable consequence) of occasions and events in its task of informing, entertaining and educating readers. It is today probably one of the best 10 English newspapers in the world.
When a newspaper informs, entertains and educates, it is no news " that is what it is set up to do. If it does it consistently for over two decades, it deserves an applause for surviving the high morbidity and vagaries " socio-economic and political " of newspapering. When a newspaper veers off its core domain to promote family ties, parenting and restoration of hope, it deserves more than an applause. It deserves a standing ovation, a national recognition and award. It challenges media award bodies to include a category for "humaneness" beyond the current category for "human interest reporting".
The Guardian, the media and indeed the nation have cause to celebrate the reunion of the Adewusis torn asunder by their inability to care for their triplets but brought together again through the mediation of The Guardian. The Guardian did not merely report the couple's plight, it acted on the promptings of its conscience and directly intervened to restore the marriage and save the triplets from imminent death.
Adesina and Bunmi Adewusi married in 2002, were blessed with a set of triplets about a year ago. Though a holder of the National Certificate of Education (NCE) Adesina earned a meagre monthly income of N4, 000 and later N6,000 after 12 years of unemployment. He lost the N6,000 per month job for publicly disclosing his pay package. His wife, a petty trader, overwhelmed by the endless struggles to make ends meet and because of the harassment of creditors absconded from home in May, leaving the husband to cater to the two boys and girl all alone.
Responses to The Guardians initial story of July 22 brought succour as some kind-hearted people offered money and provisions for the up-keep of the triplets. The Guardian management went further to seek out Bunmi who eventually walked into the Rutam House offices of the paper with her husband on August 5 in answer to The Guardian's invitation to her. They were instantly reconciled, counselled and given financial assistance to pay off their debts and start anew. The babies, hitherto un-immunised, received their first doses of vaccine under the watchful eyes of the paper's Metro Editor who escorted the couple back to their Ota, Ogun State home.
While The Guardian had undertaken some humanitarian ventures including the Orie-Eboka case and the appeal fund it established for the January 2001 bomb explosion victims in Lagos, its intervention in the Adewusi family situation is remarkable for many reasons and deserves the emulation of all. The paper deserves credit for breaking the story with a brilliant headline: "Children of joy, triplets of pain" in The Metro Section of July 22. The two pictures " one of Adesina grappling with the triplets and another of the triplets joyously seated together were quite apt and succinctly buttressed the "joy" and "pain" contrast in the headline.
It followed the story through at a great cost in quality man-hours and money in seeking out the estranged wife and escorted the couple back to Ota where its representative facilitated the vaccination of the children. It also gave N50,000 to the couple. In all this, The Guardian did not seek its own glory. It painstakingly acknowledged all the concerns and donations.
For illustration, the September 14: "Joyfully together... again" features a picture of the re-united couple and the jubilant triplets. There is no picture of The Guardians managers handing over money or materials, legitimate as it may have been. The entire episode is bereft of any self-commendation. The Guardians role is a lesson in modesty, social responsibility and generational relevance. It is a befitting 21st birthday gift. The flagship has come of age.
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