By:Muneer Yaqub
Politics on UDUS campus is getting interesting these days. The executive arm serving punishments; the legislative arm courting attentions. Name-callings everywhere. Controversies here and there. And the Press, in the middle of it all.
Just to be sure, should you see what I see, you won’t but be dazed. It’s an art gallery. I see an army of legislators in notorious defense, against external attacks, from the stables of the Press.
Our politicians have suddenly turned propagandists. At war they are. They don’t seem to find things funny anymore. With the Press metamorphosing, these days, into a clog in their wheel, there seems to be much to worry about.
I see a new generation of “Concerned Danfodites” emerging by the day, hurling words of fire at the Press. I see a battle of the pen. I see a bushmeat daring the hunter; a challenge. It seems to be tired of being chased. I see a fightback, the Press now the underdog.
Why are articles ending with a pregnant “Concerned Danfodite” now flooding the media, at a time when the people in power are falling Danfodites’ hands? Who are the “Concerned Danfodites,” and why are their plights different from others?
What do they want? Whom do they help? Against whom?
If they are not, at one time, rescuing the legislative necks from strangulation, by the Press; they are, at another, attacking the Pressman for doing his job, ad-hominem. A Press that has no other job than to hold the rest of the arms of government to ransom. Itself, the fourth arm of government.
I don’t get it. Is it about gagging the Press’ mouth from speaking the truth, no matter how bitter? Is it to let the hook off the leaders’ necks, so they can be free to misbehave? Is it all about defending the few elite, damning the interest of the majority “Less-Concerned Danfodites?” What is it all about?
That caucus dubbed “Concerned Danfodites,” to me, is a dubious one. It’s of the shabbiest aims and objectives. It’s goals are the direct antithesis of it’s name. Concerned, indeed. Concerned about what, if I may ask?
These are those who have failed to concern themselves over the sufferings of their fellow Danfodites— the most commendable of all concerns. But they would bother themselves so much about the criticism of the Press the students’ government. They who parade themselves as “Concerned Danfodites,” yet, are not concerned about Danfodites; but their political interests.
So, one (female) legislator called the shot. She was the one spotted chewing and bubbling gum at the last parliamentary sitting. She flew into a rage, perhaps fraustrated. Overnight, she turned into a writer. Those Press people have had enough, she wrote.
So went her Bla bla, from which I could derive nothing but ‘grammatical resurgimento’, (apology to Sir Azikiwe). And having introduced her honourable self, ending it all with “a Concerned Danfodite” made me smell foul. An identity graciously adopted by almost all recent critiques of the Press.
Come to think of it, these are far beyond coincidence. The adoption of a name, and the spewing of same; all playing in a game, under the aegis of shame; painting up a lame, in the picture of a dame. Coincidence is not just the right word. There must be more to it, indeed.
So, I see mobilization. I see a stratagem. I see a recruitment of writing hands (although bad), into the army of war-wagers against the Press.
In the media space, I see a new scheme of defence methodology, propaganda! I see a bunch of legislative sympathizers, themselves included, striking from behind the facade of “Concerned Danfodism.”
Otherwise, who are the “Concerned Danfodites?”