By Habeeb Olokooba
Beyond words and unworthy hypes, the emergence of our campus journalism isn’t getting the slacks it deserves. Gone are the days when all hope lies on reporters for truths and facts. However, things have fallen apart, the truth has been convicted and sentenced to a death sentence. The personified irresponsible father of five in UDUS, as portrayed by Abdullahi Tijani, is currently getting shuffled into the dark box forever.
A thing of pride about what we do is that though, we don’t have the luxury of getting praise pursuing truth. Yet we do it with passion as advocates of transition. Chasing beyond a degree is but no child’s play.
And like Nigeria professional journalists face hurdles and serious bullying in the quest of holding power accountable, campus journalists are not spared. ’Before the beginning’ Adegbite was arrested for an Investigative report he did. Muheeb Mashood was summoned for an alleged mistreatment he encountered and documented. The current Editor-In-Chief of the News Digest Press UDUS, Abdullateef Abdullahi was threatened by the UDUS former LSS chief judge, Jamiu Shola, in 2023. The same happened to Abdurasheed Ahmad, Abdulwasiu Olokooba and many more I can’t recall. Despite the barriers encountered in the process of righting the wrong, we were never once swayed from our dreams.
Quoting the words of Editor Kemi Busari of Premium Times, “If you haven’t been arrested, you are not yet a journalist.” I’m very much of his mind because, in the process of holding power accountable, the power will always fight back. For me, it has never been easy in this field, I encountered three problems in the year 2023. The first was for an opinion article in the mid-year, second one was the one where a whole department came after me for telling the truth about one of their members. And last of which I won’t say here.
Well, I chose this rough road. And I will meander the road till I triumph. If not for the relevance of this write-up, I can’t even remember I had those issues, because, like the truth Set Ojukwu free, We all break free from the shackles.
One certain thing is that corruption will always fight back, and if you must profit from this journalism, I must say your life is not secured. What you hold as a journalist is the truth that you owe to the general public, yet the absolute power corrupt in oversized Baba’n Riga will not spare you. We have them everywhere. And they will work every means to bring you down.
The media as the focal point in any society should at all times be in existence, however, the truth is on the verge of being killed in our own Nigeria. The power that be insists the light of the truth should go into the dark box Abdullahi Tijani clamored against. Journalism here( in UDUS) is currently wallowing in the cesspit of being mutilated. For refusing PR, we are hated. For saying the truth, we are currently facing bullying. Till it becomes a crime, we will not cease being change-makers. Since journalism is what we chose, we are sticking to it till the big boys decide otherwise.