Garba Shehu is a former media adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari and a former president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE). In this interview, he speaks on the recent NGE conference in Abuja and President Bola Tinubu setting agenda for the media, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

As a former president of the NGE, how does the speech from President Bola Tinubu and Governor Hope Uzodimma at the conference get reconciled without turning all media houses in Nigeria into propagandists for the state? I think that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the government and the media are speaking in different tones.

I think the very essence of the conference was that we would seek convergence. Let there be a dialogue and let us see how there can be a common ground. As you have said, the media is just a representative of the society. It’s a vehicle for members of the public to convey to the government their views and what they want.

And the government, of course, will be happier not only in Nigeria, in all parts of the world, with a lapdog and uncritical press. You mentioned the lecture by the governor. Clearly, the President and the Minister of Information worked on eggs without breaking them. I think they allowed the governor of Imo State to do the talking and he clearly was stating that everyone had got their acts together.

According to him, the parliament is doing democracy, executive is prodemocracy, same as the judiciary, you guys in the media, where do you stand? And he went on to suggest that we apparently seem to be indifferent to what’s all going on, and we devote and dedicate more time to negatives rather than the positives, which he thinks would be building democracy.

And the media, obviously, would say, no, we are just a mirror of the society. We are just reflecting the views of the public. And if you look at yourself in the mirror and you don’t like the image you see of yourself, don’t smash the mirror. Look at yourself, re-examine yourself and see what changes you need to make from your own side.

The NGE raised alarm about shrinking media freedom and economic pressure. In your perspective, how severe are these?

It’s enormous but I’m happy that you are making the distinction because media is shrinking, not because we suffer the kind of things that we see in other countries. No, it’s absent. However, the media economy is trash. Everyone is in trouble and people are not paying salaries. One editor mentioned that a ton of newsprint today costs between N1 million to N1.3 million.

When I left the newsroom about two decades ago, we were buying newsprint at N100,000 to N120,000. Where is the money going to come from? So, it is in order that the media is crying out to the government. It’s not a scandal that the media is subsidized by the government because it supports democracy. The mass media is the number one instrument of support.

So, nations of the world, including those in advanced countries, fund the media. Why shouldn’t it happen in Nigeria? The President of the Guild of Editors read a beautiful speech that they’re even being overtaxed, Value Added Tax (VAT) and all of that. So, there has to be a change in that direction.

Within the context of what Nigeria is currently going through, which is the designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States, can you share your take on that and your assessment of how the government and the media have handled the episode?

I think that we’re handling it correctly because everyone says President Donald Trump is a bully. And one theory suggests that to tackle a bully, you stand up to them to fight. We don’t want to smash up the pieces. We’re already in trouble, and we don’t want to get into more trouble by inviting Trump.

If somebody like that with ego that is as high as a windmill, if you challenge him, he will come to you and say, I can do it and try to mess you up. We don’t want to be bombed. We don’t want attacks on our land. However, it is important that there is a message there. We’ve been messing around with this insecurity thing for too long.

A number of people have made the point that we should see what the Americans are saying as a wake-up call… But the way forward is not to start throwing bombs on communities. We’re already bombing communities wrongly on our own

Let’s be honest with ourselves. A number of people have made the point that we should see what the Americans are saying as a wake-up call. I saw a clip from the governor of Zamfara State some weeks ago. He was swearing on television that if there was will and determination, in a matter of weeks, this problem would be solved. Nobody is asking him how to.

Nobody has brought him forward to say, tell us how to do this. If it is money or whatever, has somebody asked how much? Have the security agencies been given what they want? In a nutshell, what I’m saying is that we’re in a mess. And we need help from whoever can do this.

But the way forward is not to start throwing bombs on communities. We’re already bombing communities wrongly on our own. But if foreigners who don’t even know us begin to do things, get involved in these matters, it will become messier.

Should the President be setting the agenda for the media in a democracy, is it positive and constructive for journalism and for the media fraternity, or is it something we should be worried about, especially given the strong theme around electoral credibility and electoral process on the road to 2027?

I don’t think anything is less expected of the President. He’s right and he’s entitled to use the platform to pontificate to the media and to the nation. However, this is going back to the earlier question that you raised.

What are we talking about? The media have been asked not to pay attention to the negatives. Vote buying, violence in election, or crisis in political parties. And they’re being asked to focus on the positives. We’re trying to build democracy, so that it endures.

But the question then to ask is: What are the other actors doing? If there is vote buying and it shows up in the mirror, so who is to be blamed? Is it the mirror or the actors, who are doing the vote buying? And can we go after them?

Can we stop them from doing these things? I think that the Guild of Editors had a vision for bringing all of this conversation together. And the important thing is that can we get everything right? If the entire room is organized and everything is in place, the media cannot invent crisis, cannot invent situations of instability in the country.

Is everything 100 per cent okay with the voting in the country, with the politicking, electioneering, and management of political parties? I think the parties should look at themselves and say: Are we doing the right thing? So, the politicians have a right to blame the media, but the media know that this is just a blame game.

What you do think is the responsibility of the media in this broader picture of national unity in conjunction with the 2027 upcoming elections?

The media’s role is defined. It is historical and it is consistent. The media cannot do anything other than what they are used to doing, which is, look, we are all members of the society. It’s not as if we are coming from the moon.

We have families and we go to the same churches and mosques, the same markets, members of the public. So, what we see in the media is no more than a reflection of what the dynamics of the society as it functions on a daily basis. Are we expecting higher level of conduct? I do hope so but the problem we have is what is happening in the digital space.