Recently I watched a video where Rev. Father Mbaka, one of the most respected and vocal catholic priests based in Enugu, tendered a public apology to Ikedi Ohakim for accusing him falsely about flogging another priest some years back when Ohakim was the Governor of Imo State (http://dailypost.ng/2014/10/02/ohakim-flog-reverend-father-ejike-mbaka-video/)
This got me thinking.Now that this celebrated story turns out to be false, the question is, what was the media doing all this while? How much truth and investigative journalism are we really getting from the media? Is the media really educating and informing the people or has it become an instrument of mind control in the hands of a few powerful men and women? This is for the media to realise it has a sacred duty to build the society and for the Nigerian audience and readers to have the courage to interrogate news stories.

Before now the media was considered the supreme oracle in the court of public opinion but following recent events in our democratic experience, the media seem to have taken up a different definition and is better compared to a public address system: the words that are spoken into it are precisely what it would broadcast, it will not add, it will not subtract and It will not analyse them, neither will it seek to verify it. It is simply loyal its patron, no matter who he is, just be a Pa(y)tron and your wish would be granted. It is like the computer, garbage in, garbage out. But the disaster that comes with this new development is that the garbage that usually comes out become the instrument used by few powerful individuals for the transformation of minority opinion to public opinion.
Nigerians once trusted the media like children would trust their parents; they believed everything the media had to say and had faith in the printed words of the editors because they thought the media was an impartial judge. But all that are now in the past. The mass media seem to have simply become a tool for propaganda and mind control at the detriment of the good names of honest men. It has become important for us to be wary.
The events surrounding the failed re-election bid of Ikedi Ohakim, the former governor of Imo state and the successful re-election of Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state have cast a lot of doubt on the impartial role of the media as a just judge in the court of public opinion and has made nonsense of everything investigative journalism stands for. Three points can be deduced from the way the two events were handled managed in by both print and broadcast media:
1. The media is so powerful that it can call into existence what is not as though it is,
2. A section of the masses have grown very gullible over the years that once it is in print, it must be true.
3. There is high level of intellectual laziness towards dispassionate analyses of issues in the news. For instance, a section of the media says that Hunters with their Dane Guns, Bows and Arrows recaptured Mubi from Boko Haram, a group alleged to be better armed than Nigerian army, and no one interrogates the report.
In 2014, Gov. Fayose of Ekiti state threw his hat in the ring against Former Gov. Fayemi, to contest for the office of the governor and many people wondered whether he was high on dried pawpaw leaf or heroine because the media had declared that the man was “completely hated” by his people and unpopular because the he didn’t give his people the dividends of democracy. Thus the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) was certain that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had made it very easy for them to glide to victory for a second term by nominating Fayose, “the most hated man” as its flag bearer. Days before the election “everyone” was in agreement that the only vote that he would likely get in that election was his personal vote. The media said the defeat would be total.

In all these, no one outside Ekiti ever wondered what the average Ekiti man who has the final say was really thinking and saying. Commentators had a field day discussing Ekiti from beer parlours in Surulere Lagos, while the media analysed issues according to the prevailing opinion of its patron. No one really knew what was going on in Ekiti peoples mind. We all took it for granted that the voice of the media represents the true picture on the ground. It never dawned on us that the media was no longer a living thing with self consciousness but an inanimate resource designed by a few to manipulate the majority.
Then the Ekiti result was announced and a massive shock wave swept through the land! Jaws dropped open in amazement and saliva trickled down open mouths in utter disbelief, drums went silent, and across the media world STOP PRESS was the order . It was midnight, the printing press was already rolling out prepared chronicles on Fayemi’s journey to second victory. But now, everything must be reversed because it was the much “hated” Fayose who won the heart of the people in a landslide victory even in the sitting Governors backyard.
Then every one started “thoughting” (Excuse my Latin) “But we all thought they said he was a bad man” “we thought they said he did nothing for them in his first coming” “... thought they said he was wicked to his people” “we thought they said this and that ” But the big question is, who said?
THE MEDIA SAID!!
Then it dawned on everyone that some powerful pa(y)trons of the media have played a mind game on us; say a thing over and over, it would soon begin to sound like truth. That was precisely what they did and we believed. So while we (analysts) sit behind our computers to guess Ekiti people were thinking and how they were feeling, the rural Ekiti farmers , who have no access to the public address system to tell us what they were really thinking, waited patiently for the only opportunity they have to speak their minds and when the time came, they made us all look like fools. Then they embarked on massive but unsuccessful mind manipulating damage control with two main themes: “over militarization” and “stomach infrastructure” but the semantics were like water poured on a rock, it didn’t sell. We no longer believe them. We have been betrayed.
IKEDI OHAKIM, the former governor of Imo State was one of the unfortunate fellows who was crucified on the altar of public opinion, an altar built and consecrated by the media. Sometimes you come across someone who says that he “hates” Ohakim but cannot say for sure, why he hates the former Governor, except that “ He flogged a priest” he would quip, a classical case example of the ingenious capacity of the media to call into existence what was not, put breadth into it and give it life. Because the truth is, no Chief Security Officer who is a candidate for strong and sometimes unhealthy opposition would come down from his well secured vehicle and expose himself in an open environment with bushes all around just to flog a man, how much more a catholic priest, and in Igboland!!!
The media told us that Ohakim was hated my everyone in Imo State. They say that he did absolutely nothing for Imolites and falsehood was amplified by internet warriors who were based outside the state and who within a short notice churned out tonnes of articles to take up every available media space.

Although I visited owerri severally while Ohakim was in govt and I saw for myself the effort of the government which was just in it’s first term doing everything possible to lay a solid foundation with an already developed blue print designed for the development of the entire state. Ohakim, already had a plan of action for the state before he took power. These very fantastic action plans are well documented in his book Courage To Challenge: Vision For A New Nigeria published by BookCraft, Ibadan 2009. I can say with every sense of responsibility that it was a beautiful city to live in , the city was so clean that you could sleep anywhere. The Fed Ministry of Environment also confirmed this with an award to the state government for owerri as the cleanest city. I saw road constructions in and around the city but i honestly cannot say about other parts of the state since my tour was limited to Owerri and the barrage of criticism which I read in the papers cast doubts in my heart about his true performance.

Since election time is the best time to gauge the true opinion of the people when people from the hinterland would speak, i thought it was best to wait for election season. But the media campaign against Ohakim was unprecedented and as the days drew nearer, more battle fronts opened against him and it appeared in the eye of the outside world that Ikedi was going to be disgraced out of office.
One of the challenges faced by the former Governor was his stand following Yaradua’s death that the PDP zoning arrangement which allowed 8 year unbroken rule for the North should be respected. At that time, it was strongly believed that after then president Yaradua’s 8 year tenure expired that the presidency would be zoned to the South East, unfortunately, his death changed the entire political permutation. But Ohakim who had demonstrated his commitment to the Igbo renaissance by consistently hosting the Ahajioku lecture, stuck out his neck to insist that the North should complete their tenure, so power could come to the South East as originally intended by PDP. This was misconstrued to mean that he was against then Acting-President Jonathan and Ohakim fell out with the presidency. The president’s aids were deployed immediately by power seekers in Imo state to hunt him.

While the massive media war raged against him, another deadly front was opened- “OHAKIM FLOGS A CATHOLIC PRIEST!” and like magic, a section of the populace especially outside of Imo state was immediately hypnotised and the only thing they could associate with Ohakim was the flogging of a priest, an abomination anywhere in the world. Every available space was taken up in the media and as the rumours grew, they developed legs and arms. Soon it was said that he beat up a priest and locked him in the boot of his car, But when a nurse, who attended to my late father pointedly asked me if I had heard about Ohakim, the one who killed a priest and placed his corpse in his car boot, I was stunned!!! And at that moment I knew the rumour had indeed taken a life of its own, the media is indeed a great inventor.
Reverend Father Mbaka, one of the most respected catholic priests in Nigeria was also hoodwinked into believing a pure lie to be true and subsequently placed a curse on Ohakim that he will never win the second term, well I didn’t hear him say that, but the media said he did.
Not long comedians joined the fray and jokes were poked at the governor who flogged a priest, and so did Nollywood as movies rolled out about a Governor who beat up a priest and dumped his body in the boot of his car. Thus, through the power of the media what was not was fully called into existence, and to say otherwise was to sound like you are from Mars. And so Ohakim carried this burden into the second term election and everyone was convinced that even his immediate family might not vote for him for this man according to the media was completely hated by even the earth upon which he walked.

To compound his woes, super political heavy weights, the architects and spin masters of the entire propaganda machine, men who have extremely deep pockets, filed out like gladiators to finish him off. Rochas snaked in and warmed himself into the heart of APGA and Ojukwu and lured away the party ticked to himself carrying the image of Ojukwu; the press thought that Ohakim should just step down rather than get disgraced. The media old us that the man was finished, and we believed. And waited for the election where he will be disgraced
With the “Ohakim flogged a priest” story dominating every media headline, with Rochas clinching APGA ticked and dropping Ojukwu’s name here and there, with the presidency frowning at Ohakims stand on the Jonathan’s succession plan and with the media playing God, it appeared certain Ohakim would truly be disgraced out of Office. But we soon discovered that was the opinion of the minority amplified by a mercenary media. So what did the masses really think about Ohakim. The answer was to be determined by people in an election.
The election came, and Ohakim lost.
But most people missed something. They failed to observe that the “much hated” Ohakim swept votes across the length and breadth of the state. They failed to see that despite the massive gang up against Ohakim, that the support, the love from the people was massive.He won in almost half of the entire local government areas and was coasting home to victory when INEC declared the Ohaji-Egbema result as inconclusive, and a run-off election was rescheduled in for that singular local government area, and at that point, politics, rather than the will of the people came to play and the Governorship seat slipped through his fingers.
But Ohakim, despite the media assault and character assassination, was not disgraced out of office as some media reports would want us to believe.

Rev, father Mbaka has now tendered an open apology to Ohakim for accusing him of flogging a priest, an allegation which he later, personally investigated, and found to be a complete lie. He said he called the priest involved...and asked whether Ohakim or his officials flogged him to which the priest said it was a complete lie, that he was not molested in any way. This public apology is well documented in video And here again is the link ......But unfortunately, the damage has been done and the press cannot undo the damage it caused.
Ohakim lost, but it wasn’t a loser’s loss, he lost with dignity, he lost in a way that completely defeated the entire gang up against him with the love of millions Imolites behind him, except of course for those who were hoodwinked by the media unslaught against him, but even that category of citizens have now realized their mistakes thus the popular slogan now in Imo state “Ikiri ka Onye-oshi nma”

Lets wait and see

Ohakim flog a catholic priest!

If he was actually innocent, he had d means to carry out a campaign to discredit d story. He was either dumb or chose not to.

You are a paid dim wit. Ohakim will never smell dat seat again. Tell all the lies you can. Even if we are dissatisfied with rochas, it will never be Ohakim

We seem to be missing the point here. it si clear that Ohakim didnt flog the priest. A Governor leaving the security of his car and walk all the way to the leading outriders to flog a catholic priest in Igbo land, haba! Lets reason a little. Now you have seen the video and you still dont believe, but you believed the same Mbaka when he fell for the media propaganda the first time.

Anyway, the issue here is that readers must be more discerning and the media must do proper investigative journalism. i am sure we agree they goofed on Fayose and now it is proven that the were purely malicious with Ohakim. Say no to mind control, interrogate the stories presented to you.

chukel:
You are a paid dim wit. Ohakim will never smell dat seat again. Tell all the lies you can. Even if we are dissatisfied with rochas, it will never be Ohakim

That you hate Ohakim is not the issue here, afterall some body somewhere hates you too, the point is that our media must do investigative journalism and should not be mercenary media. Give us the fact and let us decide. Ohakim didnt glog a priest. period! Fayose wasnt hated by his people. Period!! The media goofed and you must admit it.

The Media has done more damage than good, they seems to write fabricated stories, news from people who gives them tips to fuel their car

stabillo:
The Media has done more damage than good, they seems to write fabricated stories, news from people who gives them tips to fuel their car

That is the point!!! It is not whether we like Ohakim or Not, it is whether what is writeen about him and all of us is the truth and not whether it is the trend. The media love sensetionalism and its unfortunate.