Mr Femi Fani-Kayode’s conduct during the week at his press conference in Calabar, Cross River State, where he stopped just shy of physically shredding a journalist for asking a legitimate question, showed that the former minister was a horrible mistake for all the previous leadership positions he ever held in the country.
By the same mindless action, Mr Fani-Kayode, also known by the acronym FFK, equally demonstrated that he would be a calamity were he to be considered for another leadership post in the future.
The less-than-five-minutes show of shame has left no one in doubt that FFK is infantile and crude; a hypocrite and a prisoner of unmanageable personality complex, all of which make him a total disgrace to whatever and whoever he represents.
FFK is infantile because he demonstrated a total lack of self-control during the incident referenced here, just as he had done in other previous occasions.
He is crude because he spewed so much expletives at a reporter who was even deferential towards him as he levied the verbal assault without as much as a thought to the fact that the representative of the Cross River State Governor, his host at the time, was right there with him, and that the entire display was watched worldwide in this era of instant communication in a global village.
FFK is a hypocrite because as the critic-in-chief of the Federal Government for the opposition he has shown that he is himself too thin-skinned to brook evaluation by the media. And lastly, FFK is suffering from the bugbear of unmanageable complex, an aspect of which is diminished self-concept, which makes him to constantly remind others of who he is, as he did repeatedly during the instant press conference.
His self-disclosure, in utterances and actions, suggests that the man is unstable, and is therefore in need of serious medical attention.
There is no doubt that a combination of these character deficiencies render FFK susceptible to tantrums and were responsible for the angry outburst at Charles Eyo, the Daily Trust reporter, an assault we judge to be an insufferable poke in the eye that all lovers of free speech must condemn in the strongest term possible.
It bears repeating that FFK’s unwarranted attack at Mr Eyo is an unacceptable assault on the freedom of the press, the dignity of the media and the universally held value that no one should be subjected to degrading treatment. FFK should be held in contempt and derided by all reasonable people for his contemptible action.
In light of the preceding, we demand an unreserved apology within seven (7) days from the date of this publication from Mr Femi Fani-Kayode to Mr Charles Eyo and the entire media community in Nigeria. If Mr Fani-Kayode fails to apologise as per our demand, we call on the entire media fraternity in Nigeria to declare him an enemy of the media and subject him to a total media blackout until he does so.
Besides demonstrating how flawed an individual FFK is, the incident also shines the spotlight on the problem of beat journalism and the comportment of some journalists in the course of their work. Beat journalism has been known for a long time to suffer from the herd instinct. Mr Charles Eyo cowered before the bullying FFK and apologised to the brute because, as he told Premium Times, his colleagues in the Government House beat chided him for asking “a stupid question” and pressured him to apologise. This herd instinct frequently leads to another unsavoury taste in the mouth—the dull and drab sameness called _pack reporting._
Beat challenges arising from group dynamics or no, reporters should stand their ground in the face of bullying news sources. Every reporter should be emboldened by the fact that they are heirs to a proud ancestry and that their forebears who include John Payne Jackson, Ernest Ikoli, Nnmadi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro had faced down worse adversities.
Signed:
UniUyo Communication Arts Class ‘90
