Onanuga, ‘cantankerous’ friends and justification for…

Around 3pm (GMT+1) today, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, a journalist was on his Facebook  page to share his mind. Like we know, Facebook is for friends and family and it allows one to share  what is in one’s mind with ‘friends’ as it were. Mr. Bayo Onanuga needs no introduction.  But in case someone needs this, he is a trained journalist who had a long standing reputation of being on the side of the masses as he claimed. Recently he had been appointed as Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by Buhari-led administration. A position which made him to be seen as part of ‘privileged elites’ or  someone who gets his daily living from government.

Not holding a brief for him, his offence was that he was asking wrong question at the wrong time from his supposed ‘friends’. ‘What is in your mind question by Facebook update status’ which he seemed to be answering was to ask question about prevailing economic situations in Nigeria where everywhere one turns to there is outcry of things getting worse. This to him seems not to be in correlation with his personal experience where ‘Nigerians’ can still afford to travel abroad (I guess going by uproar about forex), eat and enjoy life between what he called just/mere  N1000 and N1,400.

One would have expected Mr. Onanuga’s ‘friends’ to understand where he was coming from. He is not part of  ‘downtrodden’ Nigerians before. That is  if he had ever been, it must be when he was a young man. Being an editor of Nigeria Newspapers in a way gives one certain privileges. Particularly if the paper is well established. Editor has official car(s) and some of their bills are picked up either by  the Newspaper or concerned audience who may want to be in the good book of the paper. Not all though.

Aside from these, many editors have the privilege of  traveling around in airplane, attend international conferences/workshops and possibly live in  decent accommodation.  This may be paid for by the organization or through their own other streams of income among others. So In a way, Newspaper Editors may not be your average Nigerian who had searched for jobs for seven to eight years and are still searching.  Editors may not know how bad the situation is except when they go to cover stories in some environments where the real people with real problems live. Heads of beat and other junior correspondents are the ones that  go there and bring the stories home. We stand to be corrected on this.

So looking at what Mr. Bayo Onanuga posted on his personal Facebook page, he may not be wrong as ‘God has helped’ him to move from common man to someone whose bread had been buttered a bit in the past fifteen years. So to me, his opinion is not because he had just been appointed as Managing Director of NAN, it is  the world he lives where N1000 and N1,400 are ‘just’ to him.

Unfortunately,  in communication,  I have learnt that meaning is not just in the words of the speaker. Real meaning of the words spoken by speaker are in what his audience say they are. Today many of Mr. Onanuga’s so-called ‘friends’ on Facebook (he had a few hundreds of them who also helped him amplified what they thought he said, and not what the sp

he claimed to be saying). His ‘cantankerous’ friends (for wants of better word) let him know  what he ‘weighs’ and where he belonged. 90% of those who cared to check by by dropping a reply told him what ‘he must hear’ since he is now Managing Director of NAN and not  just a friend or individual on the street. What Mr. Onanuga said was majorly viewed from his new position and as  a member of the privileged Nigerian who is now ‘chopping’ from the national cake. I had taken time to read most of the replies and they are not savory or palatable.

This only exception I had seen  in another platform is the one by Prof. Pius Adesanmi.  I strongly believe Pius Adesanya is the best answer one would have expected from Mr. Onanuga’s so-called friends. At least on Facebook. In Pius Adesanmi ‘s  write up one saw a need to help some of our leaders to keep in touch with their base, reality constantly. Which some of our appointed or elected leaders   had missed not because they really wanted to but because their daily experience,association and opportunities they are accustomed to had slightly altered their realities. But more importantly also, I also think  there is misdirection of anger in our every day lives as Nigerian and many also abuse other peoples’ right to express what is going on in  their minds think without being afraid.

To the best of our knowledge, Mr Onanuga is not validating the fact that there is no poverty in the land. By his thought pattern his thought could be associated with a joke many had read on the same Facebook platform which we all laughed at without seeing anything wrong in it. Or how many had not seen the joke ‘Nigerians say there is no money and yet there is always queue at every ATM machine, are they all withdrawing their sins?’

Many do not see anything wrong in this because the photo of an individual who said this is not in government even though he is an actor whom ‘God has also helped’ like we say in local parlance. We do think we must reduce the level of hatred in the land despite the fact that we are all hard pressed in every corner. ‘Eating’ one another in  raw flesh will not  solve the problems.  It will only add to them. When the bubble is over,  we would have created more enemies than friends among ourselves than before. I have also seen many saying Mr. Onanuga’s aloofness to reality to his so called former tribe -masses, is a strategic positioning for his aim of going to the Senate in 2019. That is childish.  If anything at all, this scenario had done much damage.

In my own estimation, even though I do not know him personally, being a Managing Director of NAN would not have altered Mr. Onanuga’s lifestyle beyond what he was used to. Not sure his daughter just started schooling in Britain after he became  ‘government’s contractor/defender’ as some of his friend’s labelled him. As editor, he is used to having personal   driver and possibly one for his children or Madam. The major difference he may have today is that he may have  Police escort.

On the part of Mr. Onanuga and his likes whom we all know used to be always on the side of the people before they accept government’s positions, they need to learn a lesson or two from this. Because of the level of poverty in the land, many will view whatever you say now from the point of view of a ‘privileged class’ who had no connection with reality.  Therefore even though you have a right to personal opinion and freedom of expression, you need to know being in government puts you against the people so to say. Especially a government like ours in Nigeria where people are suffering and there seems to be no policy direction and all you hear is ‘all will be well or It go better’.

Citizens in Bayo Onanuga’s position must understand the power of ‘Executive brand’ and impact of speech they make on their brands.  We will,  talk at length about this in another platform. By and large, Nigerians need to learn how to leave together in peace. We must eradicate all forms of hatred, unnecessary demonstration of anger and wear  the lens of Prof. Pius Adesanmi to see what needed to be done by addressing real issues instead of unnecessary attack, bad tempered and manners that create more enmity amongst us. We will correct people who are in error this way than any other approach.

Olaito is a media and communication practitioner.