Pegasus Reporters Issues on the Wing
PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | DECEMBER 20, 2021
My dear brother, Carl
I am constrained to write this open letter to you, since it has become the most effective way of reaching out to people like you in Nigeria today, and Kudos must be given to Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo for exposing us to this mode of communication. As you are very much aware, in the last couple of weeks several open letters have been flying across the land, so do not be surprised that I have to write one also.
You may be wondering what this letter is all about, but just be patient and read through. It is all about your mysterious transformation from the Carl Abu (Karl Abu) that we used to know in the eighties at the prestigious University of Benin to your current ideological position. It is all about trying to find out how it actually happened and to advise you to retrace your tracks immediately. It is heartbreaking to see that you are now an unrepentant defender of amala / foul-mouthed politicians who wish us no good. People who have turned Nigeria into a molue-country!
Remember that in one of our recent conversations I told you recently that everything is wrong everywhere in Nigeria today. But your very surprising response was like; there is nothing wrong with that! At a time when billions have been stolen (and are still being stolen) from millions of Nigerians and the culprits defect from the opposition to the ruling party, await chieftaincy titles and political appointments, Karl, you unbelievably advocate that we should keep saying that ‘’It is well’’. Invalids, kleptomaniacs and charlatans who are determined to push the country over the precipice, marauders and shenanigans that have succeeded in pauperizing Nigerians like never before seen are now in charge. Rochas Okorocha has turned Imo state into a private estate. People are living in abject poverty but still can’t sleep at night because of Fulani Miyetti Allah.
The bigoted Fulani president we have is constructing a railway line from his place to another Fulani country; he is planning to build a refinery at the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic (another Fulani nation) when the present ones in the country are not functioning. 85% of his appointees are Fulani, mostly from his village or state. The newly appointed Director General of the very sensitive NIA has his roots in Chad republic. Our democracy today is frightened while the unity of the country is being threatened through deliberate acts by the tired army general at the helm of affairs. There is general insecurity is in the land with herdsmen killing thousands of Nigerians daily with the active connivance of the president and his cohorts. These things are normal to you? Yes, you may want to argue that you are not in government, but hitherto you were an unbiased activist, public analyst and journalist. The “Carl Abu” we knew then would have gone to the roof top to scream against any prevailing evil in the land.
Let me take you back a bit. After Alhaji Shehu Shagari was overthrown by Major General Buhari in 1983, yes the same Buhari, the country went on to experience a better forgotten military leadership history. During the period one General will go, another will come with promises, but the people remained in abject wretchedness. Then, we took to protests in our write up’s, conversations in beer parlours and safe cubicles where we quaffed our beers determinedly. Just like in our university days where you were very popular for your Marxist ideology, with clenched fists, great composure, and in a resonant voice we heard things like; comprador bourgeoisie, lumpen proletariat, reactionaries, militariat, down with khakistocracy, militocracy, according to Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, Martin Luther King, Aluta continua!, Victoria acerta from your mouth. Though some people including me, didn’t really understand some of these words, it was widely believed you were clamouring for a dismantling of the status quo, a position for which you where well known then.
Now that we are living under a siege, you are very vociferous in your defence of the people who are subjugating us. You have imperceptibly degenerated into a bacchanalia. Certainly, this is not the “Carl Abu” we used to know! Mallam, at a time like this in the history of Nigeria, instead of keeping faith with your comrade Marxists in the struggle to wrestle the lion to retrieve the lamb from its hungry jaws, you are more or less praise-singing the twisted politicians and oppressors! Clapping for them and urging them on as reflected in some of your posts and write up’s. All of a sudden, you are busy celebrating dubious politicians who are being coerced to defect from PDP to APC to evade arrest for crimes against Nigerians. My brother, we are tired of being tired with you over this sad and strange development. This has become so worrisome to us. Remember, one should not dodge potholes only to land in a canal.
The question now is; what happened that you are now on the side of the same people you had all along loathed? Why the ideological compromise? Or is it a case of ‘if you can’t beat them, you join them’? Have you been ‘settled’ by the crooks? Is it the case of another Adams Osiomhole?
My brother, before you start having sleepless nights about this open letter, be rest assured that we are not angry with you. We still love you so much. All we are saying is that you must return to your ways. It’s not too late. However, you are at liberty to ignore this strong and very timely advice. Let me quickly add that if you choose that option, you will further reinforce the belief of Nigerians who are presently of the opinion that you have betrayed and are still betraying the confidence, hopes, aspirations and expectations they had in you.
Best wishes and regards to your family.
Yours sincerely
Elder Mackson Ujiadughele
Response by the Editorial Board
The Editorial Board of Pegasus Reporters Media Online will like to thank the writer, Elder Mackson Ujiadughele for the issues raised in this letter. We also wish to salute his decision to dare this same medium to express his observation about the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief despite our reservation about some of the issues raised. Incidentally, we believe that his request is a testimony that despite his angst, he still believe in the PegasusReporters platform as a defender of a free press and a speak-out platform for the masses.
Yet, we would like to restate, as often as we have, that as a corporate media concern, we believe that individual opinion and views as expressed on social media or any other print media and in our Opinion and Reaction sub-columns do not represent the editorial policy of PegasusReporters.
As a 21th Century media outfit, we hold the view that being a journalist should not exclude a practitioner from expressing his views through popular media especially in our world where those who hold power on behalf of the people continue to wield it with abysmal authoritarianism that denigrate the people as mere chattel and or simplistic electoral denominators that are useful only during election period.
The 21st century Reporter must be seen as a liberation journalist! Reporting a tyranny by government or wanton horror and deceit by anyone or body, detachedly, for instance is cold journalism fit only for the fading days of media practice.
It’s our conviction that in the emerging media praxis of the 21st Century, a journalist must have a mindset. The traditional approach which encourages emotional detachment as a trait that forces a journalist and the media to play the unconcerned witnesses of countless tragedies as mere observers, may be obsolete. We must not forget the tragedy suffered by Kevin Carter of the South African Bang-Bang Boys, who following the tradition, snapped that popular photograph of the starving Sudanese girl in the desert and the vulture waiting to devour her at death! Report had it that Kevin had been deeply and affected by the horrors he had witnessed so much that a few months later, when he won the Pulitzer Prize for the photo, by the end of July, 1994, he committed suicide as he could not absolve himself of guilt for his detachment.
We are aware that many journalists, here in Nigeria suffer from this emotional comeback feelings of guilt even though many are not willing to speak out publicly.
We therefore wish to appeal to our readers to distinguish between personal political opinion held by stakeholders as published in PegasusReporters and our editorial policies. We are mot unaware that some publishers of online titles are currently active participants in the race for the Nigerian presidency and that cannot, by any stretch of concise imagination, be construed to that such publications have become megaphones of their publishers.
Many readers have been sending us goodwill messages for our balanced view on national matters and reportage even as we encourage anyone in doubt to review our publications in the past two years.
We, also, hereby, encourage our readers to be fair in their choice of language even though we decided as a media to not tamper with the above letter because of the personality addressed. As a media, we are anti-hate speech compliant and have upheld that tradition even before it became an issue in the Nigerian political space.
What’s your view? Tell us you were here by replying to this story in the comment section below. You can share it, too.
©Pegasus Reporters: making news that reach your audience|Advertise with us!|Join our readers’ list on Telegram (+234 813 308 8344) Follow us on Twitter @pegasusreporters | We are on Facebook; The Pegasus Reporters | Chat with the Editor on WhatsApp (+234 815 444 5334) |Contact the Editor or send your articles to pegasusreporters@gmail.com
Read Our preceding Post: Your Self Esteem Says A Lot About Your Actions – Tai Isong
