2023: Political desperadoes pay bloggers against Tinubu
Discerning readers could not have missed a salacious news item syndicated in a number of blogs operated by supposed “professional journalists” on Saturday (March 5,2022) with a rather misleading headline “Newspaper owned by Tinubu attacks Buhari” over 2023.
This pre-conceived report anchored on an opinion article written by a writer and published in The Nation Newspaper way back in 2017 is nothing but a poor hatchet job sponsored by some frustrated politicians jittery at the steadily rising approval rating of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the countdown to APC primaries begin and, by God’s grace, the 2023 presidential polls.
They simply excavated an opinion article written in 2017 by an independent contributor to The Nation (a newspaper where Asiwaju has interest) and laughably presented it as an “editorial” published in 2023. What desperation! How can an opinion article written by someone in 2017 represent the editorial position of The Nation in 2022? Haba !!
It is so shameful that such poor hatchet job with illogical conclusion can be accepted by supposed senior “professional journalists” for blood money with a view to projecting Tinubu as waging a media “war” on President Muhammadu Buhari with whom he continues to enjoy excellent relationship. So sloppy enough, the “chop-I-chop” report is syndicated on these bloggers almost word for word, save for little variation in headlines!
??
What a sad, unfortunate and mischievous piece of journalism? The shame is not so much for the political desperadoes increasingly paranoid over Asiwaju’s rising approval rating across the country, but the “senior professional journalists” who lost their ethical compass because of “stomach infrastructure”.
To be sure, the assault on the noble ethics of journalism is in four-fold.
One, the article was published five years ago. These hatchet writers are now drawing inference from a 2017 article to frame their phantom rift between President Buhari and Asíwájú Tinubu.
Two, this 2017 article is the opinion of the writer and not that of the newspaper now being mentioned. So how can anyone who underwent any training in journalism equate the opinion of an independent writer to that of a newspaper?
Three, let’s even assume without conceding that it’s an editorial opinion of the newspaper, how does that translate or aggregate to that of Asíwájú. The Nation newspaper has over the years been known to be fair, unbiased and balanced in its editorial offerings. The paper has also demonstrated independence in its editorial decisions.
Finally, the insinuated “rift” between President Buhari and Asíwájú only exists in the fertile imagination of these mercenary bloggers and their paymasters. If the attempt is to create one, they have failed again as their ilk similarly failed in the past.
This report should be disregarded totally. It lacked foundation in its entirety. The writers and those behind them should be ashamed of themselves. They should have no place in the world of decent journalism founded on truth and accuracy.
Signed
Tinubu Media Support Group
(USE WIDELY)