Continued from Monday
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In 2001, The Punch had trade dispute with the newspapers agents over the issue of no unsold policy. While the crisis lasted, there was no intervention from the body. The company dealt with the situation itself, explored both conventional and non conventional means to resolve the dispute it had with the newspapers agents.
On March 29, 2016, newspaper agents in Lagos state and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja had problem with some media organisations over the latters decisions to increase the cover price of their newspapers. The crises degenerated to the point that sales of the affected newspapers (The Punch, The Nation, The Sun, Vanguard and Independent) were abandoned i.e agents and vendors in Abuja and Lagos refused to sell the publications for almost a week. Efforts by the concerned media firms to sell directly to the reading public were met with stiff oppositions from the agents.
On April 3, 2016, Tunji Adegboyega, an editorial board member of The Nation newspapers wrote a column on this problem in his newspaper. The article, titled: Time To Cut Them To Size will continue to be relevant for a very long time.
He wrote “in these circumstances, one should expect the professional bodies in the industry, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) to speak up against the tyranny of the newspaper agents and indeed cut them to size. The agents in Lagos who were invited by the Commissioner of Police Ajani Fatai Owoseni, following a petition by three of the newspapers said they wanted to discuss with the NPAN. Since when has that started? Was it the NPAN that had been dealing with them all these years? Where else in the world do newspaper agents seek to have audience with newspaper proprietors? The concerned media houses resolved their differences with the newspapers agents without any intervention from NPAN”.
There is a possibility that members might have lost interest in the body based on the involvement of its Chairman in a financial scandal. With the arrest and subsequent release on bail of Colonel Sambo Dasuki, the ex National Security Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, and the mind-boggling disclosure of those who fed fat on our collective patrimony, publishers must be ashamed of media owners roles in the sordid tale.
Of course, we should not use just use one brush to tar the many honest and hardworking publishers and journalists left in the land, but this moment must surely rank as one of the lowest for all of in this noble profession.
The Cable published an article on its website (www.thecable.ng/.VnkH9UcTGIM.facebook) on December 15, 2015. It was titled Living NPAN show of shame. What was published therein was damming. It was published that Journalists have not covered themselves in glory and whichever way members of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) want to spin the saga involving their president, Nduka Obaigbena, THISDAY newspapers publisher, and some other publishers, an incestuous relationship existed between them and the ex-President Goodluck Jonathan administration.
We cannot also continue to pretend that all is well with the profession by refusing to speak out against corruption that is incapacitating journalists from playing their watch dog role effectively. Of course, the argument is that we might not expect the media to be different as corruption permeates every area of our lives. But with the self-assigned and constitutionally-guaranteed oversight functions of the media, Dasukigate offers ample opportunity to review practitioners activities and how they have succeeded in throwing the profession to the dogs.
The need for this is further amplified; there is an affinity between a largely corrupt media organisations and inability to pay salaries, remit deducted taxes and pension contributions, and meeting other contractual obligations to her workers.
Obaigbena, allegedly became the conduit for distributing cash to at least 12 newspapers, according to findings by agents investigating the former NSAs illicit disbursements of defense funds. Obaigbena, under whose watch NPAN collected N120 million from Dasuki also got a tidy sum of N670 million for his organisations premises that was bombed on April 26, 2012.
With the gale of denials from some publishers that they did not collect any money for newspapers seized in June 2014, some reactions were highly commendable and reassuring that all is not lost among NPAN members. First was Punch Newspapers Limited which issued a well-crafted statement announcing its withdrawal from NPAN until things are done decently. It is yet to be confirmed whether it has returned to the body.
Equally, African Newspapers of Nigeria ( ANN) Plc, publishers of the Tribune titles, denied receiving any money through the publisher of Thisday newspapers, Mr Nduka Obaigbena, as compensation for attacks on its operations and personnel by soldiers in June, 2014 although it filed claims like all other newspaper companies as requested for by the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).
A statement signed by the company’s Managing Director/ Editor- in- Chief, Mr Edward Dickson, faulted claims made by Mr Obaigbena that the Tribune was one of the 12 newspaper companies compensated by the Federal Government for the June 2014 attacks on newspapers, their circulation personnel and vehicles by soldiers in Abuja and parts of the north.
The two paragraph statement reads:
“Our attention has been drawn to claims by the Publisher of Thisday newspapers who is also President of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, that a sum of N10 million was paid to our company through NPAN by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) as compensation for the disruption of our circulation operations, seizure of our newspapers and damage to our property by soldiers in June, 2014.
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“Although, like other NPAN members, we filed claims as requested for by NPAN, the fact of the matter is that up till this moment, 11th December, 2015, our company is yet to receive a kobo as compensation from NPAN for the 2014 disruptive activities of the military to our operations.”
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Further, Sun Newspapers decided to return the N9 million cheque it collected based on the unfortunate insinuation of involvement in the illegal sharing of the nations commonwealth and the feasting on the blood of soldiers fighting the war against insurgency.
The steps they have taken are the minimum we should insist on as the way forward. Good enough that both organisations have decided to pursue their claims in courts as the military, which seized the newspaper copies, are government agents.
Meanwhile, the names of the12 newspapers involved remain secret till date. At a point, NPAN President issued a statement that cheques for The Guardian, Tribune and Peoples Daily were with the secretariat. That was when the issue became a public knowledge.
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Some pertinent questions for NPAN include: why the use of another company, General Hydrocarbons, in receiving the N120 million? Who evaluated the losses incurred and how was the N10 million arrived at for each company? If the payment was for the losses suffered, how come newspapers were asked to donate N1 million each for building a new NPAN secretariat? Why the secrecy surrounding the negotiation as the public did not know until the investigation into arms purchase by the past government commenced? Lets hope NPAN will provide answers to these questions, otherwise it remains tainted.
In his own contribution, while writing on Time To Cut Them To Size, Tunji Adegboyega said “obviously, the chronic poverty in the industry, arising from its gross under-capitalisation is at work here. Indeed, this was what made N9million look like gold to the newspapers which quickly pocketed the money offered by the Jonathan administration for the military assault on the newspapers in the tail-end of that government, only to return it when they realised it was forbidden fruit. Yet, those of them doing well make more than N9million daily. Also, it is this under-capitalisation that has led some journalists to have two caps: on the one hand they are journalists, and, on the other, they are portfolio investors”.
Furthermore, he wrote “then there is also the problem of NPAN itself which, to me, looks more like an amalgam of strange bedfellows. It is curious that the association has not uttered a word for the four or so days the agents imbroglio with the newspapers lasted. It is more than curious that mum has been the word from the same NPAN that went into negotiation with government and got a paltry N9million for the heavy losses some of its members incurred during the raid on newspapers by soldiers. The unity in the association manifests more in its diversity; with the centripetal tendencies usually caving in to the centrifugal contradictions in critical moments as this. It is probably only in the newspaper industry that you find proprietors silent when this kind of problem arises. It simply tells that the unity in the association is suspect”.
In view of the foregoing, NPAN has a greater task ahead; it has to put its house in order. It also needs to build confidence of its members; there should be a thorough re-organisation. In fact, it has to review its operations before setting agenda for the survival of the industry.
Finally, it should be the rallying point for the media industry and remain at the forefront whenever the interest of any of its members is being jeopardized. It should be capable of standing as a guarantor for any of the ailing ones among the media seeking for financial assistance.
Reviving the ailing newsprints firms in the country should be given a serious attention. This will make the body attractive and members will join voluntarily.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO, AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
08023051315
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com
