of Nigeria, Lagos Chapter held a symposium on ‘Hajj and Media Responsibility’ where Alhaji Liad Tella, a veteran journalist, Senior Research Fellow, Mass Communication Department, University of Ilorin and Founding President of the group presented the lead paper at Lagos State Secretariat Mosque Multipurpose Hall, Alausa, Ikeja. Below is the excerpt of the paper. THIS paper is an interrogation of the duty and responsibility of the press albeit the media in the reportage of Hajj Affairs in Nigeria. It also examined the dominance of the media by missionary journalism in Nigeria and the almost complete absence of Muslim in the media arena. The consequences of such negligence and the lack of appreciation, by Muslims, of the role of the media in educating, informing, mobilizing and galvanizing the society towards a particular direction has led to misperception of Islam and Islamic Injunctions, particularly Hajj. What is heard constantly has a way of registering in the sub-consciousness of men and what confronts the eyes daily has the same effect. A lie told a thousand times may inadvertently become the truth. The paper concluded that unless the Muslim Ummah changes its approach to the media, it may continue to be despised, depressed and misrepresented in the media. The weak position of Islam and Muslims in the media has not significantly improved. The preponderance of Christian missionary and evangelical news continued to outplay Islam and Muslims with all the prejudice in the media arena. Islam is despised, stereotyped and denigrated by the media in several ways in spite of the provision of section 39 of the 1999 constitution as amended on freedom of religion which was an aggregation of sections 35, 36 and 37 of the of the 1979 constitution. It is therefore right to assume that the media as the watchdog of the society will adhere strictly to balances, fair and unbiased reportage on issues of religion by promoting individual right to freedom of worship and religion without let or hindrance. Unfortunately, media reportage of Islamic events is always from the negative perspectives and editorial opinion on major Islamic events until very recently, in some media, stigmatizes Islam with negativity. The focus of this paper is not Islam and its entire content but on the fifth pillar, Hajj which is usually regarded and referred to by all Muslims as the completion of faith. All Muslims crave for and pray for Hajj, at least, one in a life time and as many as possible for those who have the means. Ability to financethe journey According to Bugaje (2017), “hajj is neither a fun nor a joke, nor a pass time for self aggrandizement, which unfortunately, it has been made to appear today.” He further enthused that as the fifth pillar, it is the strongest of them because it, coming as the last sequence, it subsumes all others. Citing Qur’an 22:27-8, he stated that every generation, in every epoch, finds in Hajj, lots of benefits. Bashir M. Bugaje (2017) also stated that “hajj being one of the five pillars of Islam”, has been made compulsory for all Muslims to perform, at least, once in their life time provided they can meet some preconditions. Principal among the preconditions is the ability to finance the journey and take care of the home front while on Hajj. Qur’an 2:125 stated: “we have rendered the site (Kaabah) a focal point for the people and a safe sanctuary. You may use Ibrahim’s shrine as a prayer house. We commissioned Abraham and Ismail to build it.” Also, Qur’an 22:27 declared; “And proclaim that the people shall observe Hajj. They will come to you walking or riding on various exhausted means of transportation. They will come from the farthest locations. This clarion call has made Hajj to become one of the greatest single or one-event that annually brings humanity together from all over the globe. The phenomenon called Hajj therefore requires better understanding of the intricacies and complex management activities which shall be examined shortly. Negative media reportage from negative perception may be due to ignorance or lack of desire to understand Islam and its content or due to deliberate bias due to inherited bigotry. It may also be a carry-over of missionary journalism and evangelical origin of the press and journalism in Nigeria. It may also be due to lack of adequate appreciation of the role of the professional responsibility of the media in education, social mobilization, cultural integration in a multi religious society like Nigeria and the development of the polity, Hajj inclusive. The domination of the press by Christians and Christianity has become almost traditional. In such a situation, the expectation of fairness by the media is misplaced by Muslims and this should not be taken for granted. Muslims and Hajj affairs managers have done very little to appropriate, engage, and stimulate the media towards a better understanding of Islam and Hajj affairs by the media. Where efforts were made, it has been so little. If it is assumed that the preponderance of Christians in the media has been used to depress Islam, why can’t Muslims take refuge in sacrosanct professional ethics of journalism to get media men off the track of bias and negative reportage of Islam, particularly Hajj. The media as the greatest agency of mass communication cannot and should not be ignored even though it is expected to know. The Muslims should get the media to come home with the fact that Hajj is not only cultural in Nigeria; it is cultural in the entire West, Central, East And North Africa. The exceptions are the Southern African nations. West African history recall the glorious era of Emperor Mansa Musa of the ancient Mali Empire, Askia the Great of Songhay, Umar Futi of Sene-Gambia, ElKanemi o Kanem-Borno Empire. Hajj as stated by Bugaje (2017), dated back to early 11th century with legendary Mai Dunama bn Ume who made Hajj by road twice, Muhammad al Amin El-Kanemi who also performed Hajj by road once. These facts are available on the net for those interested in publishing the fact which in journalism is considered sacred. HAJJ Hajj is the largest collection of people in a single sacred location, in a country using a single airport, until very recently when Madinah Airport became a complementary airport to Jeddah International Airport, two million people flying into Saudi Arabia within three weeks is not a mean air traffic management in term of landing, parking and taking off. No nation and no airport in the world are so challenged. HAJJ MANAGEMEMENT The central word is planning the key elements of hajj management; the men, the materials, the instrument, the agencies and the net work. The next point in these elements is to ensure effective and efficient Hajj service delivery, organizing men and materials from all over the country to achieve the same objective is very essential. These activities can be categorized into two entities; the onshore and offshore operation. Both operations are separate but interconnected (Tella, 2017). The onshore operations include coordinating the allocation of hajj seats, procuring of travel papers, procurement of visa, accreditation and licensing of air carriers and negotiation of Hajj fare for the airlift operations and departure activities to achieve hitch free movement of pilgrims from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia. Those involved in the planning according to Tella (2017), Muktar (2017) are the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Health, service providers such as Nigeria Airport Authority, Cargo handling companies, Tour operators and other service providers. Provision of transportation The second leg in the offshore managements activities are the provision of transportation, accommodation, feeding in Madinah, Makkah and the Masai Holy Sites of Arafah, Musdalifah and Munnah where more than two million al hujjajs are lodged for five days and movement back to Makkah. There are specialized Saudi agencies such as the ministries of Hajj Affairs, Interior, Transportation and other agencies Nigeria Hajj managers must coordinate with within specified time-line. The airlift back home is as complex as the inward journey into Saudi Arabia. The flight schedule must be accurate and movement to the Airport and boarding programme must key into flight departure time. Suffice it to state that the concept of hajj, the content of hajj, what is involved in management and the inter/intra connectivity among all specialized agencies involved in hajj operation must be well understood by the media. The media rather than seek information about all these complexities, usually engage in stereotype and blackmail of Islam and Muslims. Some of the headlines listed bellow suffice in this regard. When Governors are bidding farewell to pilgrims newspaper reports are usually. “Muslim Pilgrims urged to shun drug trafficking in Saudi Arabia”; “Muslim advised to shun Bad Behavior during Hajj”; 12 Nigerians died in Saudi Arabia”; Nigerian pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia”; “200 Nigerians deported from Saudi Arabia” and many more. Unfortunately, the media has chosen not to pay attention to these activities and sound early warnings on dereliction(s) that may result in operational failure. Section 22 of the 1999 constitution mandated the media to hold the government accountable to the people. This position is not only about the reporting of Hajj management failure but also about calling the attention of Hajj managers to potential areas of likely failure or events that may affect good governance. The key areas where media attention should be focused are: 1.Review of previous Hajj Operation on the areas of challenges and proffer of solutions to them. 2.The process of fixing air fare and compliance with regulations/deadline for payment; by States Pilgrim Welfare Boards. 3.Pre-qualification and Accreditation of airlines for hajj airlift operation. The regulations governing the operation, the role of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority NCAA, Immigration Services etc. 4.Accreditation of Hajj Tour Operators HTO and other service providers. 5.Coordination with the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. 6.The process of procuring visa from Saudi Arabia. 7.Rehabilitation of eleven Hajj Camps. 8.Preparation of fight schedule and management of departure centers. These processes have to be monitored by the media and reported by journalists with the purpose of calling attention of the commission to areas of challenges. It should be noted that weekend days in Saudi Arabia are Thursdays and Fridays while in Nigeria it is Saturdays and Sundays. Effectively, the coordinating days between Saudi Arabia and Nigeria are three days in a week totaling 157 days for the planning and execution of Hajj programs (Tella 2017). If the media has availed itself with the above processes, it will be easy to achieve information synergy and achieve balanced reportage. Muktar (2017) recalled that the Commission since its inception has introduced reform policies in the areas of airlift operations, accommodation, feeding, medical services, luggage management, and operational guidelines for all aspects of Hajj management. It has also eliminated corruption in operations of the Hajj affairs. The media should avail itself of these policies and their content, so that journalists will be in a better position to appreciate and understand the successes or failures in Hajj management. MUSLIM AND ISLAM IN THE MEDIA There are 237 local, regional and national newspapers currently circulating in Nigeria out which 37 are national newspapers (onlinenewspaper.com; retrieved 17th July 2017) and only three English language newspapers has link with Muslims. Only two has Islamic inclination, the Triumph and the Daily Trust, The Nation owned by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu has nothing, content wise that reflects Islam. The 34 others nationally or regionally circulated newspapers are owned and managed by Christians some of whom are evangelists, deacons and pastors. The Nation is run by Christians. The country Nigeria was brought together by missionary Christians. The Queen of England, the Head of the Anglican Church worldwide ran Nigeria like a Christian enclave. Governance till today is run like a Christian nation. Yet our compatriots engage in appeasement Shibboleth of alleged attempt by Muslims to Islamize Nigeria using the instrumentality of the Media to disguise evangelization of the country. Nothing is wrong with evangelization and nobody should see anything wrong with Islamization. Only those destined by God can be evangelized or Islamized. The cock and bull story about Islamisation to me is either a preemptive strategy or a disguised motion to divert the attention of Muslims away from grand design evangelization currently going on all over the country using the instrumentality of the media. The media is playing host to these allegations and they are put in double jeopardy of disinformation to perpetrate evangelization. Even When Abiola’s Concord group of newspapers dominated the print media between 1985 and 1994, only three of the 14 top managers were Muslims. At Arisekola’ owned Monitor Newspaper only 4 of the nine top executives were Muslims and only 40 percent of the reporters were Muslims. That was perhaps the only newspaper in the South West with the highest number of Muslims. It is therefore not out of place to conclude that Muslims are absent in the media. MUSLIMS IN THE MEDIA AND HAJJ COVERAGE When I joined the Daily Times in 1978 as a Youth Corper, I met very few Muslims as practicing Journalists in spite of the fact that media legend Alhaji Ismail Babatunde Jose was the Chief Executive of the company for more than two decades. Only Alhaji Bola Adedoja was a frontal person on the issues of Islam, Tunji Oseni , the Editor of The Sunday Times was a low key Muslim. Lade Bonuola (Ladbone and the Editor of the Daily Times Tony Momoh have both embraced The Grail Message and were no longer practicing Islam. Pa Mark Alabi was not easily identified as a Muslim but he was a committed Islamist. Chief Tola Adeniyi of the “Abbasaid” fame was the most frontal and pivot of Islam in the media. He severally espoused Islam in his column and used to quote profusely verses of the Glorious Qur’an stylistically using the best of prose and literary rendition that stood him out among his peers as a famous columnist, and commentator on public affairs. My generation at the Times groups of Newspapers saw the arrival of committed Muslim graduates at the Journalism arena in the South West. They apart from me included Doyin Mahmoud, Najeem Jimoh and Mohammed Aruna from Auchi. I was the only one in the newsroom. Others were on the sub-desk. When I joined The Punch on the 1st of January 1982, only me, Labake Adebiyi and Segun Obilana were Muslims among top editorial staff, others were all Christians. By 1984, Najim Jimoh and Yisa Kareem came in after a serious effort. Najeem Kazeem joined as a reporter while Semiu Babatunde came in for one year industrial attachment. He later became a full staff. The low presence of Muslims pervades the media till today. Tribute must be paid to ace Islamic columnists, late Pa Olatunde “Facing the Kaabah” and Femi Abbas “Islam.” The lopsided Muslim presence in the media, notwithstanding, professional ethics of Journalism make fairness, balance and objective reportage of events and issues mandatory and inviolable. Facts in journalism are sacred while comment is free. Truth is supposed to be the fountain of journalism but perception based on political, ethnic and religious primordialism has brought in slanted and bias reportage to the centre of journalism practice. Balancing is thrown to the wind when issues concerning Hajj is reported. Half truth are deposed and ventilated by the media as long as somebody can be credited with making the statement. Most often when reports about Hajj are filed by field journalists, no responsible effort is made to check, cross check and double check the facts before filing the report for publication. The right of reply on such issues is most often than not violated with impunity. There are occasions when reports by reporters deployed to cover Hajj were ignored for home grown report. An example was the report in some media that Nigerian pilgrims were stranded in Saudi Arabia less than two weeks after the completion of Hajj in 1998 when I was on Hajj. The fact is that the out bound flight to Saudi Arabia took 23 days. Why should the media expect the completion of in-bound flight within two weeks? I am still waiting to read the editorials that will celebrate the National Hajj for seamless and hitch free Hajj since 2007. I am yet to read editorial celebrating Nigeria Hajj Managers for rebranding Nigeria’s image in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The improvement in accommodation and transportation of Nigerian pilgrims, the luggage management and movement of Nigerian pilgrims to the main departure terminal at Jeddah and Madinah Airports are yet to be acknowledged by the media. Journalists covering Hajj annually to me, have not done enough, many file their reports and go to sleep after Hajj only to resurface at the commencement or during the buildup for the next Hajj. This is a weak approach to meeting media responsibility to inform, educate and positively prepare the new pilgrims for the Challenge of Hajj and sensitize Hajj managers on areas requiring improvement. The media apart from covering Hajj rites should devote more air time and editorial space in the print media on Hajj education. Pilgrims need to be assisted to go through Hajj rites and for Hajj rites to have positive impact on them so that they will all return from Hajj to begin a new life that will benefit the community and the nation at large. There are a lot of changes and review of the rules governing the performance of Hajj rites, changes to the mode of transportation and accommodation of pilgrims to make pilgrimage less stressful and more engaging for spiritual benefits. Some of you here have been covering Hajj for the past one decade. Ponder on your contributions for a better understanding of the content and context of Hajj. Ask yourself on your contributions to intending pilgrims for better appreciation of the challenges of performing Hajj before they embark on the journey. If your conscience gives you credit, it must be verifiable. If not, turn a new leave. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The media outreach on Hajj is grossly in adequate. The absence of Muslims in the media and inadequate understanding of the role of the media in the society has greatly affected public perception of Hajj and the content of Hajj operations. This has led to poor understanding of the phenomenon called Hajj. The missionary history of the Nigerian media and none effective participation of Muslims in the media has aided the misperception of hajj and Islam in general. The Muslims should not expect balance reportage from the Nigerian media because of the preponderance of Christians in the media. It is natural for Christian journalists, though unprofessional, to favor their religion in media reportage. The National Hajj Commission since its inception in 2007 has reformed Hajj Operation and Management in several commendable ways. Hajj airlifts are completed days ahead of the closure of Saudi airspace to pilgrims from all over the world. Most of the time, all Nigerian pilgrims arrive KSA for Hajj before the public realize that the outbound journey had been concluded. The filthy and dirty environment of Nigerian accommodation in Makkah, Muna, Arafa and Madinah has been consigned to the dustbin of history. The commission now generates 100 per cent of its onshore administrative expenditure and 80 of its offshore administrative expenditure. This should ordinarily be celebrated by the media. All these and many more were stated at the 10th anniversary celebration of NAHCON. Unfortunately, it received little media attention. The media and journalists especially Muslim journalists should wake up to the challenge of promoting better understanding of hajj. The press in particular should be fair and balanced and should graduate out of bias reportage and embrace pristine journalism ethics in the coverage of Hajj affairs. Muslim journalists should grow out of fright and come out with educative and informative write-ups to put Hajj and Hajj management in the right perspective. Above all, wealthy Muslims should invest in the media. Complaints about bias and miss reportage should stop. Positive and effective action should be taken to improve Muslim presence in the media by investing and promoting media scholarship. Muslim students should be encouraged to study journalism and media related studies. The challenge of what the catholic and Anglican have done in the training of media men in the last three to four decades should be embraced by Islamic organizations. The preponderance of Christians in the media was a conscious planning and networking. It is therefore time for affirmative action. No more complain.
salamionline 