Why Condemn Him?

The recent damning
audio clip of  the head of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN),  Ikotun, Lagos, Prophet Temitope B. Joshua allegedly offering journalists  N50,000.00 bribe each following the tragic Church collapse and the subsequent attack on the journalist who up load the tape can best be described as unfortunate.
It is indeed worrisome that ours has become a society where the leaders do no wrong in so far as they are from the same faith, or ethnic background with us. We are in a country where bribery and corruption have been so entrenched that any one who speaks against it is considered a traitor. In other civilised clime, when someone is bold enough to expose the corrupt acts of a leader as Nicholas Ibekwe did, he is highly commended and even sometimes rewarded. But ours is different. Instead of commending the brave  journalists, many Nigerians have  been calling for his head hurling all kinds of curses on him and his family.
Considering the magnitude of the calamity  that befell the nation and other nations, whose citizens were involved  in that incident, bearing in mind  the large number of lives lost in the building collapse, one would have expected  Nigerians to pour accolades an Nicholas for revealing the alleged  plan by the man of God to make journalists water down the report.
For anyone who listened to the tape, you could hear someone who sounded a whole lot like Prophet  T.B. Joshua after allegedly handing  out the N50,000.00 envelops to journalists saying, “I would be  very happy if you can help me go and correct some  of the things  that is inside the paper”. That happened after it was reported that  members of the  church attacked journalists who tried to cover the collapse. Some journalists were reportedly beaten up for trying to take pictures while others got their cameras smashed. Let’s not forget that by that time there were insinuations that the church failed to obtain approval for the building, therefore  the addition of more floors to the existing two storey building  was unlawful.
Again, the chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on the Environment, Tobun  Abiodun, disclosed that some government officials must have been influenced to have allowed  the church construct the collapse building illegally which had led to the death of the worshippers. May be these were the ‘things inside the paper” that the  journalists  were allegedly offered N50,000 as “fuel money” to go and correct.
Of course, we all sympathise  with Prophet TB Joshua and the SCOAN family for the great  calamity that befell them and the entire  nation but we must not fail to call a spade a spade. If it is true that the man of God mearnt for the money  to influence the reporting of the event  it should be condemned.
The reporters, expose should not be underplayed rather a thorough investigation should be carried out and whoever is culpable brought to book.
Nigeria is today rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the situation cannot change if we continue to condone and encourage corrupt practices. A good number of buildings that collapsed in Lagos and other parts of the country couldn’t  have happened if those incharge of approving  buildings and supervising them were not compromised.
And to my fellow journalists, I think the time has come for us to really prove that we are watchdogs of the society by holding  our leaders to account. We cannot continue to allow the society  dictate  our news contents because of “brown envelope”, “appreciation money” “fuel money” or whatever name we may call it. It  is high time we stopped ridiculing ourselves  and our noble profession by our embarrassing attitudes at press conferences and other events.
It is true that many Nigerian journalists are poorly paid  but that shouldn’t be the reason for us to continue to cheapen ourselves.

Calista Ezeaku