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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Vice President Kashim Shettima has called on the Nigerian media to partner with the government in advancing democracy through constructive journalism and critical thinking, warning that societies crumble without bold interrogators of ideas.
According to a statement issued by his media aide, Stanley Nkwocha, speaking Monday at the public presentation of the book My Life and Journalists Hangout and the 60th birthday celebration of veteran journalist and TVC News Director of News, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, in Abuja, Shettima said a society is destroyed not by the absence of ideas but by the “absence of men and women with the courage to interrogate ideas, to test them against reason, and to ask the difficult questions that save a people from the seduction of easy answers.”
Shettima lauded Kolade-Otitoju for nurturing a tradition of critical engagement via his popular TV programme, Journalists Hangout. “The measure of every democracy is not in the rituals of elections alone or the architecture of institutions. It is also in the sensibility and sensitivity of the media. A democracy depends on a media culture that knows when to probe, when to warn, when to illuminate, and when to restrain itself from becoming an accomplice to confusion,” he stated.
“Everything deteriorates when left unquestioned. Power deteriorates. Public institutions deteriorate. National conversations deteriorate. Even truth itself can be crowded out when falsehood is allowed to roam unchallenged. The media, at its finest, is not a theatre of noise. It is a republic of conscience.”
Paying glowing tribute to the celebrant, Shettima described him as “a man who has made a vocation of questioning appearances, resisting intellectual laziness, and insisting that public life must answer to reason.” He called Kolade-Otitoju a “living template of democratic courage,” adding: “Today, as we celebrate your 60th birthday and the public presentation of your book, My Life and Journalists Hangout, we honour the substance you have poured into those years. We honour a craft you have dignified, a platform you have elevated, and a tradition of critical engagement you have helped nurture in our country. We also honour your decision to write, to remember, and to leave behind a record of a life spent in the service of thought.”
The VP emphasised critical thinking’s role in “disciplin[ing] public conversation, sav[ing] citizens from the tyranny of prejudice, [and] protect[ing] society from the poison of conspiracy theories that feed on fear, ignorance, and wounded passions.” He praised Kolade-Otitoju’s decades-long career: “That is no small achievement. To spend decades in the service of journalism with integrity intact, with relevance undiminished, and with intellectual energy still alive, is a rare accomplishment.”
Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum and Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, commended the media’s patriotic role in democracy and development.
Book reviewer Prof. Kyari Mohammed described the nine-chapter memoir as an “outstanding account” of Kolade-Otitoju’s print and broadcast career, politics, governance, and journalism practice, recommending it to policymakers, journalists, and administrators.
Former National Broadcasting Commission Director General Danladi Bako hailed Kolade-Otitoju as a “courageous professional” and thanked Shettima for honoring journalists.
Tributes also came from Presidential Spokesman Sunday Dare, AIT anchor Gbenga Aruleba, NiDCOM Chair Abike Dabiri, and others including Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele; Governors Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Kefas Agbu (Taraba), Usman Ododo (Kogi), and Babagana Zulum (Borno); President’s Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila; Special Adviser Bayo Onanuga; and former AGF Mohammed Adoke.
