There have, in recent times, been upsurge in youth delinquency and suicide rate which I suspect is not unconnected with unmet expectations of youths who are the immediate casualties.
My findings reveal that this sad development might be traced to the influence which motivational speakers wield irrevocably on the media generation through their Direct Interpretation of Equivocation ( DIE)system in reaching out to the youths whose desires are often fired up but are themselves robbed of the strength of actualisation.
Another crisis on hand in our society is the gale of hate literature ( in circulation) as occasioned by irresponsible media reporting ,even as our media generation is being befuddled by mental laziness as a result of their delusion that technology is there to think for them.
As if this is not enough, the society is retrogressively witnessing the underdevelopment of reading culture through the abuse of and unguided public launching of intellectual material ( books) while losing moral compass from saccharine gospel of instant prosperity in religious houses.
(2)POSITION AND CURRENT SITUATION.
There are weak attempts by educational institutions to design and implement dynamic curriculum to deal with emerging challenges, even as both governments and the media have been found to engage in over- topicalisation and over-secularisation of issues of high public concern.
In the Management of conflicts, the country is awash with selective activists and Democrats of convenience.
Most unfortunate is the fact that statesmanship within our university system is not boldly thinking out of the box towards having co-responsive interaction with statesmanship outside the university walls for the much - needed breakthroughs.
(3)PROPOSAL THEREFORE
If Effective presentation of public speaking is ten percent external and ninety percent internal and psychological, we are then missing the entire point to effectiveness in speaking, if we miss out Psycho-linguistic and memory concentration studies in the scheme of training on the Art of speaking well.
This is exactly where-in, psycho linguistic comes as my area of competence and training option in motivating motivational speakers.
Rather than the permutation option to persuasion ,"Reputation" management to effective leadership and Direct Interpretation of Equivocation ( DIE) to motivational speaking, I have successfully explored Dynamic Equivalent interpretation (DEI).
Such is still the ongoing fruitless case when school curriculum,towards rescuing the media generation from the media bathroom in which they are drowned, attempts to groom them using moral instruction and biographies which thrust are built on mere stereotypes .
Thinking outside of this box,I have successfully initiated the teaching of media studies and cosmological perspective to writing biography, as this is the ideal way to character-study, noting that leader's destiny is tantamount to nation's blessing or nation's burden.
When governments,as crisis managers ,fail in their conflict Management strategy to give pride of place to value-reorientation for the media ( as professionals who manage themselves through crisis)I pioneered the teaching of media studies as effective replacement of moral instruction in schools of science in Oyo and Osun states.
Equally, I organised the first inter-faith ( value-orientation )seminar for working journalists in Oyo state on the platform of an ngo,Movement of Non-Violence in Africa MENVIA ,founded from the proceeds of the launching of former Governor Lam Adesina's biography of my authorship in 2000.
A CALL TO DUTY .
" A true man does not seek the path where advantage lies only but rather, the path where duty lies.The only practical man is he whose dream of today will be the law of tomorrow. He who looks back on the upheavals of history and has seen civilisation going up in flames, crying out in bloody struggle throughout the centuries, knows that the future well- being of man without exception lies on the side of duty."
AREAS OF IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.
(1) There is a need to organize Psycholinguistic workshops for Motivational speakers, public office holders, Executive officers and other professionals on Effective presentation skills.
We would be replacing the current Direct Interpretation of Equivocation ( DIE) with Dynamic Equivalent Interpretation ( DEI) as the ideal and dynamic system of communication.
(2) Introduction of Media Studies in place of half-hearted teaching of moral instruction in schools . This would necessitate organising seminars for teachers and students on Rhetoric and the Art of speaking well while encouraging debates among schools and encouraging reading culture through distribution of books and organizing book lectures in schools.
(3)INTERFAITH DIALOGUE FOR THE MEDIA.
In view of the recurring situation in the country, where-in some unpatriotic people often whip up religious tension whenever general election is approaching,it would be strategic to organize interfaith seminar for working journalists and other social media activists.
MAKING A CASE FOR INTERFAITH WORKSHOP FOR THE MEDIA , CLERICS AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT.
(1)
CONFLICTS ,RELIGION AND THE MEDIA.
Holy wars between Christians and Muslims were fought in the midd le ages while religion is oftentimes, the cause of devastating conflicts in Africa, even as evident in recent facts released by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, issued on religious persecution world wide. It featured Nigeria, Iran,Sudan, Vietnam, North Korea and China as the nations where religious conflict is rampant.
Nigeria is said to have a configuration in which both Christians and Muslims each have no fewer than sixty million population.
" In Nigeria, they are two equal majorities starting each other in the face .That makes the country, more so than any other Arab or other Asian country, the most strategic laboratory or test case of how these two different peoples can live in harmony. "
(2)
CURRENT
POSITION
OVERTOPICALISATION
Two ailments plaguing religionists and journalists of our time are lack of vision to recognise the danger of overtopicalisation and the courage to oppose it.
Rather than viewing every topic in our religious tenets parochially as if it were intended to serve only our sect and selfish interest, it is high time we began to debrief ourselves of this bigotry while deducing principles there-from for universal application. After all, the basic fundamentals of every religion worth its salt is based on " doing unto others as one would be done by ."
It is strange that too many religious bigots have found it inconceivable to appreciate the fact that the underlying principle behind the world shrinking into a wall less society ( in which events in one ripples effects into another) is the challenge that we are our own brother's keepers.
(3)
CURRENT
PROPOSITION
EFFECTIVE MOBILIZATION.
If our political dispensation is today failing in view of lack of commitment to governance by politicians and the lack of understanding by the electorate of the sacredness of vote ,it is because the media and religious houses as well as non governmental organisations,including governments, are grossly failing in their duties of giving proper orientation on the sacredness of vow and vote.
One cannot afford NOT to be fanatical on matters such as one touching Vow and Vote;(the two being temple matters ) for it is in the inner satisfaction derivable in one being allowed to exercise one's right to cast vote ,even from one's own decision, based on conviction and on ideology, that matters ,rather than on pandering to the winning side through carpet-crossing master minded by coveteousness.
Not many people appear to understand that the huge role which MAMSER ( during President Ibrahim Babangida's era ) played in the social Mobilization of the electorate for the 1993 Presidential election, considered as the freest ever , accounted for the way Nigerians participated actively in the election which was won by Bashorun MKO Abiola.
In view of the fact that true development of the people is the development of their minds, MAMSER believed that a politically conscious,effectively mobilized and properly motivated population is the greatest deterrent to bad government, it raised the political maturity and consciousness of the masses while reorientating interreligious dialogues among religious leaders in the country .
Among the objectives which the directorate of social Mobilization executed were three key programmes namely, Mass education, political education and Mass mobilization for self reliance, social justice and economic recovery.
" When a Muslim, MKO Abiola ,being the Vice President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs became a presidential candidate for the Social Democratic party in 1993,Christians warned that he should be careful not to present a religiously one-sided team by selecting a muslim to be his running mate.
The president of the Christian Association of Nigeria the Most Reverend Anthony Okogie intervened with his statement that it did not matter whether the candidates were Muslims or Christians: what mattered ,he said was whether the candidates were God-, fearing .
Abiola went a-head and announced a Muslim running mate and the team became a winner North,East,and West .
NOT JUST THE TIMELINESS BUT THE APPROPRIATENESS; NOT JUST THE FAITH BUT THE VIRTUE; NOT JUST A DIALOGUE BUT THE DIALOGUE.
In the media,the race to keep deadline is usually a heavy race . According to Larry Arhaga, "It is a moment for the Editor in a newspaper to forget all side attractions, including his wife, his children...Those who work to meet deadlines are his friends; others who do not are instant foes ."
In view of the fact that the tasks of gathering, processing and disseminating information must be done within very limited time,even when the news is still news, this deadline in the media world could be a death line if not tampered with Appropriateness.
In emergency period or when faced with very sensitive issues such as matters having to do with religious values, care must be taken not to allow the quest to beat deadline result in deathend for the society.
Just as integrity is not enough until it coexists with knowledge, faith is not also enough if it doesn't work along with virtue.
This principles are operating both in the media as well as in Religion , as both belong to the consciousness industry.
Virtue is transparency solidified ; one must not only be seen as one exactly is, but one must be seen correctly in the light of what one is claiming to be.
It must go beyond all reasonable doubts while one must allow one's light to so shine before the world that people would have no option than to glorify God.
Any intention, one holds,no matter how laudable , it is still subject to suspicion in public domain and which is why every move having to do with religious values is better handled with all the care necessary to ensure that it doesn't become a death end.
CRITICISMS
Different criticisms have continued to hit the Nigerian governments over their sponsorship of pilgrimage to Mecca and Jerusalem, with many critics describing it as wasteful,unconstitutional and intended to compensate government's cronies.
"Some critics who took historical surveys on past and present governments since the period of the old Western government of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, being the administration that first began the hajj project for muslims ,have concluded that government's motives in sponsoring pilgrimages are self-serving as they are :" mid-term populist tactics to seek re- election for a second term ticket, retain power and maintain the status quo."
DIALOGUE OF THE DEAF
With the argument by some Northern state governments that they were expanding the scope of shariya in their own states in line with the constitution, those who opposed them ,mainly Christians and Christian organisations disagreed with their stand amid tough tactics by those who kicked against it and saw it as an agenda to islamize Nigeria.
Although the shariya controversy was older than the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the debate on shariya having reared its head in 1992 and suspended at the constituent Assembly in 1992, the President still claimed that shariya was instituted in 1999 to truncate the fledgling democracy with his Information Minister, Professor Jerry Gana also stating that the adoption of shariya was a ploy to destabilize the government of the day.
No doubt, matters of religion often excited passion and animosities in believers, the ideal thing has always been to engage groups and stakeholders in civilised and frank discussions and eschew the dialogue of the deaf.
(4)
MY
PROPOSAL
BEING THE
WAY FORWARD
MAKING A CASE FOR
INTERFAITH SEMINAR FOR THE MEDIA ( Journalists, Bloggers, Clerics and other stakeholders including public office holders. )
Just the same way interdisciplinary studies through the link between Medicine and Literature have humanized medical practice and its practitioners, it is high time we also explored interfaith dialogue through the genetic link between religion and media to bring about sanity in the relationship between Christians and Muslims in the country.
Without doubt ,a profession is as strong as its spiritual and intellectual foundations and if the Media should be assigning positive value to its collective experience and responsibility along this line,there is no better time than now to tap the inner resources available to the media in fostering peace in the country through interfaith dialogue.
Either in America or in Nigeria, the media were the first intellectuals in the society, as journalism precursors were printers which pioneered intellectualism in the real sense.
Looking at the origin of Journalism education in America, it is said that it originated from a rich intellectual tradition, with printers as the forebears of today's editors,publishers and broadcasters, renowned as well-read leaders of public opinions. They reshaped the minds of their different societies.
In his book :"Reshaping The Media", Everette E. Dennis wrote :" The character one encounters in Isaiah Thomas's history of printing in America or the autobiography of Jamin Franklin were often culturally and intellectually well a-head of the lawyers and doctors of their time. Journalism has always been more than pure craft .It was often a point of entry to the literary life .
It is the same thing in Nigeria where most of the Nationalists who fought for the independence of Nigeria, even without firing a single bullet were journalists.
Even though every Nigerian is a potential agent of religious conflict, the press and now ,the social media, have become the platform for spewing ethnic and religious tensions of greatest proportions.
There is no doubt that crisis has become the structural feature of modern society ,with the media as the agent of social communication through which crisis is made PUBLIC.
It is however regrettable that the media have not been sufficiently involved in making peace PUBLIC.
There is no peace or conflict resolution initiative made in the country by government or private organisations without the media being asked to providing " paper " coverage to such programme but ironically, the case is like the proverbial "Water,Water Every where ,but not a drop is available to drink. Converesly , the media
have not been given value reorientation in order for them to domesticated and internalise the virtues therefrom, being the educator and guardian of public morality.
WAY FORWARD
In the Declaration on the relations of the church to non-Christians, Nostra Aetare promulgated by the Vatican Council in 1965, pleaded with Christians to forget the past centuries of quarrels between them and the Muslims and urged that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding, even for the promotion of peace, liberty, social justice and moral values.
Also quoting the Islamic concept of criminal justice, Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi stated that no Christian should be compelled to forsake his religion, arguing that the action of those who introduced sharia was contrary to the injunctions of the Holy Qur'an.
" Prophet Mohammed further advised that even in time of war ,moslems should not harbour feelings of hatred and enmity against the Christians.
In view of the fact that the promotion of religion and mutual understanding is not exclusively the domain of religious leaders, non governmental organisations and individuals have taken it upon themselves to initiate inter religious discourse and dialogues ,hence the initiative by Movement of non violence In Africa MENVIA ( an ngo co-founded by Alhaji Lam Adesina and I) towards encouraging interreligious understanding and peace in the country.
A prerequisite in any constructive dialogue is that both communities should not learn about each other through sources that are unsympathetic, critical or even hostile... a meaningful Muslim-Christian dialogue must take place on the basis of our respective scriptures and our understanding and experience of them. ( Al-Hajj UNS, Jah.
This could begin through an interfaith seminar .
PROVIDING LIVING EVIDENCE THAT INTERFAITH CULTURE IS A MARK OF DISTINCTION.
(7) As the initiator of the project which the former Governor ( of blessed memory) actively supported before the PDP-led administration that succeeded him chased us out of our secretariat and killed the dream physically ( but not spiritually) it has been gratifying to note that it had been in the settled habit of my interfaith antecedents that my interfaith body language is committed.
This has been a culture I grew up with from my mother's ( Oba Toyese Laoye's )royal family in Ede and advanced in most of my writings and biographies.
For instance, my first Journalism textbook:" JOURNALISTS AND THE HANDS OF GOD " being a bestseller book in use across departments of Mass Communication in Nigeria and in some West African countries, fulcrums on the principles of interfaith.
Other biographies of my authorship, notably, :"A SWORN ENEMY OF CONVENTION " being Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola's biography of my authorship is a deep reflection of my interfaith disposition.
Uniquely resourceful on interfaith matter is my new book :"THE EXCELLENCY OF KNOWING HIM " being an intelligent and divinely guided follow-up work on the biography .
( Available with me is a catalogue of testificatory remarks of working journalists: participants in MENVIA Interfaith workshop which commend the interfaith project as a unique weapon in entrenching peace and harmony in inter-religious relationships and in educating media in promoting in the country.
