SIR: It was not by accident that I looked forward to watching President Buhari’s inaugural media chat with gung-ho spirit. And unlike some in the past, this one gave the participants the latitude to ask questions on the go, and the president showed that he knew the territory and didn’t unnecessarily skirt on issues that needed forthright answers.

I must add that I expected the panel of journalists to have done better than they did (no disrespect intended) but I got the impression that there were only two journalists on that night, Kayode Akintemi of Channels Television and Mannir Dan Ali of Daily Trust. These two were on top of the journalistic game.

The chance to interact and quiz statesmen whose policies shape our world, either good or bad is a chance of a lifetime that must be used well. Nigerians watching do not expect to see journalists either toadying up to such statesmen or asking questions based on canard.

It didn’t strike me that some questions were properly researched especially on national security, which almost ruined the show for me. Because the president had to teach a journalist the importance of national security, and the danger of allowing indecent behaviour which disempowers society.

I learned from an early age to be alert when engaging with two classes of professionals, a well-groomed military officer and a lawyer (please spare me, not the kind of lawyer who attended a fourth-rated school, never won a case in court and many who have never practised) for they are tenacious, and many have helped shaped societies positively.

Interacting with them on national issues by journalists therefore isn’t just a handout; it should be a strategic investment with huge returns possibly to lift up the hopes of people. I expected to hear piercing questions, the Tim Sebastian and Stephen Sackur type that unsettle even interview veterans like a Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah.

After all, soldiers have thick skins, they can take the heat, their training welcomes challenging questions but the research team for this media chat didn’t test the president enough. Even though I didn’t expect to see an axe-grinding exercise, after all Buhari is not a Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, I expected questions to make him stutter a bit but got none. That works if the homework was done well.

It was bad enough for me that the President had to advise media gurus against jumping to sensational reporting instead of investigative journalism to reveal truth in their reporting. Journalists should know better, at least tested hands know when not to overplay the card, when to ask the eyeball-to-eyeball questions and when to balk for national security.

The commission for media chat if there is any should make the next media chat effervescent by restricting the chat to an area of specific interests, say foreign affairs or international diplomacy and the economy, etc., etc., etc., and not a hodgepodge of all national issues in less time. Consideration should be given to current subjects.

The president may not have scored high on statistics like a Bill Clinton but he engaged in an effective heart-oriented harangue which to this writer is better when compared to others in the past when grandiose statements were made to compete with the ‘grandiosest’ already made.

Simon Abah,
Port-Harcourt.