Former Managing Director (MD)/Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Martins Oloja, has lamented the practice where media houses give awards to politicians, business owners, who they are expected to monitor and hold to account, thereby losing the moral to investigate.

He also lamented that Nigeria’s media capitalisation was low, hindering investigative journalism.

Oloja, in his keynote address at a symposium in honour of former Director, Times Journalism Institute (TJI), Elder Ndubuisi Ugbede, at 70, hosted by Times Journalism Alumni Association (TJAA) at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos Council Secretariat, Ikeja, said giving of awards to persons that should be investigated and made to answer questions was immoral.

Oloja, who spoke on the topic, ‘Ethical Journalism in 21st Century: The Missing Links’, observed that governors, who were generally regarded as major critical failure factors of the country and other key state actors that should be questioned had become award winners from media houses.

He said: “What of our user-friendly and unethical legislators? They, too, will win awards most of them have duly paid for. What about the unethical businessmen and women here who are supposed to be investigated for unethical practices? They, too, are award winners? What kind of ethical journalism do you expect on the beats of such award winners? We wonder why most newspapers can’t report the odd, the ugly and the unusual happenings in Rivers, Osun and even Lagos states.

“The role of the media is clearly spelt out in Section 22 of the constitution: ‘to monitor governance and hold public officers to account’. Only good and independent journalism can deliver this tough job.

“Where is the capacity to hold the powerful to account? If news in its classic form is what somebody, somewhere is trying to hide, and the rest is advertising, let’s ask more questions: Do today’s media organisations in Nigeria have capacity or enough capitalisation to hire investigative journalists that can hold public officers to account without caring a hoot about advertising support from organisations or agencies run by them?”

Ugbede, in his remarks, said: “The story of Daily Times is also the story of Nigeria; Daily Times used to be a generic name. Gradually, the worst of us are now ruling the best of us, that is the problem we have in Nigeria. The issue in our time is that we have lost contact with civility. Everything is now money.”