Saturday, May 5 1990
I am certain that many decent Nigerians found your
reporter, Sam Omatseye, completely outrageous in his
presentation of the article, ‘Ojukwu, Obasanjo disappointed
me’, in your issue of August 12, 1985.
It is shocking that he could contemptuously refer to an
erstwhile national leader as ‘the fellow’ and conclude that if
these were the men Nigerians have thrown up as heroes,
Nigeria was still to wake up from its long nightmares and that
the beautiful ones are not yet born. The sin the ‘unheroic’
heroes have committed is their refusal to grant interviews to
him, ‘a senior reporter’.
The veneration of celebrities is an essential cultural element in
the sustenance of order and healthy ambition within all
enlightened societies. Given the present threat, in the Nigerian
society, of respect for violence and materialism, any attitude
that serves to erode conventional respect is extremely harmful
to the general weal and especially to our progeny.
Sam Omatseye could easily have made his point without hitting
below the belt, being so uncouth and showing such absolute
want of finesse. If this is the stuff of which the Nigerian
journalist is made then those who refuse to grant him
interviews are merely entertaining legitimate fears.
