THE PURGE AT THE GUARDIAN AND SILENT MESSAGES
The Guardian is a celebrated daily newspaper in and even beyond the shores of the country. The Newspapers have high regards from men and women who matter in many times in the past, and even till today. This is as a result of the foundation laid by the progenitors namely Lade Bonuola, , well known Stanley Macebuh, journalism teacher and a host of others. These early setters made the Guardian very thick, and erected a solid foundation upon which the present workers have been building.
The owners of the Guardian - the Ibru family, is a conspicuous one in and especially in any money making venture. Their connection attracted a lot of men and women of high caliber to the Guardian venture, by way of support and expertise contribution. It is a well known fact that some of pioneers at the Guardian had to seek opinions from a late Oyo State Governor, and another doyen of journalism - an owner of a Lagos first generation newspaper before agreeing to join the ship. These people made the Guardian, and raised its performance level so high that those who came after them are still in awe.
I read somewhere of many 'behind the scene' brouhaha in the relationship between these early men and the proprietorship of the Guardian. Eventually, almost all of the early men had to leave one way or another.
To those who think the journalists, especially in do not play politics, and I mean dirty politics, they need to have a rethink. The Guardian is no exception, as also in other newspaper houses and everywhere. exit from the Guardian was not devoid of this, and so many others who left in droves. Many have held on to their jobs by playing the same game they accuse politicians in the public realm of playing. 'Lapdog politics'! This writer saw some in his short time with the Vanguard Newspapers!
In the Guardian, some controllers or so called executive directors do not care a hoot about fairness to, or performance of their subordinates as long as they are happy. This is the reason why you find so many of the staff complaining silently, but also standing erect to shout “all correct” as soon as their immediate bosses come around. They hold on to their positions not by what they could do to add value to the company but how many ‘good morning’ and ‘you are correct sir’ they can say to make their bosses happy with them. If one steps out of favor, one second, you will need a lot of appeasement to make things work with your boss..
Many of the managers, sorry controllers do not know their staff by performance but by their relationship with them or ‘respect’ to them. The controllers act like some gods and are greatly feared by their subordinates. If one gets out of step, they have the power to turn you into a field staff where your performances do not count as much as being in the office. If you play out of tune, the controllers even though they hold no shares in the Guardian, can frustrate you out of the company. Many young guys with career ambition have been made to look for other jobs outside their loved journalism because of these egoistic men in the power room at the Guardian.
The recent crisis at the Guardian was not without great inputs of the controllers who were afraid of being shunted out of the Guardian because there were many complaints about their redundancy. Some only come to the office to collect their ‘toll fees’, and tell it to the birds, some go home daily with more than 120,000 naira daily, outside their merit pay. These people are therefore ready to damn any young man who wants to create a ‘hold up’ for their cool money making sources. The proprietor(s) of the Guardian too, is/are aware of the situation, but like some other business men, the name of the game is money. It does not matter what fair principles are thrashed by controllers or directors, the profits are rolling in. Let who wants to die go ahead, but profits should not stop!!! There is no hassle about raising merit pay as some can fend for themselves through commissions and returns.
The system in needs to pay more attention to the way young folks are sacrificed at the altar of greed, and lack of fair labor standards by the money men in the society. At the end of the day, it creates monumental societal issues for the nation at large..
There are many people who mill around newspaper houses in without having any official attachment. These are mainly those whose careers have been cut short by the ‘my money, my profits’ management of many of the newspapers. There is the practice of serious subjugation and exploitation by the newspapers' owners, even more than by the politicians they always criticize. The Guardian is no exception. I hope is listening, and as a professed born again
There is a great awareness of the recent labor crisis at the Guardian which eventually ended in what seemed to be planned before the labor standoff. The situation now is that most of the workers who were caught in the middle of the matter had been laid off. This is to the interest of the Ibrus as it means more profits, that is from the savings from the salaries of the dismissed ones. It is importantly a worsening of the socio-economic situation in , and one may want to know if the government feels concerned. Is there any labor department within the Federal administration?
The Guardian’s motto should concern the owners of the newspapers. Who are the owners of the Guardian? Just the Ibrus? I think someone somewhere should ask the newspapers to disclose its owners, so that the public can know if the Ibrus have one or two people owning 2 or 3 % of the shares outside them. The managing director of the company has always shown that she is averse to unionism, needs very small size and wants the cooperative society there abolished. Unionism may not go well with one man organizations like the Guardian, but what is wrong with the cooperative thrift fund?
The Guardian needs to pay attention to their environment and also the welfare of their toiling staff if they are to be seen as paying heed to their motto of ‘Conscience nurtured by truth’. It will also help to disavow the growing public belief that the owner family is greedy and heartless.
Other newspaper houses need to listen to the silent messages in the handling of the labor situation at the Guardian. This writer was once a victim of exploitative entrepreneurship and management in the newspaper industry in . The Vanguard told yours truly after two months of working the streets of , picking, and covering business news that no salary or compensation until after three months! This was after using personal money to cover public events which were published in the daily newspaper.
It is advisable that people of conscience in Nigeria, the Nigerian Union of Journalists and Nigeria Labor Congress should not tarry any longer in visiting the Guardian, as an example to other exploiters of the sufferers, abusers of toiling workers, and spillers of workers’ ‘blood’ in Nigeria.
John Ayodele,
Atlanta , USA
bishopbode@hotmail.com