An estimated 150
journalists from 40
different news
organisations have been
travelling with French
troops since the
intervention in Mali began
on January 11. Of the lot,
none is a Nigerian. Many of
the reporters are
embedded with the French
forces, though they do not
get near 100km of the
fighting in a country so
vast and so arid. No
Nigerian journalist is
embedded with the Nigerian
troops, and so Nigeria’s
role will not be accurately
reported, as the recent
report of Nigerian soldiers’
inadequacies by The
Guardian (London) showed.
There will be no news of
display of valour, nor any
story of sacrifice, bravery
and passion for a noble
cause. Indeed, the absence
of Nigerian media in the
Malian conflict is a terrible
reflection of the decline of
Nigeria, its leaders’ loss of
self-confidence, and the
disorientation of its foreign
policy.
Economic Community of
West African States
(ECOWAS) leaders had the
golden opportunity to stamp
their authority and vision
on the Malian crisis a few
weeks after Captain
Amadou Sanogo and his
band of coup plotters
struck on March 21, 2012
to remove the elected
government of President
Amadou Toumani Touré.
The coup truncated the
election that was due in
June, three months later.
While the regional body
swiftly imposed sanctions in
April and tried to force the
restoration of Toure’s
government, that effort,
which was unfortunately
half-hearted, only ended in
partial success as Sanogo
merely formally resigned.
Sadly, as part of the
compromise, President
Toure was also compelled
to resign. But by the
following month, it was all
but clear that Sanogo still
retained effective control.
It was at that point that
Nigeria missed it. It had the
power and leverage to
persuade ECOWAS to
sustain sanctions until
Sanogo and his fellow coup
plotters were arrested and
tried for treason. If that
had been done, and the
regional body had gone
ahead to contribute troops
in sufficient number to
battle the secession in the
North, they would have
secured international
support. If the battle
against the secessionists
had been led by Nigeria,
and if we had got our
priorities right, Nigerian
media could have
accompanied the troops and
reported from the war
front. But when sanctions
were hastily lifted and
Sanogo held on to effective
control, it emboldened
Tuareg rebels in the North
to declare secession,
capture many key northern
towns, and in early January
began their ill-fated
advance on Bamako. The
frenetic events that started
some 10 months earlier
naturally culminated in the
drastic French intervention
of January 11 and the
imposition of news blackout.
It is humiliating to Nigeria in
particular that France
assumed the leadership of
the Malian War. It in fact
indicates Nigeria’s lack of
vision. In addition, it will be
remembered that the
interventions in Liberia
(1989-1996; 1999-2003)
and Sierra Leone
(1991-2002), which were
led by Nigeria, attracted
more foreign reporters
than ECOWAS media. Since a
country can’t give what it
does not have, the poor
relationship between the
local media and the Nigerian
government has continued
to reflect badly on the
coverage of Nigeria’s
foreign adventures and the
international image of both
the country and its faltering
and spasmodic media. The
times call for urgent
change. Where is that
Nigerian leader who will
champion the needed
change and restore African
pride?
Meanwhile, for a conflict
taking place in West Africa,
and in which some 20
people were alleged to
have been extra-judicially
murdered recently by
vengeful Malian forces in
the northern town of
Sevare, Niono and Mopti,
Nigerian media can only
regurgitate the news and
accept foreign media
analyses on postwar Mali.
An article in
DigitalJournal.com made the
following observations:
“The French have not
organised a single press
conference in the capital of
Mali, Bamako. The sole
French media official in
Bamako is apparently there
mainly to refer media
questions to Paris. The
Malian army has banned
journalists and human
rights organisations even
from areas that had been in
their control for a number
of days…Whenever
operations are underway,
communications are cut off…
An Al Jazeera article
speaks of Mali as a war
without images.” Future
crises will show whether
Nigeria has learnt some
lessons.

Our troops serve while the french get the glory! What do you think