At last someone is speaking my mind.

he had his many faults but his achievements are barely acknowledged. Some of his actions are referred to very often as standards for subsequent administrations to achieve. While he should be criticized for his many blunders, he ought to be acknowledged for the many innovative approaches to governance.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/german-based-writer-cautions-media-on-obasanjo/94325/

German-based Nigerian Radio Journalist, Frisky Larr, has cautioned media practitioners in the country on their frequent bias against ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, describing such attitude as counter-productive for Nigeria’s development.

He noted that the local media had been unfairly critical of the retired army general especially since his ill-fated "third term project" in Nigeria; with hardly any thought spared for his administration’s immense contributions in many sectors.

Frisky Larr who was speaking with THISDAY on his latest book, "Nigeria’s Journalistic Militantism" launched in London, United Kingdom, maintained that though some criticisms against Obasanjo could be justified, "you cannot afford to throw the baby away with the bathwater."

The book was recently launched at St. Luke’s Church Hall in West Norwood, Southeast London.

However, the licensed English Language translator also flayed the generally declining quality of education in Nigeria and its negative reflection on the quality of Journalism.

He specifically highlighted the poor quality of formal writing with attendant spelling blunders and unprofessional presentation of facts.

"How can a writer without a proper command of the rules of the game, who is basically unable to structure routine reporting, be expected to avail the public with the necessary analytical sophistication?" he wondered.

While acknowledging a lot of things that basically went wrong during the eight-year rule of Obasanjo, Larr criticized the Nigerian Media for what he called "reaching a virtual consensus in advancing a state of denial on those things that Obasanjo got right."

He noted for example that the "instrument of crime investigation was yet to be exhausted in uncovering the killers of Bola Ige"; just is he considered outrageous and inexplicable that Obasanjo would accept "the banditry perpetrated by Adedibu’s one-man-show in Oyo State."

Nonetheless, the Nigerian author frowned at "the attitude of the media in downplaying Obasanjo’s immense contribution to the shaping of Nigeria ’s macro-economic structure with the help of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala."

He also lamented that the media "swept beneath the carpet" Obasanjo’s success in the power sector - constructing six new power stations - that was "virtually sabotaged by the government of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who refused to put the power stations into operation.

"In the end, the press specifically encouraged the strengthening of a regional mafia that ended up taking Nigeria for granted and holding her to ransome", noted the man who said the Oabasanjo administration also recorded tremendous achievements in efforts at eradicating fake and substandard drugs and foods through NAFDAC under Prof. Dora Akunyili.

Larr said he took pride in the fact that the positions he had taken on the issues in his book were not shaped by any political interference whatsoever, saying "Obasanjo did not have any prior knowledge or insight into the work at any advanced stage.

"I was, therefore, able to criticize him freely, fairly and hard enough for reality, while at the same time laying the blame for the overall image question squarely at the doorstep of the media." Singling out three major columnists of leading newspapers, he exemplified the form of misgivings attributable to the media.