By joshua WHEN MUSING BECOMES CAMPAIGNING
By Mohammed Ibrahim Suleiman
Let me say this plainly to The Musing Master: I do not read your piece as a product of a biased mind or some soaked political interest. I understand admiration. I understand political loyalty. I even understand the Nigerian temptation to defend one’s preferred politician with the ferocity of a mother defending a child who has just broken the neighbour’s window. But this particular piece is not professional enough for the reputation you have built, and that is the problem.
Your love for Senator Jibrin Isah Echocho is legitimate. Your admiration for his political stature is understandable. But the moment admiration begins to dictate the conclusion before analysis begins, the columnist stops being a musing master and starts sounding like an unofficial campaign spokesman.
The party and the political system have apparently made their choice of a preferred candidate. That is politics. The fact that the preferred choice is not the candidate you or your readers wanted does not automatically make the process illegitimate, nor does it make the Deputy Governor’s endorsement an offence against political morality.
The Deputy Governor is a political actor, not an ornamental flower vase in the Government House. He is entitled to political preferences. If the party has chosen its direction and he publicly identifies with that direction, why should his endorsement suddenly become a crime simply because your preferred candidate was not favoured?
You may disagree with his choice. You may question the wisdom of his intervention. You may even argue that he should have exercised greater restraint. That is legitimate commentary. But to portray his endorsement as though it is inherently improper because it conflicts with your preferred political outcome is where professional analysis begins to wobble.
And this is where I must remind The Musing Master of the burden carried by the professional pen. You cannot demand neutrality from politicians while granting yourself immunity from it as a writer. Politics is partisan by nature; journalism and political commentary should not become partisan merely because the writer has developed affection for one of the gladiators.
You must remember, dear Musing Master, that your readers or admirers did not follow you because you could praise Echocho. They followed you because they believed you could think beyond Echocho. That distinction is the whole profession.
A columnist must occasionally disappoint his friends in order to remain useful to his readers. Otherwise, tomorrow’s admirer becomes today’s critic, and yesterday’s respected pen becomes today’s political megaphone.
So, by all means, love Senator Echocho. Support him. Defend him where facts demand it. But do not allow affection to blind the very intellectual independence that made your voice worth listening to in the first place. In Nigeria, we have enough people who know what to say because of who paid the piper. What we desperately need are people who can still hear the music when nobody is paying them.
That, my friend, is the difference between musing for a politician and musing about politics. And it is a difference worth preserving.