The BBC in Nigeria: Between Reporting and Terrorist Propaganda, By Kadaria Ahmed

The lawlessness and violence taking place in Nigeria are serious issues, and every effort should be made to keep the public informed. A documentary that investigates and examines government failures, while focusing on victims and their families would have done just that. Giving boastful, bloodthirsty criminals a global platform only serves two purposes. It provides free publicity for terrorism and allows the BBC to push social media viewing figures.

It just got out of hand.

Journalists and now a renowned global media organization, the BBC, which should know better, are becoming tools for terrorists, however unwittingly, by amplifying the faces, voices and stories of killers and marauders who still operate with impunity across Nigeria.

The public interest argument seems to have been misunderstood, some would even say twisted, to allow for sensationalist reporting that is very unlikely to be allowed on UK screens. By not upholding the same standards they would uphold in the UK, in their work in Nigeria, the producers of BBC Africa Eye, in their latest documentary 'The Bandits Warlords of Zamfara', have provided a global platform for terrorists and can be accused of becoming an accomplice to terror in the name of denouncing it.

When University of Toronto communications professor Mahmoud Eid coined the term "Terroredia" in his book Exchanging Terrorism Oxygen for Media Airwaves, Eid says there is now a "relationship between terrorists and media professionals in which acts of terrorism and media coverage are exchanged, influenced and fueled by each other. Since it was written seven years ago, it would seem that the case that Eid was trying to make is now abundantly clear, especially in Nigeria, where, increasingly, propaganda videos and statements by terrorist groups, as well as reports on terrorist leaders, are finding their way in the mainstream media.We can now easily identify, for example, the faces of the main kingpins responsible for the widespread kidnappings and killings that occur daily in the northern part of Nigeria, not thanks to their photos and videos spreading on the pages of newspapers and on our TV screens, almost as if they were Nollywood stars.

None of this has 'helped' our incompetent government, led by President Muhamadu Buhari, to find and arrest these bloodthirsty criminals. Nor did the “pressure” prevent the administration from playing the ostrich and finding an effective way to fight against insecurity. These are some of the public interest arguments advanced by those who defend the portrayal of predatory criminals on national and now international media platforms.

The arguments also include a claim that hearing from terrorists helps us better understand conflicts and therefore find solutions. Under the guise of public interest, this is the argument that BBC Africa Eye seems to be making, to justify its decision to actively grant copious screen time to confessed murderers and kidnappers, who are still actively involved in attacks on communities, murders, kidnappings. , looting and generally making life brutal and a living hell for the people of Zamfara State in northwestern Nigeria and beyond.

The two promotional clips released for the documentary, 'Bandits Warlords of Zamfara', feature a marauder who should remain anonymous here, confirming that he was among those who attacked Jengebe Girls' Secondary School in the 'State, kidnapping over 300 students, with the attendant horror of this kind of...