JOURNALISM, PRIDE OF ALL PROFESSIONS! By Odogwu Emeka Odogwu @ [email protected]

Journalism, my journalism is two edged sword profession. No friends, no foes! When the truth is said against a friend’s parochial interest, you become a foe but vice versa, you become a friend.  Needless carry on some baggage, just be professional and tarry in doing the right thing at all times…..true friends will evolve and remain because you placed Profession before self.  That’s the profession called journalism. But is that what is practiced in Anambra state, Nigeria?
 It is needless to define journalism here when in ideal sense, even the street hawker would tell you that the profession is all about disseminating information across board and beyond bounds.
However, a look at who a journalist is would help us recapitulate the genesis of this noble profession. Here are some of the jobs journalists do: Reporters gather information and present it in a written or spoken form in news stories, feature articles or documentaries. Reporters may work on the staff of news organizations, but may also work as freelance, writing stories for whoever pays them. It is needful to highlight that other works to describe a Journalist abounds such as, Reporter, Correspondent, Broadcaster, Newscaster, Presenter, Columnist, Commentator, Writer etc.
Though lawyers and doctors lay claim on what profession God practiced first. We as journalists can conclude that the great grand Father and Originator of Journalism is God, the owner of Knowledge, Wisdom and Truth.
A look at Genesis of life shows that the arts and work of God were enshrined and as reported by Moses the Father of all Journalists. If a Journalist gathers and reports information and/or presents it in written or spoken form, in news stories or otherwise, there is no legal standing for anyone to contend against my position that Journalism is the pride of all professions going by Biblical account.
Come with me. The very first manifestation of God in the earth was His utterance of creative power as “Let there be Light”. If all that the LORD did were not recorded by Moses the Journalist, and presented it in a manner befitting the profession, the saying of God in Hosea 4:6 would be fulfilled at the detriment of our society - 6 ‘’My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children’’.
Wow! A startling revelation is made known here! The consequences of uninformed society are not equidistant from destruction of the spirit, soul and body but a synonym to our doom. No little wonders that it is said that when you are not informed, you will be deformed.
Let me also reveal to us the position of the Wisest man ever lived on earth apart from the Lord, in the person of Solomon. Let us here him speak on the nobility of Journalism in Proverb 23:23 as thus: 23 ‘’Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
This proclamation defines the ideals and statuesque that ought to overlay the conducts and etiquette of the profession. A journalist by every yardstick should source for information, the truth about the good and the bad irrespective of whose ox is gored and present the truth in every form needful for the audience to peruse and digest toward enlightening the masses; otherwise, ignorance of the this truth would lead then to destruction.
No wonder, our society is skewed to decay because the power and people that be hate the truth and thus leaving reality to pursue shadow through the mutilation of truth we ought to buy and never sell.
To round off this charge, let us make certain appropriate inferences from a charge to Christian Journalists from Worldmag.com as thus:
“You may differ from other Christian journalists on some doctrinal matters, but there is no point in being a Bible-based editor or reporter unless you agree that sinful man needs Christ as Saviour and also as Lord. Christian publications lose their punch unless the journalists in charge understand that the Bible is useful not only for salvation but also for application to all aspects of current events as well. Bible-based magazines and newspapers, like individual Christians, should be in the top right-hand quadrant of the adjacent graph (Figure 1), (but no graph here) witnessing to God’s saving power but also to ways in which transformed sinners can take Christ-centred dominion over parts of God’s creation”.
There is much to covet in the above quote in our democratic and secular settings. It would be clear to agree that a Journalist is a moral compass, a watch-dog, and knowledge and truth Dispenser of the society. The National Orientation Agency during the President Olusegun Obasanjo regime as the Democratic elected President came up with ideology that says “Think well, say well, act well and Nigeria will go well”.
Suffice me to say, until we personally come to manifest and operate with this talisman truth, we will continue to sell the truth for stomach infrastructure sake which had bedeviled very many of us, especially when the head is not in its active and professional razzmatazz.
Keep your heads high for no profession is greater than ours. Stop buying and selling your colleagues cheap over pepper soup and bottles of up wine. Nobody is saying you should not enjoy yourself but don’t say a word before thinking it through, rather think over each word you want to say before uttering it.
We most times speak out of chain to please our host and rock the boat. Your presentation and ideology to any issue must be selfless. Once you are for the society and the underdogs, nature has a way of paying back. I am a witness and still witnessing that no good duty, selfless at that goes unrecognized.
Failing over every food and drink at every event is a minus. You can be hungry and yet let go. Interviewing every John, Dick, and Harry is unnecessary but in order to recoup transport back, we cheapen our profession. Every outing must not be assignment or duty call. If you have gone for a burial not worthy of coverage, restrict yourself to that burial and respect the profession. Do not start looking for guests to interview but if you must interview because of chance meeting at such occasions, must you ask for a tips?
Sometimes, do the needful and go home in peace. Must you shout for people to know journalists were around? It pains that even when the ‘PR’ is handed over, journalists with poverty of the mind and attitude, scramble as if the show would not go round discreetly. As we present ourselves, so the society has seen us so and it takes our collective efforts to revert the perception of ‘press boys’ we were tagged to professionals we indeed desire and really belong.  
Yes! We deserve better treatment at beats of coverage because remember at any event, the DJ, the canopies, the hall or arena and every other thing for such occasion would be paid for only journalists? Professionally, needless to demand for payment but sequel to abuses for the practitioners, mostly championed by Publishers who owe several months of salaries, abuse has set in. Then, the other sore point is practitioners who introduce their girl friends and boyfriends to the profession without letting them know of the rules of engagement. The other set are some practitioners who could not get jobs from their chosen area and were lured into the profession by accident or by the filthy lucre which has made the profession beggarly though for the non-initiates.  The initiates know their way and worth their onus always have their right buttons for each rain fall to drop, if you understand.
If we pretend over it then we are not real practitioners. But whatever we do, caution must be supreme and those fronting as Consultants should not cheapen their colleagues yet smile home to the banks. Why should a consultant charge high yet present PR to his or her colleagues that could best be described as peanuts? Wake up gentlemen, wake up colleagues for this our profession ---Journalism truly is the best and mother of all professions.
For me till tomorrow, I have no friends, I have no foes. And to each I reciprocate while doing my best to represent my profession, for I know nothing shall I do to please all men especially when there are ‘gangs’, cliques  and groups all over. I salute you so kindly!
Odogwu is a Columnist and Publisher of www.odogwublog.com  as well as the Editor, Authority Newspapers, South-East and could be reached on 08060750240, E-mail: [email protected]