Today I have come to neither bury Caesar nor praise Caesar. I have come to speak as an ‘elder’ of the media community.
Maina has never been and may not ever likely be a friend in whatever capacity one may chose to define the term for one singular reason; Maina from where I stand is a big dumb coward. Maina should not expect public sympathy when every action of his spell ‘GUILTY’. No one single individual has to the best of my knowledge so successfully gone all out to pronounce himself or herself “guilty as charged ”the way Maina has done. He gives a whole new meaning to self-destruct. You go into hiding while others fight your battles?
No sir, it’s not right and it’s not done; it is outright cowardly. Maina should submit himself to the authorities; to me this is the only acceptable and honourable thing to do.
My concern today is with the Media and the governance of this country. Sensationalism is great when dealing with reality shows BUT… it is most definitely destructive when it comes to such serious matters as national interests and integrity. You see a lot of times the fourth realm identified and defined, as the media tends to complicate rather than simplify issues for education of the public.
The media constantly fails this simple assignment because so many of us have fallen prey to materialism and cheap money and this has caused us to loose our bearing, well understandably so some may argue but definitely a tragedy I dare say. The media community must begin to separate issues on the basis of impact on national interests, begin to look for and at the merit of an issue rather than the hearsay or excitement it generates.
It is onus on the media to reach for the core rather than the surface because doing this is a moral obligation on us as watchdogs. What builds patriotism? What inspires nationalism? What can inspire a people to unity? These are definite issues that cannot and must not be compromised on whatever altar or pulpit.
When the media throws caution to the dogs the result could be anything from deadly to utter and irreparable destruction.
Mistrust, distrust, disintegration, anarchy, senseless violation of property and ourselves. This is why I argue that the media must always necessarily do a thorough job of investigating, researching stories and being able to discern what style of reporting is most beneficial to the common good. The term common good must be sacrosanct in our operating manuals.
The core of the matter is lost in the furor generated by myopicism created and fed to the undiscerning public by a degenerate media. It seems to me like there is this over riding urge to discredit or rather to prove to the world that corruption is either a figment of our imagination or that it is some grand conspiracy which the President and his men are desperate to feed the people by all means. But the joke is on us the people of this nation.
Given the “testimonies” on going at the Senate my issue is more now with the Head of Service. This position supposedly reports directly to the President for one, and secondly the Head of Service is the head of the Nation’s Administration. Therefore it is not and cannot be acceptable that, that office chose to take orders from any other person other than the President.
In view of the weight of experience and exposure of that office I believe a meeting with the Attorney General would have been in order. What comes to mind is simple; working for same purpose there surely should be some form of synergy between departments of same government, and understanding of sorts. The Head of Service knows and is supposed to be much more conversant with the Administrative laws of the Land than any one else. On the other hand the Attorney General is the Chief Law officer of the Country and his brief is just different.
The problem lies in attitude.
That unfortunate “ shrug” attitude of the typical civil servant that is all about self-preservation as against doing the right thing even in the face of so called pressure.
LEADERSHIP.