An Independent Press Working Against Famine: the Nigerian Experience

Sanjay Reddy

doi:10.1017/S0022278X0001051X

An Independent Press Working Against Famine: the Nigerian Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Sanjay Reddy

Show author details

Sanjay Reddy: Affiliation:
Student at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

The proposition that an independent press can play an extremely positive rôle in focusing attention on, and directing a response to, a food-crisis situation has been put forth by Amartya Sen, who has attempted to explain differential successes in preventing famines partly on this basis,1 supported convincingly in the Indian context by N. Ram,2 editor of the influential newspaper, The Hindu (Madras). As a contribution to the evidence in favour of this proposition, and its relevance to Africa, this article examines the contribution made by one newspaper during 1973–1974 in mediating the public and governmental response to the famine which struck the north of Nigeria.

Type: Africana
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 337 - 345

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X0001051X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{Page 337 note 1} Sen, Amartya K., ‘Food Battles: conflicts in the access to food’, the Coromandel Lecture delivered in New Delhi, 13 December 1982.Google Scholar

^{Page 337 note 2} Ram, N., ‘An Independent Press and Anti-Hunger Stategies’, Conference on Food Strategies,World Institute for Development Economics and Research,Helsinki,21–25 July 1986.Google Scholar

^{Page 337 note 3} Ugboajah, Frank Okwu, Communication Policies in Nigeria (Paris, 1980), p. 18.Google Scholar

^{Page 337 note 4} Grant, Marcia A., ‘Nigerian Newspaper Types’, in Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies (London), 11, 07 1972, pp. 95–113.Google Scholar

^{Page 337 note 5} Annamaleze, John Jr, The Nigerian Press: the people's conscience? (New York, 1979), p. 31.Google Scholar

^{Page 337 note 6} Daily Times (Lagos), 6 and 7 September 1973.

^{Page 338 note 1} Daily Times, 24 October 1974, p. 7.

^{Page 338 note 2} Cf. Campbell, Ian, ‘The Nigerian Census: an essay in civil-military relations’ in Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (London), 14, 3, 11 1976, pp. 242–54.CrossRef Google Scholar

^{Page 338 note 3} Ram, op. cit.

^{Page 338 note 4} Derrick, Jonathan, ‘The Great West African Drought, 1972–1974, in African Affairs (London), 76, 305, 10 1977, pp. 537–82. It should be noted that Nigeria is seldom included in studies of this drought because it is not a member of the Comité permanent interétats de lutte contre la sécheresse dans le Sahel, and the F.M.G. neither solicited overseas aid nor encouraged external recognition of its problem. However, the affected areas of northern Nigeria contain as large a population as do the members of the C.I.L.S.S., and are hence surely deserving of attention.Google Scholar

^{Page 338 note 5} van Apeldoorn, G. J., Perspectives on Drought and Famine in Nigeria (London, 1981), pp. 42 and 46.Google Scholar

^{Page 339 note 1} James, A. R., ‘Drought Conditions in the Pressure Water Zone of North-Eastern Nigeria: some provisional observations’, in Savanna (Zaria), 2, 2, 1973, pp. 108–14.Google Scholar

^{Page 339 note 2} van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 46.

^{Page 339 note 3} Ibid. p. 44.

^{Page 339 note 4} West Africa (London), 6 08 1973.Google Scholar

^{Page 339 note 5} See Derrick, loc. cit. and van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 45.

^{Page 339 note 6} In August and September 1973 before the Daily Times had realised the seriousness of the situation, the New Nigerian (Kaduna) was already pushing the Federal Military Government to release more funds to deal with the drought – see Derrick, loc. cit. and van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 53. In fact, throughout the crisis, the New Nigerian appears to have been far more liberal (at times vitriolic) in its criticism of the authorities than the Daily Times, albeit eclipsed nationally when the Lagos newspaper began its own campaign on the issue.

^{Page 339 note 7} Grant, loc. cit.

^{Page 340 note 1} Such a feature of the drought coverage was apparent throughout. The controversy over the 1973 census as detailed by Campbell, loc. cit. may be regarded as a further example of the power struggle between the Nigerian states and the centre.

^{Page 340 note 2} Daily Times, 6, 22, and 29 September 1973.

^{Page 340 note 3} Ibid. 1 October 1973.

^{Page 340 note 4} New Nigerian, 25 October 1973.

^{Page 340 note 5} Daily Times, 29 October 1973.

^{Page 340 note 6} van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 53.

^{Page 340 note 7} Ram, op. cit.

^{Page 341 note 1} Daily Times, 1, 5, 6, 9, and to November 1973.

^{Page 341 note 2} Derrick, loc. cit. and van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 54.

^{Page 341 note 3} Daily Times, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, and 29 November 1973.

^{Page 342 note 1} Ibid. 10 December 1973.

^{Page 342 note 2} Ibid. 24 and 28 November 1973.

^{Page 342 note 3} Ibid. 17 November 1973.

^{Page 342 note 4} Ibid. 3 December 1973.

^{Page 342 note 5} Ibid.

^{Page 342 note 6} Ibid. 6 November, 7 and 11 December 1973.

^{Page 342 note 7} Ibid. 7 December 1973.

^{Page 342 note 8} Ibid. 10 December 1973.

^{Page 342 note 9} Ibid. 25 December 1973.

^{Page 342 note 10} Ram, op. cit. p. 52.

^{Page 343 note 1} Daily Times, 1, 8, 10, and 14 December 1973.

^{Page 343 note 2} Ibid. 17 December 1973.

^{Page 343 note 3} Ibid. 25 December 1973 and January 1974.

^{Page 343 note 4} van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 65.

^{Page 343 note 5} Cf. the call by Ram, op. cit. pp. 65 and 70, for the anti-hunger rôle of the Indian press to be enhanced by ‘an active consciousness, a coherent theory of its own role in relation to society’, and ‘public advocacy of its role as a vital part of the striving for a democratic, just society’.

^{Page 343 note 6} Daily Times, December 1973.

^{Page 343 note 7} Ibid. 6 December 1973.

^{Page 343 note 8} Ibid. 23 November, 5 and 10 December 1973, and 16 January 1974.

^{Page 344 note 1} Ibid. 16 January 1974.

^{Page 344 note 2} Ibid. 19 November 1973.

^{Page 344 note 3} Ibid. 5 and 24 December 1973.

^{Page 344 note 4} Ibid. 19 January 1974.

^{Page 344 note 5} van Apeldoorn, op. cit. p. 65.

^{Page 344 note 6} Ibid. and Derrick, op. cit. The way our journalists are maltreated nowadays makes me to doubt the claim that our press is free. Freedom of the Press should be respected in the interest of all. The Press, among other things, informs the governed of the activities of the Government. It exposes corruption in our society and thus helps to curb it. Through the help of the press, the drought affected areas of the Northern states of the country have received help from many Nigerians. The freedom of the press should, therefore, not be interfered with by those in power.

^{Page 345 note 1} Daily Times, 20 December 1973.

Article contents

An Independent Press Working Against Famine: the Nigerian Experience

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests