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THE EL-RUFAIS AND BRITTLE PAPER STORM: Serial blunders as avoidable pastime
The twitter storm
In what turned out to be an outrage on social media, Bello El-Rufai, the son of Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in a private message, threatened to gang-rape the mother of one Twitter user, simply identified as consigliere, on April 12. The Twitter altercation that led to the threat was ignited when consigliere, who tweets @thanos_zer, criticised a tweet where El-Rufai, who tweets @B_ELRUFAI, dismissed the President of the United States of America as an incompetent leader.
“There is nothing as radioactive as an incompetent leader during a time of crisis. The United States of America is a case in point. A few States in Nigeria too,” El-Rufai had tweeted.
In a reply, @thanos_zer thought about President Muhammadu Buhari who had received several knocks for his rare public appearances in addressing Nigerians, especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic. “How about the absentee president in Nigeria?” @thanos_zer replied @B_ELRUFAI.
El-Rufai, a staunch supporter of Buhari, erroneously assumed @thanos_zer was from the Southeast and literally transferred his anger to an imagined state governor alleging gross incompetence. Determined @thanos_zer responded: “I don’t shield anyone who’s inept. I can’t say the same about you. You’re daddy’s boy and of course nobody attacks the finger that feeds them. Buhari’s ineptitude is mind-blowing. Yes I said it and you’re not going to make me disappear!”
Pushed to the wall, perhaps, on the notion of being addressed as “daddy’s boy,” El-Rufai heaped insults laced on s*ual vulgarity on @thanos_zer’s mother and grandmother. After an hour of the public disagreement between the two, @thanos_zer posted a screenshot of the private message – that was s*xually and ethnically provocative – El-Rufai sent him.
“Oh and tell your mother I’m passing her to my friends tonight. No Igbo sounds please! Tueh,” El-Rufai’s private message read. According to @thanos_zer, El-Rufai sent him the message before blocking him.
Madam joins the fray
The threat spirited the concerns of many Nigerians who came out to loudly condemn it. As the issue raged on, El-Rufai’s mother, Hadiza El-Rufai, who doubles as the First Lady of Kaduna State, when tagged to the posts, surprisingly issued a comment in support of her son. “Don’t @me. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. All is fair in love and in war,” she tweeted.
Her comment added fuel to the already burning fire. Many tweets in reply to her comments perceived it as one that endorses rape and ethnic division. Inclusive were those who went out casting aspersions on her and her family. Following the bad blood that her shocking comment generated, she danced to another tune and condemned her son’s threat in another tweet on April 13.
“When I posted the tweet below, I assumed it was the usual Twitter gbas-gbos. Having read the tweets chronologically, I have had conversations with Bello. Never ever should sexual abuse be employed as ammunition in public/private exchanges, no matter the provocation,” Hadiza tweeted.
Being an issue that involves the son and First Lady of one of the most powerful governors in the country, it attracted monumental media attention. Almost all the frontline media reported and updated the story as it developed by the day. It was one of the most discussed news items of last week.
And, Brittle Paper too
As the media feasted on the altercations, now former Deputy Editor of Brittle Paper – an online literary magazine – Otosirieze Obi-Young wrote an article on it. His article would eventually snowball into a disaffection which went viral on social media platforms – between him and the Founder and Publisher of the online magazine, Ainehi Edoro. And gave an excellent example of how not to manage a news room.
It is perceived, in different quarters, that what prompted the involvement of Brittle Paper into the El-Rufai’s saga was because of the literary connection between them and Hadiza. Hadiza, being a novelist and the founder of Yasmin El-Rufai Foundation (YELF): a non-profit literary organization, was not expected to have endorsed her son’s gang-rape threat in the first place. This was more of a misnomer to Obi-Young. Thus, his article which criticised the Kaduna State First Lady.
A publisher’s bluff
However, Obi-Young’s article titled: Novelist, Feminist & Kaduna First Lady, Hadiza El-Rufai, says all is fair in love and war after son’s gang-rape threat draws backlash, did not meet the editorial standard of Edoro.
In a statement, on April 15, which Obi-Young posted on his personal website, he averred: “The Founder called me and expressed concerns about my criticism of a Nigerian newspaper in it and the informal and strongly-worded tone addressing said novelist.”
He claimed that he edited the post removing the troubled areas but that Edoro (the Founder) called back a few minutes later directing that the post be taken dow. Obi-Young, who started working at Brittle Paper in 2016, could not succumb to the idea of pulling down the post. “That was unacceptable to me. I saw no reason why my post-publication edits, which removed my opinion and restricted it to the reportage, were not enough,” he protested.
Obi-Young was to later call Edoro’s bluff, charging her to take down the post if she wanted. According to him, without being informed, he was logged out of Brittle Paper, and its WhatsApp group: their primary work communication arena.
Shots fired!
Obi-Young’s allegations only served to awaken Edoro, a professor of literature, to come up with her own side of the story.
She claimed that she did not have any problem with Obi-Young’s article except for its sensationalised nature and potentially libelous reference to two Nigerian newspapers – ThisDay and OperaNews. She pointed out that her then Deputy Editor – Obi-Young – covered the story and got it published on the front page of the paper – Brittle – without her review.
“Otosirieze’s (Obi-Young) post was an impassioned, deeply personal piece reporting on the reprehensible statement made by Hadiza El-Rufai about her son’s equally odious statement. I found the title inflammatory and unnecessarily incendiary, but everything seemed fine until I got the last paragraph. It was then that alarms rang in my mind,” she alleged.
The last paragraph she noted read:
Interestingly, four hours after backlash began to her response, an article appeared on ThisDay titled “Endearing Qualities of Kaduna First Lady, Hadiza El Rufai.” It is exactly as shabbily-written as you would expect of a hastily assembled, face-washing gimmick. But it is not as unintelligent as the one on OperaNews.
There must be a name for this feminism whose reply to “Tell your mother I’m passing her to my friends tonight” is “I didn’t see any threats of rape.” A feminism that agrees to raise men to be better but says “All is fair in love and war” when their ethnic bigoted men-children threaten violence on women’s bodies.
Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Do better.
Edoro claims all entreaties to get her junior editor to do the right thing met a brick wall, as he was not willing to make far reaching concessions. She, according to her, was forced to fire the shots that have now eased Obi-Young out of the Brittle platform because the latter had even challenged her to pull down the publication if she wanted.
“The time difference between Nigeria and the US also left me with little time to act quickly, so I pulled the post down as the exigent thing to do.”
“When I realised our working relationship had broken down irretrievably, I removed Otosirieze’s (Obi-Young) access to Brittle Paper and its accounts on other digital platforms,” she said.
And, Brittle Paper lost it
Obi-Young and Edoro, having come up with different stories justifying the acts that played out between them, got the praises and knocks of the public especially on social media. While some saw no reason why Obi-Young, who is an employee of the online magazine, could not respect its editorial policies, Edoro was seen to have not stretched out her hand enough to demonstrate the needed leadership dexterity expected of her as the Publisher of the medium.
A source familiar with newsroom management offered an insight into what may have led to the Brittle paper storm.
The Editor who asked to be anonymous said, “I have followed his (Obi-Young) story and the response from his boss (Edoro), the publisher who is a lecturer based in the US. I think that this got out of hand due largely to communication gap and ego problem. Issues like this arise all the time in the newsroom.
“Every newspaper has an interest to protect, though in this case the publisher denies having any pecuniary motive for insisting that the opinion article be edited to suit the temperament of the platform. We may never know all that played out in the course of the conversation between the Deputy Editor and her boss. I do think that there had been underlying or sharp disagreements in the past, otherwise this ought not to have gotten to this point. From what the Deputy Editor did, he aimed for the soul of the brand by seeking to completely rubbish its reputation.
“It must be noted that writers are highly opinionated individuals and the very skilled ones usually have high ego issues. In this case, we had a publisher who is also an accomplished scholar and author. Pride/ego is the reason most journalists or authors hardly want to concede territories. Nigeria is replete with many examples.
“So, in all, when a newspaper has an interest to protect, the leadership must be careful to communicate the goals very carefully. What the writer/journalist is taking to the market space is his/her reputation. We guard this value jealously and can call anyone’s bluff in a classical manner when this is threatened. This was what Otosirieze did! Now, the brand is bleeding and that is a fatal blow.
“There will always be proprietary interests. Only experience, good communication and maturity can deal with these. I hope Brittle recovers from the injury as some contributors to the platform have asked their stories to be pulled down from the online platform while some have rejected awards proposed for them.”
Calm after the storm
Hadiza has already tendered an apology for supporting the gang-rape statement of her son. After five days of the Twitter spat, El-Rufai, on April 17, tendered his own apology.
“A few days ago I made a comment that was unbecoming and contrary to the values on which I was raised,” he tweeted. “I wish to withdraw the statement and apologise to the gentleman concerned for appearing to attack an entire ethnic group for the misdeed of one person. I regret the sexual innuendo in the private message and apologise unreservedly for it.”
As dusts settle and the chickens come home to roost, it is imperative that Publishers and Editors draw lessons from the whole imbroglio. A point to note is that the newsroom can sometimes be an awkward work arena where junior writers may even be more skilled, though less experienced, than their team leads in the area of news management.
A preferable work culture, therefore, should be that in which a stakeholder or ownership mentality is deliberately and strategically crafted into the DNA of the organisation.
And, for the El-Rufais it may be time to wean themselves the notoriety of being caught dancing naked in the public square.
By John Chukwu…
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