The new approach becomes necessary because this is the first time that a journalist is killed in such circumstances even though spokesman of the Yusifiyya Movement, Abul-Qaqa has said that late Zakariyya was an informant of security agencies.
“And I want to tell you that we have no grudge against journalists that are working in line with the professional provisions of their work. Whenever they misquote or misrepresent our position, we normally call them and tell them to correct the error,” Qaqa said.
Mallam Mohammed Sani, a lecturer at the department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic Bauchi observed that in its entirety, journalism is a risky profession.
“But it is the only profession that keeps the world moving and gives meaning to human existence. There is the need for everybody to appreciate this position,” the academic said.
On his part, Abba Kakami, the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Borno State said truth and factual reporting must remain the watch word of journalist.
“We should work within the prism of our profession by respecting the Codes of Ethics of the profession,” he said.
He added that journalists must always give voice to everybody. “Every stakeholder has the right to be heard because no voice is insignificant,” he added.
In Maiduguri, the equation is already balanced. It is indeed a war between members of the Yusifiyya Movement and the Nigerian State. In between the two are the journalists, a vulnerable group that have no guns, no armoured tanks, no bulletproof jackets or any special immunity.
The only thing they have is the strong conviction that they are not in journalism by accident, but a divine design by God, who gives all his creatures’ a source of livelihood.
