The recent trending discourse on Arewa cyberspace is on Ɗan Bello, a popular satirist, who is using his satirical social media content to scrutinize the anti-developmental social and political cultures and behaviours of politicians, civil servants, security agencies, religious leaders, and the general public. Undoubtedly, he is raising a new wave of social and political change in Northern Nigeria by creating awareness and educating people on critical issues such as the detrimental effects of the almajiri system, rampant marriage, uncontrolled fertility, injustice in the civil service, and corruption and scandals within the corridor of power. His content contributed immensely during the recent #endbadgovernance protest.
His style and method of critique are outstanding and original, specifically for the majority of Hausa-speaking young netizens, and that might be why many misunderstand him or have unanswered questions about his comedy. But in reality, we have a similar genre in our traditional media, especially radio. In this fourth republic, particularly in Kano, political programmes like Malam Dila, Dalla-dalla, and Botorami share the same journalistic genre as Ɗan Bello’s skit with a different mode of presentation. In print media, they share the same genre with cartoonists like Bulama and Mike Asukwo.
Some of the journalism-related questions I observed people needing answers about Ɗan Bello’s skits, include: Is Ɗan Bello’s skit part of journalism? If yes, what is the genre of journalism? Is he an investigative journalist? If not, how can we classify his content? Why do similar scandals not make headlines in the mainstream media? Is Dan Bello outperforming traditional journalists? Does his rise pose a threat to traditional journalism? Can we treat his content as fact? Where does Ɗan Bello get leaks or highly confidential information?
What Ɗan Bello is doing is part of the journalism family but not conventional journalism. In journalism, we have satirical journalism, or news satire, which is as old as conventional journalism. Satire is a news story or commentary that critiques injustice in a distorted or playful manner. Journalists and other political communication actors employ rhetorical devices and tropes to communicate political issues through various genres such as parody, satire, comic strips, political humour, memes, animation, cartoons, rhetorical hyperbole, sarcasm, innuendo, double entendre, street arts, graffiti, murals to communicate certain emotional distress, silenced realities, and malefactions. The aim can be to ridicule, blackmail, advocate, or use as a humour for the sake of humour. The genre is getting wider applications globally with the emergence of social media and new information technologies such as artificial intelligence, which empower creativity and provide friendlier distribution platforms.
Ɗan Bello’s skit can be categorised under satirical journalism. Satirical journalism differs from conventional journalism in terms of tone and treatment of facts. A fact that can be used by satirists safely may land conventional journalists in jail. In fact, satirists have stronger legal cover compared with conventional journalists. Moreover, satirists like Ɗan Bello rarely observe guiding journalistic principles, conventions, and ethics. Consider the principle of story balancing. I doubt if Ɗan Bello is adhering to this principle, and he needs not to do it as a satirist. Another example is that journalists are guided by the general principle that “innocence until the accused is proven guilty.” That is why we see reports like “Mr A was alleged to have stolen N10 billion from the Kano state account.” In most cases, journalists wait to cast accusations directly on the accused person until the case is being proved by a court or relevant authority.
On the other hands, many consider Ɗan Bello an investigative journalist, while others view him as a leak journalist. Of course, investigative journalism and leak journalism share many similarities, yet they are two distinct practices. Investigative journalists take risks to search for hard-earned evidence, interrogate, and fact-check to unfold socio-political injustice and abuse of power. While both solicited and uninvited leaks feed leak journalists. Moreover, under satirical journalism, there is investigative and leaked satire, which largely blends fact with humour to critique issues of public interest that might be difficult to scale through conventional media. I think Ɗan Bello’s combine the elements of investigative satire and leak satire but not conventional investigative journalism.
Why are the conventional media not exposing similar scandals as Ɗan Bello? Based on the above discussion, we do not expect conventional journalists to do what the likes of Dan Bello are doing because they are guided by different principles. It is unfair to say that Nigerian media are not exposing scandals or holding leaders accountable. The Nigerian media industry is one of the most vibrant in Africa and has fought injustice for decades and many journalists lost their lives in the process. Recently, we witnessed how the Daily Trust went loggerheads with the federal government on the Samoa deal and many others issues.
Shall we trust Ɗan Bello’s accusations based on the fact he use to present? We need to understand his sources of information and the efforts he puts into fact-checking the information he gathered or leaked to him, before answering this question. In journalism, fact-checking is an independent genre that requires special expertise, especially in the era of information disorder. One of the risks of leak journalism is the possibility of a source disinforming or misinforming journalists. For instance, during the pre-#endbadgovernance protest, Ɗan Bello accused Imams of collecting money from the government to preach against the protest. He posted a receipt to back his accusation, which was later found to be fake. However, most of the information presented by Ɗan Bello seems to be true; hence, we can trust him, but we have to be critical.
Finally, I support Ɗan Bello style of critiquing injustice, inequality, corruption, and other anti-developmental traditions and behaviours. We need more of Ɗan Bello to bring positive social change in Nigeria. Nevertheless, Ɗan Bello should be extra vigilant and skeptical, especially with his source of information. His content is harming the image and political relevance of the corrupt politicians, and they must find retaliation tactics and strategies. One of the strategies they could use is to feed him with false information that would make him untrustworthy.
Is Dan Bello’s content defamatory? We will discuss this, God willing. Wallahu a’alam.
Isah Nasidi, PhD
Lecturer and Media Consultant based in Abuja
