ADC chieftain Kenneth Okonkwo has fired back at Arise TV journalist Rufai Oseni after Oseni described members of the ADC coalition as jokers, accusing the media of falling short of its responsibilities to Nigerians.
Speaking directly to Rufai during the interview on Arise TV, the ADC leader did not hold back in his response. “First of all, you are entitled to your own opinion and I respect it.
It is just like my saying that the journalists who are supposed to be the watchdogs are operating in the realm of intellectual fraud, because you ought to be doing your investigative journalism and telling Nigerians what ought to be in the law,” he said.
Okonkwo went further, challenging the media’s silence over what he described as a forged tax law. “You were there when, even after making a law in Nigeria, they went and forged additional provisions into it and brought it to Nigerians. And yet you are calling the opposition lawmakers who exposed that — jokers? It is intellectually fraudulent for you (Rufai) to say we are jokers, and I mean it sincerely,” he said.
He ended his argument by comparing the journalists of the past and those of today. He reminded his host that Nigerian journalists once stood up fearlessly against military rule.
In his view, it was deeply ironic that under a civilian government, those same journalists were now mocking the very opposition figures trying to hold those in power to account.
(Start Watching The Video Quote Stamp From Minute 18:26 To 18:32)