THE BATTLE OF THE HACKS

I have been following the mild dispute between Waziri Adio and Dele Sobowale of Vanguard. On Sunday 8th July, 2007, Mr Sobowale skewered Adio and his former coworker at This Day, Segun Adeniyi for agreeing to leave their jobs for government appointments. He basically called them traitors and pointed out that Nigerian journalists have the habit of changing their opinions once they start working with those in power. He particularly recalled his disgust when Senator Adolphus Wabara visited Vanguard's offices and introduced Mr. Adio as his Director of Research. He wondered how Adio who according to him, had previously accused Wabara of vote-rigging, could turn around and work for him.
Needless to say that Mr Adio took umbrage at Sobowale's insinuations. After threatening to sue, he settled on writing a strongly-worded rejoinder to Sobowale's article. In the article he accused Dele of not getting his facts right and called him a sanctimonious old man. He also made a big issue of his integrity and the revealed that he took a pay cut when he accepted the government's offer, a claim also made by Yaradua's adviser, Segun Adeniyi.
While Adio's article was impressive, I can't help but agree with Dele. So many journalists are currently lobbying for government appointments and some of them are getting it. Moses Jolayemi is with the Ekiti State Governor, Segun Oni, Segun Ajigboye, formerly an entertainment writer with The Sun, is now with Governor Agagu. Kunle Hamilton, The Sun's society chronicler, is presently hustling for an appointment with anybody that will accept him. So far, he has tirelessly courted Diezani Madueke, Jonathan Goodluck and Yar' Adua.
However, Dele Sobowale failed to note his own penchant for praising people in power. After all, he has always been a supporter of Victor Attah, Bola Tinubu and Ahmed Makarfi. Does he really believe that these ex-governors were not corrupt in any way? Hypocrisy of any kind, is bad business. Maybe Sobowale should have checked himself out before he decided to attack Messrs Adeniyi and Adio.