From the 1920s and up until the mid-1940s, indigenous or native-born owners and publishers began to step to the plate. The tone changed: they were demanding for new political arrangements – for participation in electoral politics. This new brand of journalism was on a warpath against the British colonial establishment, and anyone who was deemed to collaborate with them in the economic exploitation, social and political domination of the land and people. New papers were born as quickly as others were dying off. It was also a period of growth in the newspaper management and production technology, which enabled the first set of daily papers to be established in the country.
The genesis of organised politics in Nigeria also signified the beginning of a new era in newspaper journalism in the country. As earlier noted, press initiative and vigorous campaign for “elective
franchise” forced the hand of Governor Clifford to enact Nigeria’s first Constitution in 1922. Newspaper journalists, rather quickly, organised to take advantage of the new era dawning, as initiators and promoters of the first two political parties in Nigeria, one of which was the NNDP. As a result, newspapers became “outlets for electoral policies and propaganda” (Omu, 1978, p 60).
Thomas Jackson, the publisher of the Weekly Record, and Herbert Macaulay, publisher of Lagos News became the brains behind the formation of the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), arguably the most prominent political party in its time. And according to Omu (1978), two newspapers, the Nigerian Spectator of Dr.
Richard Akinwande Savage and the Nigerian Advocate of S. H.
Braithwaite, were founded purposely as electioneering newspapers.
The Clifford Constitution provided for the election of four (non-appointed) members of the Legislative Council – three were from Lagos and one from Calabar (Ezera, 1960). This first Constitution opened the door to partisan politics and, therefore, election coverage by newspapers. The first Nigerian daily newspaper, the Lagos Daily News became “the stormy mouthpiece” of Macaulay, easily the most prominent politician in the first era of electoral politics in Nigeria (Omu, 1978, p64).
The journalists of this era did not really see a discernible distinction between their roles as journalists and their calling as politicians.
According to Dare (2000), they wanted to use journalism “to change society and advance their own political fortunes” (p15). Media scholars, Golding and Elliot (1979), in their much-referenced statement, captured the inter-dependent relationship between the media and politics. They observed that the Nigerian Press was born of
“anti-colonial protests, baptised in the waters of nationalist’s propaganda and matured into party politics” (p31), though many will dispute that the work of the nationalists was mere propaganda.
Many members of the educated elite were nationalist-politicians, journalists, and newspaper proprietors; and in some cases, these roles were combined in one person. They used “their newspapers to articulate anti-colonial positions and mobilise the people and public opinion against the colonial authority” (Oso, Odunlami and Adaja, 2011, p3). One success story from this era was the Daily Times, established in 1926 as the second daily newspaper in Nigeria.
Choosing to be non-partisan in politics and independent in outlook, many regarded it as an establishment paper from inception. The paper raised the professional standard of journalism and introduced market-driven innovations in production technology, marketing and distribution, and general management to the newspaper industry in Nigeria. The Daily Times' rapid expansion and impact redefined professionalism in the journalism industry. It grew to become the paper of record and the paper that served as the point of reference in matters of news.
This period may be sub-divided into two broad phases: before, and after the Second World War. Before the Second World War, there were agitations by politicians for inclusion as co-participants in governance, and for non-whites to be treated with dignity, fairness and some respect. Galadima and Enighe (2001), observed that the period was perhaps “the most intensive, radical and militant media onslaught on colonialism” (p27). Another feature of this era was direct ownership of newspapers by political parties or politicians.
Of the four noteworthy newspapers that formed the foundation of modern Nigerian press, three were directly affiliated with one political party or another. First, the Daily Times, which viewed itself as an
“independent” paper, was seen by some others as sympathetic to the colonial administration. The paper was founded in 1926 with Ernest Ikoli as the founding editor; he later became a leading political figure.
Second, West African Pilot (1937) unarguably the most influential paper of the time, whose founder and Editor-In-Chief was Dr Nnamdi
Azikiwe, leader of the NCNC Party and first president of independent Nigeria. The Pilot, established in 1937 became the undisputed star nationalist paper of the period. The paper was unsurpassed and unsparing in its criticism of colonial rule (Nwankwo et al., 1993). Its popularity was extraordinary among the growing elite and others, such that by the 1940s it had reached an unprecedented daily circulation of 30,000 (Nwankwo, 1993)
Third, there was the Daily News, (founded in 1925), which served as the powerful unequivocal political voice of the Nigerian National Democratic Party owned by Herbert Macaulay; it lasted up till about 1948. And lastly, there was the Daily Service, (founded in 1933), which became the significant mouthpiece of the Nigerian Youth Movement; its influence was gradually eclipsed by the arrival of Azikiwe’s West African Pilot. In 1949, it was rested to make way for the formation of the Nigerian Tribune, a paper steeped in the politics of the Western Region in Nigeria. Of all the papers, it is only the Tribune that is still in circulation today, 68 years after it was founded.
The Tribune remains the oldest Nigerian daily paper to have been in circulation for that long.
After the Second World War, the language and tone of journalists changed: the demand was for outright independence and self-rule. It was the period of migration from a nationalist press to political newspapers and as Coleman (1955) notes, “a territorial nationalist movement progressively takes on the attributes of a territorial political party” (p102). From a historical point of view, the political landscape of the late 1930s and 1940s was the most nationalistic in which the emerging leaders were perhaps most united. The press of the time and the politicians had one objective – to rid Nigeria of colonial rulers as Aimufua (2007) puts it, “the history of the struggle to realise a Nigerian State free from colonial oppression was mainly expressed through the Nigerian press” (p70). However, with the gradual institutionalisation of political associations and processes, and along
with a changing political landscape, the character and tone of the press began to change also.