In that great work, Woodward had laid the cards bare before the American people, namely, the qualities, as in the strengths and weaknesses of the two choices they had available in that election. On the left was the youthful, fun-loving, smooth-talking, draft-dodging and randy but otherwise ingenious and result-amassing incumbent president, William Jefferson Clinton, who was seeking a re-election on the platform of the Democratic Party. Opposing him from the right was the slow, frail, stuttering, ageing and stumbling but otherwise solid Robert Dole, a WWII hero, who was campaigning under the banner of the Republican Party. The two images of the two personalities as presented by Woodward and the American press were breathtaking. The stage seemed set for a titanic battle between two eons: the world-gone-by and the world-yet-to-come.

Not so subtly encoded in that apparently objective reportage of Woodward, The Choice, was the author's belief that there was indeed a clear choice for the American electorate in the 1996 election. In his now almost mythical journalistic wizardry, Woodward, though, arguably a conservative by philosophy, whose natural instincts would incline him more towards GOP candidates, had in that instance done his journalistic work so thoroughly that there was no doubt that he had left the final choice solely to the judgment of the American electorate. With such excellent journalistic expertise exhibited by him and the many other journalists of his kind in America, the history as well as the future of the continent of the United States of America was clearly made an issue in that election for the benefits of the electorate. It was indeed a great journalistic service to democracy.

Another area where the great works of people like Woodward had cast a clear light was on the fact that the election of 1996 in America marked the return of the season in which the symbol of the Republican Party as GOP (Grand Old Party) appeared to match its reality in the person of its flag bearer. That was the first time it was happening since the years of the silver-tongued old warhorse called Ronald Reagan. Little wonder some Republican politicos of today have become clearly leery of the acronym - GOP. It often gives the impression that the party is made up of old people with old ideas. That impression of an ageing and out-of-date party would become quite devastating to the GOP in 1996 as it appeared almost in theory and in practice like the relic of the old America of the white exclusives and grumpy oldies that must die with the dying millennium. Boy! Did that image not die in 2000 as the youthful and fun-loving George W. signaled the dawn of a new era for the GOP? Some aspects of the relic still remain though mainly in the persons of Cheney and Rumsfeld. But their days seem clearly numbered. Nearly everybody agrees that the new face of the GOP in America is clearly reflected on the jolly-Joe face of George W rather than on the military faces of Rumsfeld and Cheney.

In contrast to the face of the ghost of Christmas-past presented by the GOP in the1996 election, the then political Einstein of America, President Bill Clinton, played up the youthfulness of his ticket and the freshness of his ideas as representative of the future of America that must globalize and diversify in all its being to remain relevant in the new millennium. He had his perfect symbols to match: a slogan claiming to be building a bridge to the 21st century as well as a choir of acolytes made up of a large crowd of peoples of all races hobnobbing around him like the victorious multi-ethnic crowd of the apocalypse. The election campaign of that year became framed as a clash between bridge-builders to the twenty-first century and their counterparts headed backwards to the eons of the American Revolution. The press clearly implied that while Clinton had chosen the former, Dole in fact chose the latter. And I would argue that journalists like Woodward had a lot to do with that clash of horizons in that election.

But of great interest to any journalist especially from Nigeria who might want to emulate this great American journalist in this election year in our country is obviously Woodward's ability to ingeniously mask his philosophy and political preferences in his writings. This has secured his relevance and influence in most recent American administrations as well as continued to guarantee him unprecedented access to the lords of the American pinnacle of power. In fact Woodward's competitors have been reduced to whining and grumbling that all administrations were intimidated by his proven ability to bring them down if they failed to grant him the unfettered access he craved. But all such murmur seems nothing but a tribute to a hardnosed and a legendary investigative journalist who continues to earn the trust of his sources and gets the rare scoops when everyone else seems starved of them. For success as journalists Nigerian journalists would have to follow closely this wonderful philosophy of Woodward. They have to find a way to repress their personal preferences and ethnic biases in an election year. Their concern should be helping the Nigerian electorate choose the best candidate that has the best ideas to move the nation forward into the future. Workable ideas and the need to move Nigeria forward should be the criteria directing the preferences of the press in this election year.

Obviously Nigeria does not as yet have journalists in the ranks and molds of Woodward and Bernstein who could rise to the occasion and help our people make informed judgments in a dicey situation. We do not have the cadre of journalists who could sacrifice everything to unmask a despicable culture that has continued to prey and devastate the Nigerian society. We do not yet have the types of journalists that could help set the tone for the choices confronting the Nigerian nation in the crucial election of 2003. This has been our experience over the years. Our journalists though good in their own ranks are nonetheless light years behind their counterparts overseas who routinely influence the politics of their countries for the better.

But the events of the last couple of weeks have in fact further compounded what had already become the precarious situation of the Nigerian media and the electorate. As the Nigerian press appeared to be readying itself for the crucial elections of 2003, the Miss World pageant religious riot and its aftermath came down hard and threw the Nigerian press many years backwards. Those deadly events of Kaduna and Abuja may have permanently impaired the Nigerian press's ability to live up to the minimum expectation of a media establishment in a crucial moment of a democratic society. There is no doubt that the forced exile of Ms Isioma Daniel and the purported death sentence imposed on her by the Islamic fanatics of Zamfara State were a major setback to the media in Nigeria. It is only natural that many Nigerian journalists, rather than move forward to become like the Woodward's and the Bernstein's of this world, would start beating a tactical retreat if only to save themselves from the ire of the government and the fatwa of Islamic fanatics. This seems the situation of the Nigerian media as our nation begins the count down to her crucial election of 2003.

This turn of events is most disheartening because now seems the time when the Nigerian society needs a vigorous Press and courageous journalists the most. The present situation of our politics muddied as it has been by the malignant factors of ethnocentrism, separatism, militant Islamic fundamentalism, official corruption, scandalous poverty, inefficiency, etc., calls for journalists of courage who could shine the way for our mostly decimated people to wander out of the darkness of political disorientation that has been their lot in Nigeria since independence. But it seems that our salvation is not yet in sight. The culture of being unnecessarily careful in reporting events in Nigeria, the culture of being oversensitive and politically correct, and the culture of avoiding journalistic adventurism, all won tremendously in the events of the last couple of weeks in Nigeria. The fact is whether we like it or not, the Nigerian press and journalists have been forced into a very tight corner by the recent events in Nigeria. And this does not bode well for the forthcoming elections in Nigeria. What Nigeria needs now is very adventurous press and very daring journalists who could sacrifice some of their personal comfort to dig out some facts that could make Nigeria a better society.

The first challenge for the Nigerian press seems to be the issue of Ekwueme's comeback into presidential politics. Ekwueme's decision to contest the presidency again seems to have added an unprecedented level of seriousness to the election contest of next year. And this is what the Nigerian press has been asking for.

Besides the confusion created by the recent religious rioting in Nigeria, the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) this past week added another piece of its own confusion by clearing a whopping twenty-two new political parties to present candidates in the forthcoming elections. This is happening at a time when the elections are less than six months away and the press appears cowered and frightened. How could an average Nigerian manifest a legitimate choice in such a sea of candidates representing a market crowd of parties? Which journalists can brave the fear-infested Nigerian environment to provide some background details on the legion of shady politicians that may be filing out to be elected? Ours is indeed a time that calls for hardnosed journalists and a robust press to lead the way in our efforts at recovery as a nation. We need Nigeria's Woodward and Bernstein to lead the journalistic effort that is required to regenerate the Nigerian nation. The time is indeed ripe for such take-charge and daredevil journalists to emerge and help Nigerians confront the ugly sides of their political landscape and politicians. And this seems to have been the message of this last week, which was strangely exciting despite the charged atmosphere engendered by religious rioting.

After the lull of the penultimate two weeks created by the deadly religious riots in Northern Nigeria, the Nigerian political scene picked up steam this past week. Two factors were mainly responsible. The entrance of Dr. Alex Ekwueme into the presidential contest to renew his failed challenge against the incumbent President Obasanjo for the PDP nomination, and the registration of the twenty-two additional political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to bring the list of election-eligible political parties in Nigeria to 28 did cause a stir in the Nigerian political landscape and create new challenges for both the media and the Nigerian electorate. Now the media and the electorate have their hands full in trying to separate the sheep from the goats among the numerous politicians that will soon present themselves for elective offices. The press usually acts as the eye of the electorate in a living democracy. But in a country like Nigeria lacking daring investigative journalists in the class of Woodward and Bernstein, how can the electorate be helped to make good choices from a crowded market of electoral candidates? This is the major question facing the Nigerian press today as it tries to bounce back from the beating it had taken in the last few weeks. Fortunately the last week development in Nigerian politics was not totally unexpected in the Nigeria press. But what is at issue is; how much are the Nigerian press and journalists prepared to meet the challenges of the next couple of months in Nigeria? Can the press recover in time to help make the forthcoming elections in Nigeria successful?

The first challenge for the Nigerian press seems to be the issue of Ekwueme's comeback into presidential politics. Ekwueme's decision to contest the presidency again seems to have added an unprecedented level of seriousness to the election contest of next year. And this is what the Nigerian press has been asking for. She has been demanding such an injection of excitement into the election of 2003. Last week, Ekwueme finally obliged her. But the question is, now that the press has got its wish, now some credible candidates are beginning to emerge, what is the press going to do with them? Will she just give them a pat on the back or will the press grill them to find out what their agenda for the nation are? How does the press intend to separate the sheep from the goat among this legion of presidential candidates?

Since the beginning of the year the Nigerian press has been fantasizing a rematch between Ekwueme and Obasanjo. Reading many Nigerian media outtakes, one would think that the Jos convention of the PDP had foreshadowed the Al Gore of Florida 2000 fame. Like former Vice President Albert Gore Jr. of the United States it appeared as if Ekwueme with the help of the media was quietly mouthing all across Nigeria the popular acclamation of the Ebonics-speaking Black Americans, namely, "We Was Rob!" He was cast in the media as somebody who was robbed of his rightful claim to the PDP nomination and consequently the presidency by the military establishment in favor of an ex-military pal Olusegun Obasanjo. So a section of the Nigerian press was longing for a rematch of a sort in which it hoped that Ekwueme would be able to right the wrong that was done him when the party he fathered was hijacked and its nomination given free-of-charge to a gatecrasher that had not contributed anything to its building. Such formed the background to the excitement that greeted Ekwueme's entry into the presidential contest this last week.

Also the clamor for a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction by the Ohanaeze and the Igbo elite appeared like a shadow advocacy for an Ekwueme presidency. Unlike in 1979 and 1983 when he was largely seen as an unknown greenhorn, an anti-Zik, an anti-home party, an anti-Igbo politics, and somebody who had allegedly bought and bribed his way into becoming Shehu Shagari's vice president in the second republic, Ekwueme had used the last two decades to rebuild himself among his native Igbo people and to amass for himself a formidable political clout all across Nigeria. It has been phenomenal how Ekwueme's politics has evolved over the years especially since he debuted from obscurity in 1979. He has always demonstrated the capacity to get back to the basics and rethink his politics through and through. He has always found the way to remain above the fray while maintaining his relevancy in the political realities of Nigeria. For that he has been able to ingeniously appropriate for himself in Igbo land at least the platform left vacant with the demise of Nnamdi Azikiwe. Ekwueme's skills at reinventing himself politically came to a head when he led the group that defied and resisted the terrifying Abacha dictatorship in the mid 90's. That daring action placed him at a vintage position to become the rallying-point for the most powerful political party in Nigeria in 1998-9.

Ekwueme's position in the PDP had almost ensured that he would emerge unchallenged as its presidential candidate. But his high-flying profile was cut short by the powerful military establishment under the total grip of Abdulsalami Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida, which awarded the PDP nomination to Obasanjo, its favored candidate. But rather than back down and retire into obscurity, as most other politicians would do in similar situations, Ekwueme went back to what he knew very well how to do, namely, reinvent and rebuild his political capital in quiet. Like a political sage he strode all over Nigeria oiling his political alliances and machinery. Hence he emerged this last week as arguably a much more improved political candidate than what he was this time in 1998-9. It was only natural that the press and the Nigerian society would greet his reappearance with some kind of excitement.

Yet his current re-emergence seems a lot different from what he had ever done before. This is because even during the period of his dignified silence Ekwueme kept his political cards faced down. He hardly showed his hands in anything. For that the president and his political operatives found him a hard nut to crack. And even in his golden silence he was considered a far more portent threat to the ambition of Obasanjo for a second-term. Right from the day he became president of Nigeria for the second time, Obasanjo has been running with one eye kept on Ekwueme to monitor every beat of his political heart. But Candidate Ekwueme seemed to have handled the president's prying eyes quite ingeniously. He appeared to have been much more concerned with the rebuilding of his political capital. He patiently waited for the appropriate time and place to emerge. And that seems what he had done this past week.

The taste of the level Ekwueme had succeeded in replenishing his political capital after the setback of 1999 came a few months ago when a public birthday party was held in his honor at the International Conference Center at Abuja. There the powers-that-be in Nigeria gathered to pay him homage. While many had gathered to demonstrate how politically relevant he still was in Nigeria, others like Obasanjo and his supporters had gathered to canonize him an elder statesman who should consider quitting partisan politics entirely. The two forces were competing for attention during that birthday bash. And they were noticeable in the tone of their encomiums on Celebrant Ekwueme. While the group urging his retirement as an elder statesman looked to his past, what he had meant for Nigeria and the legacy he had accumulated, those who wanted to urge him back into politics harped on the vindication of some of his ideas for Nigeria and his continued relevance in Nigerian politics. On its part, the Nigerian press was working in vain to find out which direction Ekwueme's ears were inclining. The question was, will he run or will he not run?

In other words Ekwueme has spent the last three and a half years as a bride of the different sections of Nigeria. He was wooed by the press for the sheer drama and excitement of a rematch between him and Obasanjo. The same was true of the apex Igbo body, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which had all along been proxying for his campaign. But he also seems to have been wooed by Obasanjo for a totally different reason. President Obasanjo perhaps wanted to keep him close to him in order to preserve him in the refrigerator of political retirement as an elder statesman. So when this past week, Ekwueme jumped into the fray to declare his candidacy for the 2003 election thereby challenging President Obasanjo personally, he caused not just a little excitement among the different segments of the Nigerian society.

First, Obasanjo was excited in a negative sense. Ekwueme's entry had forced him back to the drawing board. He now realized he had a fight in hand. For the press, Ekwueme's entry was exciting because it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The press considered him a real match for the incumbent president and therefore a real draw for an exciting campaign in 2003. For the press also the prospect of a rematch between him and Obasanjo is laden with hot news and drama. Also the entry of Ekwueme into presidential contest excited the Ohanaeze Ndigbo because it gave a boost to the group's desire to produce a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2003. Ekwueme is a man of substance who has acquired tremendous goodwill all across Nigeria. Ohanaeze seems to believe that he will be able to satisfy the need for the Igbo ethnics to produce a president that will be seen more as a national figure and less an ethnic leader.

	But what can a Bob-Woodward-Carl-Bernstein-kind of journalist offer to the present-day Nigeria? I think this can been viewed on two levels: first, the level of the hidden characters of our politicians and officeholders. It is almost a common knowledge that most of our top politicians in Nigeria today are professional crooks far worse than the disgraced Richard Nixon....

The danger in having a celebrity politician of Ekwueme's cadre join a presidential race is the possibility that he might be given a free pass by the press that had collected all sorts of myths around him. Obasanjo benefited from that in 1999 and the nation has been suffering the effect till date. Ekwueme's case is even more dangerous because he will eventually be the consensus choice of his Igbo ethnics. The danger is real that he might cruise through to the later stages of the nomination process without answering the tough questions confronting the nation. If this ever happens, the Nigerian press would have failed woefully. Every candidate that presents him/herself for the highest office of the land must be made to answer candidly the tough questions about our nation.

There is no doubt in my mind that Ekwueme is an excellent candidate. He has excellent ideas that could help lift Nigeria. If he is ever elected he will be the most educated Nigerian leader ever. I would root for a person like Ekwueme any day. But if the press ever gives him a free pass perhaps because of his intimidating education, his gentle nature and his dignity, it would have committed a major blunder in our democracy. Yes, Ekwueme has presented himself as a candidate for Nigeria's presidency. It is the duty of the press to take him up on all the problems that are afflicting Nigeria today. We want to hear his position on everything concerning the problems of Nigeria. What is his view about restructuring the nation? What is his view about the festering Shariah law? What is his economic blueprint? What does he think about the state of the Nigerian education? What specific plans does he have for the destroyed Nigerian university system? What is his action plan against corruption? What is his view about insecurity in Nigeria? He should willingly make available his views on such tough questions. That will be the way to determine whether he or any other candidates can separate themselves from the rest in the crowded field of candidates.

Another element that provided political excitement last week was the registration of twenty-two more political parties by INEC. And with this group came the National Conscience Party led by the veteran human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi. For the greater part of the second half of this year about twenty-five political associations, which could not be registered by INEC earlier in the year were locked in a legal battle about the constitutionality of the electoral body's guidelines on the registration of new political parties. This past week, about twenty-two of them prevailed and were given certificates of registration. And with that decision the Nigerian political situation completed its bounce back to life.

But the return of Nigeria to political life in an atmosphere in which many journalists seem cowered and scared for their lives seems a fertile ground for political confusion. It is hardly the way to prepare for a good election. This is even more the case in Nigeria where there are so many subterranean issues that only a courageous press can unveil for democracy to thrive. That is why as the press celebrates the return of some modicum of normalcy in the Nigerian society, it must realize that the post-Miss World situation in Nigeria presents a very tough challenge for the media and journalists. The challenge of the press in this era of press intimidation in Nigeria lies with the fact that the issues that could cause a Miss-World-kind of crisis in the country are still there in incubation. In fact those issues have once again been swept under the rug. The fanatical Islamic issues have gone back to their hideous posture of lying low and waiting. So also are the political issues.

Nigeria has once again gone back to her natural mode of the calm before the storm. All the destructive forces are once again biding their time and waiting for the opportune moment to wreak havoc all over again. And with them lying there undisturbed the much democracy can do is to remain a subterfuge. It takes very courageous journalists to expose such anti-democracy forces and the pseudo-politicians that are behind them. This is where we earnestly long for Nigerian journalists carved in the images of Woodward and Bernstein. Ours is a situation where courageous journalists can make all the difference in the world. Such journalists can serve as ministers to a precariously perching democracy like the one in Nigeria today. Journalism is to a democracy what prophecy is to a Judeo-Christian religion. Without an established prophetic tradition a Judeo-Christian religion flounders. So also without a tradition of robust and vigorous press democracy all but dies. And this is why this essay has chosen to commend to the Nigerian journalists the legendary exploits of internationally celebrated journalists like Woodward and Bernstein.

But what can a Bob-Woodward-Carl-Bernstein-kind of journalist offer to the present-day Nigeria? I think this can been viewed on two levels: first, the level of the hidden characters of our politicians and officeholders. It is almost a common knowledge that most of our top politicians in Nigeria today are professional crooks far worse than the disgraced Richard Nixon of the United States of America who became the chief victim of the journalistic wizardry of Woodward and Bernstein. But unlike in America where such politicians are regularly fished out and disgraced, the Nigerian political crooks are actively in business today because we do not have the likes of Woodward and Bernstein. What we have mainly in Nigeria of today are cowered as well as brown-envelope and honoraria collectors masquerading as journalists. So the Nigerian nation is actively yearning for some of her journalists to break ranks with this dishonorable company and confer legitimacy to their career as well as make lasting names by playing a Woodward-Bernstein character in a nation that is filled to capacity with politicians carved more in the crook image of Nixon instead of the selfless and pious images of Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela.

Second, Nigeria desperately needs a Woodward-Bernstein-kind of journalist on the level of the real choices that are available to the Nigerian electorate in the forthcoming elections. This is especially the case now that we would have to deal with twenty-eight potential presidential candidates. It is absolutely clear that without the shining light that some daredevil journalists could offer in such a situation our people are headed to a monumental confusion in 2003. The work of a Woodward-Bernstein-kind journalist will be to cut through the maze of confusion as a result of the crowd of impostors that are offering themselves as presidential candidates to govern Nigeria. This is where the Nigerian press must learn from her American counterpart. There are well over two hundred political parties in America most of which nominate presidential candidates every four years. But the press hardly wastes any ink on the 99% of them. It quickly figures out those who are the real contenders so as to concentrate fully on highlighting their positive qualities against their weaknesses.

The Nigerian press should quickly sieve through the crowd of presidential impostors so as to isolate a few of them from whom a president can actually be chosen. I believe that with the entry into the race of people like Ekwueme and Fawehinmi, the Nigerian presidential election has got all the characters it requires to make for a lively contest. The match-up involving Obasanjo, Ekwueme and Fawehinmi will produce all the fireworks the press longs for as well as satisfy the intellectual rigors of a true democratic election. But we cannot arrive at this narrow group unless the Nigerian press and some Nigerian journalists begin to play the role of Woodward and Bernstein. The need for a thorough press investigation of anybody who presents him/herself for the presidency of Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized. The Nigerian political arena is infested with people with heinous criminal pasts. Only journalists cast in the images of the American investigative wizards Woodward and Bernstein can blow the whistle against such people. And we need such journalists now. We need journalists who can go behind the scene to unveil how each political candidate makes his/her money, how the one is financing his or her election and what companies such a candidate keeps. The electorate needs all such information to make an informed decision. Only the hard-headed journalists can perform such a prophetic ministry for the Nigerian democracy. A country like Nigeria that has been terribly served by fanatical politicians like the governor of Zamfara State and his deputy could use some courageous journalists who should muster the courage to blow the whistle when another violent fanatics is about to hijack an election in order to propagate his religious agenda.

The worst mistake the Nigerian press will make in the forthcoming election is to allow decent candidates like Ekwueme, Fawehinmi and perhaps Obasanjo, to be lumped together with all the nouveau riche crooks that will be surfacing from the woodwork of those new parties as presidential candidates. This rarely happens in any responsible democracy. One hardly ever hears from the presidential candidates of such parties as marijuana legislation party, Hunters party, etc., yet they are there in many advanced democracies and claiming to be legitimate parties. The press always has the right to evaluate parties and accord more prominence to those that are serious and have credible agenda for the nation. For instance, there is no way the press can organize a meaningful debate for the twenty-eight presidential candidates at the same time. It must therefore figure out how to weed out those whose leaders are there for the sake of the publicity. And the only way to do this justly is for courageous journalists in Nigeria to embark on active investigation of the backgrounds of political candidates so as to weed out the crooks.