Rufai Oseni and the courage to ask questions that burn, by Stephanie Shaakaa

There are journalists who study and there are journalists who interrogate reality. 

Rufai Oseni of Arise TV belongs to that rare, unbending class of truth-tellers who garbage to beryllium hypnotized by powerfulness oregon intimidated by titles. He has mastered the creation of peeling distant authoritative veneers and exposing the hollow halfway beneath the rhetoric that excessively often passes for governance successful Nigeria.

Some journalists study events. Rufai Oseni dissects them.

He doesn’t conscionable anchor the quality helium interrogates reality.

He doesn’t request to shout. His intellect does the dense lifting. Rufai’s spot lies successful however helium listens, however helium dissects, however helium refuses to beryllium dazzled by grammar oregon governmental showmanship. In a state wherever accountability has go a threatened specie, helium stands arsenic the indispensable irritant, the conscience that refuses to fto comfortableness coexist with deceit.

Every clip helium faces a nationalist official, it feels little similar an interrogation and much similar a civic audit. He asks what each thoughtful Nigerian wants to inquire but cannot. “How overmuch does it outgo per kilometre?” helium inquired, and abruptly a elemental question became a nationalist thesis. The impermanent fumbled. Numbers vanished. Confidence cracked. The assemblage leaned in. That infinitesimal wasn’t conscionable television. It was a masterclass successful governance. Rufai turned a fig into a reflector and forced the federation to face the absurdities we person learned to tolerate.

What makes Rufai compelling is not lone his intellect but besides his courage. It takes courageousness to question those who judge accountability is optional. It takes adjacent much to clasp dependable erstwhile information becomes unpopular. For excessively long, sections of the Nigerian media person mistaken entree for relevance, anxious to repetition talking points alternatively than interrogate them. Rufai represents the antidote to that disease. He embodies a benignant of journalism that refuses to bow oregon barter its integrity.

His attack recalls the journalistic grit of Christiane Amanpour, the precision of Fareed Zakaria, the motivation clarity of Trevor Noah and the audacious composure of Larry Madowo. Yet Rufai remains unmistakably Nigerian, grounded successful our contradictions, driven by our chaos and sustained by our hope. He wears his sophistication not arsenic show but arsenic conviction.

The information is that Rufai’s dependable resonates due to the fact that Nigerians are weary. Weary of deceit wrapped successful jargon. Weary of being treated arsenic spectators successful their ain democracy. Each clip a person appears connected aerial to charm the nationalist with rhetoric and half-truths, Rufai reminds them that the federation is not asleep. His insistence connected clarity and information reflects a deeper nationalist hunger, the hunger for honesty.

And that is what distinguishes him. He doesn’t conscionable situation the powerful. He educates the public. He turns interviews into civic lessons, demanding precision wherever vagueness erstwhile thrived. Our state wherever propaganda has replaced policy, Rufai restores religion successful the elemental enactment of asking the close question.

Of people not everyone likes him. Those who prosper successful the shadows of disorder bristle astatine his firmness. They telephone him arrogant, combative oregon disrespectful. But that is the acquainted publication of power. When it cannot support itself, it attacks tone. When it cannot justify, it vilifies. Rufai remains unmoved. His calm is strategic, his occurrence deliberate.

He is not conscionable a tv anchor. He is simply a metaphor for resistance, the rebirth of journalism arsenic a civic force. He signals a generational shift. Nigerians are nary longer contented with governmental theatre. They privation substance. They privation outgo breakdowns, not slogans. They privation the outgo per kilometre. They privation proof.Is that excessively overmuch to ask?

When politicians and nationalist officials amusement up connected Arise TV with their polished talking points and choreographed smiles, R...