Stop Disparaging Leaders, Protect Nigeria’s Image, Uyo Don Tells Citizens

THURSDAY March 13, 2025 |TheNewsDESK

A professor of Applied Rhetorics at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Professor Peter Esuh, has criticized the rate at which Nigerians disparage their leaders, stating that such attitudes are misrepresenting the country’s image in the global community.

Addressing journalists in his office in Uyo on Monday, Esuh lamented that most Nigerians use social media to denigrate their leaders, without knowing that such media outlets are within the purview of the global community.

The lecturer, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of the university, emphasized the need for a traditional medium of communication to protect the country.

He said, “I have been watching all these media houses, international media houses, I know what mainstream media could do and I also know what traditional media could do. I have found that the rate at which we disparage our leaders in contemporary Nigerian society is so alarming that it has affected our image internationally.

“Most of our people don’t know that social media are global media, we just think that when we type something on Twitter, it’s only seen here and once we go on Facebook, it is only seen here. These are all global media.”

He frowned at the way influencers, bloggers and TV commentators handled the invitation extended to the former governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, lamenting that no investigation and balancing was done before reporting the situation.

He expressed regrets that no journalist was able to find out from the anti-graft agency’s website before reporting the news of the former governor’s arrest, adding that such speaks volumes about the callousness of Nigerian society.