Where we went wrong

“There are two sides to every story…Journalists should be neutral”. We all are familiar with those tectonic plates of thought. Since its creation 13 years ago, The Guardian Post has been faulted for taking sides.

Government apologists are uncomfortable with the newspaper because we have been consistent in exposing government creep. We have remained constant in opposition to dumping Anglophones to the fringes of power in every facet of public life in a regime which propagates national integration and unity; a regime where Anglophones are collectively skewed as being incompetent by the likes of Atangana Manda, a director in the ministry of communication.

The Guardian Post in its mission to tell the truth at all costs has never been shy to scold the prime minister when he gets things wrong. We believe it is through such scrutiny of government actions and officials that President Biya himself drew inspiration and in his end of year speech last December wondered aloud why Cameroonians should be endower with abundant natural and human resources yet are not getting things right.

The country is plagued with unemployment, poverty, miseries, corruption, embezzlement and the impunity by some government officials who would want to be served by the people instead of the other way round. The Guardian Post has in 13 years exposed and condemned them.

That side of the story has had its disciples of doom, the devil’s advocates who have in the past sided with them to sink our thoughts, deprive us of the oxygen of existence. The Guardian Post has been suspended, not once by the National Communication Council under circumstances that where viewed by lucid observers as influenced by competitors.

The suspensions were seen by media freedom watchdogs as a violation of press freedom and free speech. But we took the sanctions bravely; knowing that we were on a mission of justice. The penalties instead emboldened our resolve to work harder and to remain the voice of the vast majority of the voiceless.

There are also members of the opposition holy grail who think that being out of government, they should hang on to the perception that they are holier than the Pope. They oppose, oppose, but without suggesting a better solution for the daily problems that rock the foundation of a country hoping to emerge in 2035.

Because The Guardian Post has refused to side with such propaganda, it has got the knocks, kicks and bruises of “getting things wrong”. Where they fail to discuss issues, they turn their petty gossips to personalities. They are at a loss to understand why a “small boy like Kristian Ngah Christian” should be a force behind Cameroon’s leading English language newspaper.

Of course, it has not been a one-man show; we have on board an editorial crew no independent newspaper in Cameroon can muster. Our contributors and editorial team are professional personalities whose opinions are backed by the evidence of facts and integrity.

We have refused to sit on the fence of neutrality and have taken sides with the truth. It is for the sake of humility that we declined to title this editorial: “Where we went right”. The truth is, as the adage says, bitter and those on the wrong side of it frequently misinform the public about “where we went wrong”.

It is their view and we respect it. They are entitled to it but that has not startled us or derailed our team from the mission to serve our millions of readers in 13 years. They form a crushing majority of “the people”, whose voices we have strived to project.

Our cross has been that government institutions have denied us advertising, despite our popularity and regularity, because we are perceived as an “opposition newspaper”. The opposition too has given us the label of a pro-regime publication.

Did it then surprise anybody that the leader of the leading opposition political party, John Fru Ndi is on record to have written to the National Communication Council that The Guardian Post should be suspended? If he had his way, would he not have asked that it should be shut down in violation of press freedom inalienable right?

Against such odds, The Guardian Post has in 13 years, refused to be neutral, but consistently by the side of the evidence of truth. It doesn’t fizzle out even when it flickers like a candle in the wilderness of darkness painted gloomy by our detractors and enemies of facts.

We sincerely thank our readers and the few advertisers who have stood by what they consider to be right, just and sincere. They have helped us to keep walking on, at times limping, at others wobbling and now running at 13. It’s been like a miraculous child born with teeth. That’s why we are at the top. Thanks to the Creator, call Him God, Allah or Jehovah. Thanks to you.

We have had our faults. Only our Creator is without faults but we are encouraged that we have informed a people who appreciate us.

Martin Walker of The Guardian of London in his internationally acclaimed book, Power of the Press acknowledges that in spite of the failings and fallibilities of newspapers, they “perform a service of overwhelming public importance, they are in both the first and final lines of defense of our freedoms, that even in totalitarian states, newspapers have kept alive a flickering of criticism and resistance and that newspapers and the brands of journalists and printers that embody them, can survive to report the fall of the very regime that would suppress them.”

That is why even after the humbug that we have always “got it wrong” we remain the country’s leading and only English language daily by the UNESCO’s definition of a daily newspaper.

The Guardian Post pops 13 toasts with you our readers and advertisers, for being on the right side of the truth 13 years and counting…