*Photo: Barrister Nyesom Wike(middle) at an interactive session with journalists*
There is something far more disturbing than a powerful man making a reckless statement. It is the silence of those who are professionally and morally obligated to challenge him—and choose not to. When Minister Nyesom Wike openly declared that he would shoot Seun Akinbaloye if given the chance, it was not whispered in a dark corner. It was not an offhand private joke. It was said in front of journalists—trained professionals, custodians of public accountability, men and women whose very job is to interrogate power, not kneel before it.
And yet, not a word.
No raised eyebrow.
No immediate pushback.
No collective “Sir, that is unacceptable.”
Nothing.
In that moment, the real story was not Wike’s threat. Power, after all, often speaks with arrogance. The real story was the room—full of microphones, notebooks, and cameras—but empty of courage.
Because when journalists become spectators to intimidation instead of challengers of it, they cease to be journalists. They become accessories.
Let us be honest. This was not fear alone. Fear at least has dignity—it recognizes danger. What we saw from those journalists was something worse: accommodation. A quiet, transactional understanding that proximity to power is more valuable than speaking truth to it. That the crumbs from the Minister’s table must not be jeopardized by inconvenient principles.
And so, silence becomes currency.
But history is unforgiving to such moments. Every profession has its test. On that day, those journalists failed the test.
And in doing so, they sent a message far louder than any protest they failed to make—that intimidation is acceptable, that threats can pass unchallenged, and that the fourth estate, at least in that room, had leased out its spine.
Power thrives where silence is purchased cheaply.
The tragedy is not that a minister spoke recklessly. The tragedy is that those who should have checked him chose instead to cash in their silence. @nigerian union of journalists Nuj-fct Council @seun Akinbaloye