The famous Sierra Leone born but British National Isha Sesay has left her job at CNN citing the focus of the Western media on Donald Trump while ignoring the others news like Africa.
Speaking to whatweseee.com, Isha explained “I’ve been at CNN for 13 years, it’s the end of a huge chapter.” “It’s been such a tremendous time, such an eventful 13 years — I feel like I grew up working there. I showed up as a 30-year-old in 2005, with two suitcases and a one-year contract — I’ve managed to make that last 13 years! It’s been amazing, I’ve been married when I was there, divorced when I was there, it’s all happened.”
Sesay said she will now focus on more sad news from Africa like Ebola and Chibok girls, in a bid to tell the continent’s stories in the right context. “I want to put a focus on Africa in the way I wish all international media would cover Africa,” she said. “Now it’s either underreported or not reported with the right nuance and context. I’m going to turn my attention to being one in this new army of people who are moving into this space, who are representing Africa in a new way.” Sesay said she is currently writing a book about the abduction of the Chibok girls in Nigeria saying it will be released in May 2019. She also started an educational organisation called W.E. Can Lead to tackle teenage pregnancy, lack of education, and early marriage. The program is open for girls everywhere from Africa, and as at August 2018 there are more than 600 girls participating in it.
It would be recalled that Isha was severely savaged by the Nigerian Media in 2014 for her reportage of the kidnap of the Chibok girls. The question now is has Isha Sesay suddenly seen the light? Has she suddenly woken up to the fact that the Western media which she had been a part of more often than not focus or portray Africa in bad given the slightest opportunity? What is this new found love for Africa she is professing? It is quiet ironic that four years ago when she was sent by her pay masters to Nigeria to cover events in Nigeria around the kidnapped schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno and to most probably highlight all those things that do not work in Nigeria, she left no stone unturned in ensuring that she brought the country into disrupt.
According to a widely circulated opinion written by Uche Ezechukwu titled ‘Isha Sesay: A butterfly pretending to be a bird’, she was ridiculed for serving the interest of the West. “Isha Sesay, who is born of Sierra Leonean parents but who holds British citizenship, must have been picked by her employers as a journalist with the right background to understand the current issues in Nigeria especially as they involve Boko Haram which claims Islamic roots and justification.”
“Isha is a Muslim and had her early life in West Africa and is expected to understand the underlying local issues, even those surrounding the capability of the Nigerian military which literally saved her country and people from the stranglehold of fanatics and political extremists, who, while not professing any religious fervour, were nevertheless, more ruthless than Boko Haram. Today, in Isha Sesay’s country, many people are going around with both limbs hacked off by the likes of Fodeh Sankoh.”
“Leading the ECOMOG forces, it was Nigeria that had intervened in Sierra Leone to save the day for those alive today. It is on record that in Sierra Leone and Liberia, Nigeria became the first nation in modern times to successfully enforce peace and return the country to normalcy – a feat that neither Britain nor the US have been able to achieve. Unlike the situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone where Nigeria’s military government re-installed democratic governance, similar attempts by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan left those countries in greater chaos and in tatters. That is the country that Isha Sesay comes from and when she arrived Nigeria, instead of viewing the country that saved her people with respect and awe, she chose instead to talk down on Nigerian government, leaders and institutions.”
“But in a typical manner of the ‘massa’, the black foreman of fellow Black slaves, who exhibits an unusual level of cruelty in order to prove his loyalty to his white masters, Sesay made sure she found every opportunity to paint every Nigerian leader or institution in putrid colours. To her, every Nigerian leader or institution is weak, inefficient and corrupt.”
“To make matters worse, she poured untold aspersions on the capacity of the Nigerian military – the same institution that had in a very recent past, ensured that her parents have a country. Instead of observing the most basic tenet of balance and objectivity through the doctrine of ‘audialterempartem’ (listen to the other side), Sesay would not even allow the Information Minister or any other authoritative source of government get a word across.”
“When she brings them to her microphone, it is to ‘prove’ how bad they are. For, to a typical poorly informed and incompetent Western journalist, whose most competent sources are opposition members and all those who have axes to grind with the government of the day, every government official is to be poached. Most informed Nigerians were upset with the level of incompetence and lack of professionalism with which Isha Sesay reported Nigeria last week but because of her medium, many were restrained in attacking her.”
“To compound matters and as a proof that the CNN correspondent did not as much as do the most basic research on Nigeria before coming here to pose as an expert on West African affairs, her reportage left a lot of gaps which exposed her as a neophyte. Her religious bias was very evident even when it is obvious that she is currently a Muslim only in name. Her interview subjects were only those who oppose the government and its policies, which makes one wonder what she learnt from her days at BBC, which we were taught in school, is the model and reference point of responsible and objective journalism.”
