The media as tools for political propaganda in Adamu Usman’s <i>Sieged</i>

Abstract

This study examines the use of the media as tools for political propaganda in Adamu Usman’s Sieged. It contends that the untoward use of the medium by politicians and the practitioners’ inability to check this is the concern of Usman in Sieged. The study argues that Adamu Usman’s novel portrays government owned media as one that accepts government’s version of events with minimum questioning. It reflects on how the ruling party engages the media in contemporary Nigeria to sway the mind of the people in order to discredit competent candidates as Boyama of UAC did to demean Jamimi of PLM in Sieged. The study is anchored on Robert Young’s conceptualisation of Literary Criticism and Achille Mbembe’s rationale of the postcolony. Usman indicts both the politicians and the media stressing that government media has lost its watchdog role and complicit in post-independence disillusionment. The paper argues that Usman deploys propaganda devices in his revelation to show how politicians in government deceive the people based on their access and control of state Radio and Television. It traces Nigeria’s underdevelopment to this wholesale propaganda just as it is being pelted during media debates. The study, therefore, found that politics is lifeless without the media as the world is largely ediated through the words and images of the media. Adamu Usman therefore in Sieged presents media engagement in postcolonial Nigeria by politicians as nothing but means to foot their propaganda.