Perhaps Africa’s, and indeed Nigeria’s, greatest enemy of negative and biased reporting is Michael Peel. In fact, I have tried to hold back and be patient with this voyeur cum journalist, but I can’t hold back anymore. Not after the latest damning report from him and his one-sided account of the fraud and scams allegedly emanating from Nigeria that he says cost the UK billions a year.

As we say in Nigeria, enough is enough. How long must we wait and see this guy dehumanize Africans and indeed Nigerians with his negative view of the African continent? Last week most UK newspapers were inundated with the story of Mr Peel, conversations on tubes and buses and in offices were once again ignited by the story of Nigerians and their financial concoction: the 419 scam. But this isn’t all Nigerians are good at; unfortunately it is the only one that Michael Peel tells the world.

For people like me, speaking the English language with a heavy Nigerian accent, and carrying flag-waving African names, there is no escaping scorn, ‘sympathy’ and ridicule. As West Africa correspondent for the Financial Times newspaper, Michael Peel has never found anything good and positive in the entire sub-region worth reporting, his reports are often cloaked in cynicism, threads of decline, death and backwardness tie them together, just as the news reports of your fellow Western media journalists stationed in Africa whose sole mandate is to report the bad and the ugly. For Michael Peel and his associates, nothing good comes out of Africa; Africa is still a dark continent and its people savage and criminal.

I often wonder, when they go to bed at night, do they quietly close their eyes with the satisfaction that they have done all they can through their many negative and distorted reports to improve the lives of Africans whom they constantly denigrate, or the thought that they may be contributing to the backwardness of Africa remain somewhere in their minds?

As an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, doesn’t Michael Peel realize that the papers he writes and is endorsed by Chatham House in some way influence policy, including decisions made by global governments and investors regarding Africa, And that that parochial view of the issues is in conflict with Africa and, indeed, with Nigeria’s march toward national renaissance and its current drive to attract foreign direct investment (FDI)?

Where has the journalistic objectivity you learned in journalism school gone? In telling his readers how much the UK loses annually from fraud emanating from Nigeria, he conveniently ignored the fact that his fellow citizens (the ‘innocent’ victims) are also co-perpetrators of the crime, and that his ‘misfortune’ only came from his greed and his immoral inclination to rape Africa and steal its resources. A provision that dates back centuries and continues to be witnessed in many mines and oil wells in Africa.

So who smiles last now? The poor Africans he so loathes and constantly ridicules, subjecting them to constant ridicule in the Western media, and elevating them to favorite topics at the dinner table, and conversations at Westminster ballroom parties through his negative reporting, or is it the greedy white men and women who planned to reap where they didn’t sow and ended up in the process?

Perhaps Michael Peel should follow the lead of John Simpson, former BBC Africa correspondent and world affairs editor who reports on Africa as a partner in Africa’s progress and development would; praising and criticizing him when necessary and at the same time savoring, celebrating and immersing himself in the culture of the town; its food, music, art and lifestyle. In one of Mr. Simpson’s many introspective essays published sometime in 2000, in an issue of High Life, British Airways’ inflight magazine; John Simpson wrote what I consider to be one of the most beautiful articles on Nigeria ever written by a non-Nigerian. In said article, he showed his soul while declaring his love for a country that, according to him, was probably one of the best countries in the world to live in despite adversities and challenges. Surely there are things that Mr. Simpson must have seen or experienced to have made him come to such a conclusion. Such endorsement coming from a well-traveled man and writer obviously outweighs the many keyboard-pounding Michael Peels of this world who may have stayed longer than expected, and should now be thinking of packing up and leaving the beautiful continent; the land of great rivers and the rising sun.

I suppose only Michael Peel can produce the statistical formula he used to arrive at the supposed amount of money the UK loses annually to Nigerian scammers. If his billion-pound calculations were true, would there still be a need for Nigeria and the rest of Africa to ask for debt cancellation? Would not such a gigantic proceeds of crime have been visible on the ground? Wouldn’t all the roads and sidewalks in Nigeria be tarred and paved with gold, and wouldn’t the UK economy seriously feel the impact of such illegal capital flight out of the economy into Nigeria?

Michael Peel should have another calling and leave Nigeria and Nigerians alone. Being scary is not what the world needs at this stage, particularly the UK, which is currently facing a host of problems, including large-scale corporate fraud (post-Enron, Andersen, WorldCom, Tyco, etc.) , organized crime, poverty, antisocial behaviors, teenage pregnancy, threat of terrorism and increase in unemployment, etc. If he’s that concerned, he should be scouring BBC studios, ITV, Channels 4 and 5, as well as Sky urging people about him and advising them not to give away their ‘billions of pounds’ to Nigerians.

Africans and their governments share some of the blame for not fighting their own battles. They have repeatedly failed to invest in their own media systems and infrastructure to tell their own stories. However, it may be along these lines that the Nigerian government-owned Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) recently began broadcasting internationally. Also noteworthy are plans reported by Nigeria’s News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to start a 24-hour broadcast from January 2007, like other global news wires. These are all positive moves that, if sustained in the long term, would give Nigeria a voice on the world stage, in addition to the small efforts of private terrestrial channels such as Africa Independent Television (AIT), Bright Entertainment Network (BEN) Television, and OBE etc

Mr. Peel’s attempt to present his guests as research to support his position and that of his payers is truly appalling; if he were only honest, a casual investigation would have told him that most scam emails do not originate from Nigeria, he agreed that some unscrupulous Nigerians may have popularized the scams, but other citizens of the world, including citizens UK, have perfected them ever since. . Mr Peel cannot argue with certainty that the daily ‘Euro Millions Prize Monies’ and similar scam emails that bombard our email inboxes every day originate from Nigeria, or do you not watch BBC Watchdog? How many Nigerians have appeared on that show? Aren’t the usual suspects your countrymen and countrymen getting caught in the act while trying to fleece other law-abiding citizens, including retirees, of their hard-earned money?

The long-standing reliance of African countries on Western media such as the BBC, Financial Times, CNN, VOA, etc., for information has not done Africa much good. The time has come for Africa and Africans to start telling their own stories and engage Michael Peel and his fellow travelers who feast on Africa’s misfortunes and are always quick to condemn, judge, blame and criminalize the good people of Africa with their myopic Reports to the dustbins of history.