{"id":30,"date":"2009-05-25T18:34:30","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T18:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=30"},"modified":"2010-04-13T04:20:43","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T04:20:43","slug":"he-walks-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2009\/05\/he-walks-the-line\/","title":{"rendered":"He Walks the Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a city of fat cats and streetwise Area Boys, Lagos journalist Kirk Leigh performs a professional balancing act.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lagos, Nigeria\u2014Lagos is famous for its Area Boys. They are not boys at all, but actually young men from the masses of Lagos\u2019 under- and unemployed. Other city residents admire Area Boys for surviving on their wits, even as they also fear the idle men for their roughness. Area Boys run all kinds of hustles, legal and illegal: providing muscle for heavy lifting jobs, selling odds and ends, flagging cabs for tips and providing security services that sometimes seem more like protection rackets.<\/p>\n

What kind of professionals would Lagos produce, one wonders, if Nigeria\u2019s lopsided economy ever found a way to absorb its teeming human capital?<\/p>\n

The career of Nigerian business journalist Kirk Leigh, a Lagos native through and through, offers some idea. Leigh has combined knowledge of Lagos street corners with a college education to gain a reputation as one of Nigeria\u2019s top young journalists. He is immersed and at ease in his surroundings yet still connects them to the forces outside of Lagos, and outside Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Leigh has displayed his abilities in stories like the one he wrote about the market for smuggled Nigerian artifacts in Europe. Or his regular efforts to involve the perspectives of foreign economists\u2014a rarity in Lagos\u2019s dailies\u2014in his stories about the Nigerian banking sector.<\/p>\n

When I meet Leigh on the street in a deteriorating Lagos suburb to do an interview for a research project I\u2019m completing for my Masters in International Affairs, I get the impression that he is someone who possesses Area Boy street smarts, a pundit\u2019s grasp of politics and the manners of a polished professional. He stands in front of the Business Day newspaper offices in the sun with his suit coat hanging from a hand. After introducing himself, he turns to greet a security guard in the local dialect of English\u2014I have trouble understanding it\u2014and they share a laugh.
\nLater on, Leigh cements his glad-handling image when he approaches a group of taxi drivers sitting under a broad-leafed tree on rickety chairs, next to a gutter full of stagnant water. They jump at the chance to drive another colleague and me back to central Lagos\u2014since we\u2019re foreigners, they reckon that they can squeeze top dollar from us. But with a few doses of sternness, cajoling and charm, Leigh has convinced a taxi driver to transport us for a rock bottom price. It\u2019s clear he\u2019s in his element.<\/p>\n

I ask Leigh if he ever dreams of leaving the chaos of Lagos\u2019s sweaty millions\u2014eight million, according to the Nigerian government, though many Lagosians think the real figure is much higher\u2014and daily two-hour traffic jams. He laughs. \u201cNo way,\u201d he says. \u201cLagos is where everything is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

But partly, Leigh\u2019s acumen as a journalist is a result of his having traveled abroad. In 2007, he participated in a training program in Germany hosted by the International Institute for Journalism. At a caf\u00e9 serving Nigerian fast food and blaring R&B music, Leigh tells me about his awakening as a journalist when he traveled to Berlin.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom within, you don\u2019t get to see the broad picture\u2014until you step out.\u201d The training, he says, taught him to think of the \u201cSo what?\u201d in his reporting. He came back to Business Day, and the newspaper promptly offered to promote him to assistant editor. In typical Leigh fashion, he declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t consider that a promotion\u201d Leigh says. He wanted to remain on a beat, reporting from banks and about the people the banks\u2019 business affected. His stories regularly appeared on the front page of Business Day.<\/p>\n

Had Lagos\u2019 son outgrown his hometown?<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember having an argument with my editor here, on how you report,\u201d he says. The editor didn\u2019t want him to get into analysis in his stories. \u201cWhen I ask them, \u2018Why are you guys doing it this way?\u2019, their reply is, \u2018We\u2019ve always done it this way.\u201d
\nSoon, Leigh left the newspaper to strike out as a freelancer. After a brief stint doing public relations for a Lagos-based bank, he\u2019s still struggling to find his way. The product he has to offer Nigerian newspapers may simply be more than they are prepared to publish.<\/p>\n

The big shots in Nigeria are politicians, bankers and oilmen. Journalists are neither widely known nor very well paid. In a country that is one of the world\u2019s largest producers of oil, the lifeblood of the richest economies in the world, there never seems to be enough money to go around.<\/p>\n

Leigh has the skills and training to move to a more lucrative career, one a little closer to the industries that keep some Lagosians well fed while the vast majority piece together income from different sources. For the time being, though, he remains passionate about journalism. He says he loves the honesty of reporting.<\/p>\n

Lagos produces numerous newspapers, but journalists on political and financial beats that have a commitment to producing unbiased work are not so easy to come by.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaying off journalists happens every day,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s the norm. Matter of fact, they come looking for the journalist: \u2018Here\u2019s my story. Here\u2019s your money.\u2019 So most of what you read is PR.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vast gap between Area Boy and well-to-do in Lagos is sparsely populated and short on opportunity. Still, Leigh is undaunted in his desire for a career that negotiates these two extremes.<\/p>\n

Before our meeting is through, Leigh takes me to some Internet caf\u00e9s near his house to help me with a story I\u2019m writing on Nigerian Internet scammers. It\u2019s a touchy subject, and as we cross the threshold of the first caf\u00e9, he whispers to me over his shoulder not to take pictures or mention I\u2019m a journalist until he\u2019s broken the ice.<\/p>\n

I hang behind while Leigh chats with a young woman behind the counter at the caf\u00e9. In a couple of minutes, her expression of suspicion has melted into an easy smile. Soon, she\u2019s talking, relaxed, about the impact on the caf\u00e9 of a government crackdown on scammers, happy to grant an interview to a foreign journalist. Leigh has worked his magic again.<\/p>\n

Back in the streets of Lagos, Area Boys keep trying to spin charm and cleverness into gold. At intersections, they hawk everything from plantain chips to toilet seats. Occasionally, the window of an air-conditioned, late model sedan slides down, and a well-dressed arm holds out a few Naira. Mostly, the cars drive on.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine anyone walking the line between these two extremes of Lagos. But journalists like Leigh just might be able to, by chronicling the economic and political forces that have created a tableau of such disparity.