Guerilla Journalism in the Niger Delta, an Underdog or a Watchdog: An Ecopostcolonial Interrogation

In a crises-ridden society like Nigeria, investigative journalism, otherwise known as guerilla journalism is an elusive project characterized by innumerable and infamous compromises. This paper attempts to evaluate the limitations of journalism by establishing the albatross(es) of investigative journalism in the Nigerian media orbit stalling national development. It is most of all, an evaluation of the uncovering of the daemons that torment the South-south region of Nigeria, and the inability of the media to do what is expected in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water (OOW). As the media in Nigeria strive to cut across ranks in their reportages, the policies that strangulate their efforts and the determining factors which place them as underdogs in which neither the masses nor the government is vindicated or vilified, are the foci of this study. Employing the Ecopostcolonial critical theory, this work interrogates the role of journalism in the furtherance of national cohesion, while the textual analysis method will give credence to the language, images and symbols in the text under study, to establish the futility associated with journalism in Nigeria in particular, and the world in general. Through the interpretation of the experiences in the narrative, contemporary issues associated with a compromised media can be connected with the elements identified in the text