Press Coverage of Nigeria-South Africa Diplomatic Face-Off Over Yellow Fever Vaccination

K.O Nworgu 1 *, Umaru Pate 2, Chukwudi Obi 3
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1 Imo State University, Nigeria
2 University Of Jos, Nigeria
3 Michael Okpara University Of Agriculture, Nigeria
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 114-137. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/2594
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ABSTRACT

The study was Nigeria-South Africa diplomatic face off over Yellow fever Vaccination issue. The problem started when 125 Nigerians, including a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who landed at the Oliver Tambo International Airport on March 1st, 2012 were prevented from entering the country, because they did not have the required documentation for vaccination against yellow fever. The following day 75 of them were sent home via the South African Airways while another 50 were sent home via Nigerian Airline “Arik Air” (This Day, 3rd, March, 2012). In response to the deportation of some Nigerians from South Africa, 28 South Africans were turned back at Murtala Mohamed International Airport, and another 56 illegal immigrants from South Africa were deported following day A total of four Nigerian newspapers had a combined total of 480 editions. To arrive at the number of editions to be used, as sample size, a constructed weeks study was used to draw from the 480 editions at one day interval. This amounted to 3 editions per paper per week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Hence, a total of 12 editions per month multiplied by four months amounted to 48 editions on the average. Also, the total sample was gotten by multiplying 48 editions by four newspaper titles which amounted to 192 editions. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample of stories from the editions examined. The methods for data presentation and analysis were both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Hence we made use of frequency tables and simple percentage. The study results show that the four Nigerian Newspapers namely Vanguard, This Day, The Daily Sun and The Nation published different reports such as editorials, news stories, and letters to editor on the issues. However, the papers were not unmindful of the political implication of the face-off, hence, they tried to balance national interests and African unity thereby emphasizing less on the bad relationship such incident was capable of generating among African sister states.
Keywords: Press, coverage, diplomacy, face-off, vaccination

CITATION

Nworgu, K., Pate, U., & Obi, C. (2017). Press Coverage of Nigeria-South Africa Diplomatic Face-Off Over Yellow Fever Vaccination. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 7(2), 114-137. https://doi.org/10.29333/ojcmt/2594

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