On 2 August 1997, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, a popular Nigerian musician, died of AIDS. It was the first time any prominent Nigerian was associated with HIV/AIDS. Ironically, Fela died not knowing he had AIDS: he was the AIDS role model Nigeria never had. He had 27 wives and many other sexual partners. He did not believe in condoms and thought AIDS was a Western invention to discourage sex in Africa, although his elder brother was Nigeria's health minister and most successful health advocate. Before Fela died, AIDS was the unknown epidemic in Nigeria. People talked about it, but it did not strike a chord. His death presented a unique opportunity for the government to drive the AIDS message home, but the national AIDS control programme failed to capitalise on the momentum presented by Fela's death. In the absence of a national response, a group of concerned journalists formed an organisation called Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria.

Journalists filling the leadership gap

The initiative to form JAAIDS evolved from a realisation that journalists are in a unique position to seize leadership regarding HIV/AIDS and become advocates of change – behavioural change, social change and policy change. HIV/AIDS is unlike any other development challenge. It is a pandemic, destroying millions of lives: 25 million Africans are now living with HIV/AIDS. In eight African countries, at least 15% of adults are infected. In these countries, AIDS will claim the lives of around one-third of today's 15-year-olds. AIDS is a disease that calls for fundamental changes in our sexual lifestyles, as well as some of our cultural practices and gender responses.

Many African countries, however, lack the targeted, intensive responses AIDS requires. Too often, African leaders have failed to address the issues that affect people's lives, and have tended to be re-active, rather than pro-active. They have mouthed slogans without practical meaning in action, while carrying on ‘business as usual.'

The problem is a failure of leadership: leadership at the political level, community level, religious level, but also at the media level. The task of  journalists is not merely to report – even though that is a hard enough job – but to report, fairly and accurately, and with sensitivity to the people whose lives have been radically altered by HIV infection. Journalists must also act as whistle-blowers, agenda-setters and ‘breakers of silence.' As journalists, we must take the lead in pointing the right way forward for leaders in our community. Too much silence still surrounds issues of HIV/AIDS in our societies – silence that facilitates attitudes of stigma and the non-willingness of many individuals to go for voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), or to learn to live positively with HIV. At the individual level, journalists (as well as leaders in politics, religion and business) can shine a light in the darkness by campaigning for accessible VCT services – and more importantly, by taking the lead and taking the test themselves.

The lack of access to treatment is another silent issue in many African  countries. Governments and other players need to wake up to the urgent need to facilitate access to treatment for PLWHAs. Other issues, such as participation in the vaccine development process and research into traditional medicine, also need to be brought to the public's attention. Journalists must report the unreported stories.

Questioning policy-making agendas

Too often, discussions about AIDS have been left to bureaucrats in corridors of power and technocrats in air-conditioned buildings. But politicians and civil servants cannot always be trusted with issues affecting our lives. By including all stakeholders – PLWHAs, community groups and civil society representatives – and letting their voices be heard in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television, journalists can affect the policy-making process and its implementation on issues that affect individual lives.

Journalists also have a duty to ensure transparency and accountability in the government's response to HIV/AIDS, by asking questions about the money that is spent flying in consultants from different parts of the globe, or convening conferences in five-star hotels, when nothing is being done about the children who are being born with HIV. Whistle-blowing is not only about money, however. It is also about process. The media has a duty to put HIV/AIDS policy issues in the public arena. As journalists, we cannot afford to be mere onlookers.

JAAIDS acting up

JAAIDS was set up to fulfil this advocacy function and in the past three years, we have tried to keep AIDS on front pages. We have held seminars in newsrooms and talked with editors and reporters about their needs and constraints in covering AIDS. In 2001, JAAIDS trained more than 120 journalists in AIDS-reporting skills in workshops, monthly media roundtables and discussion sessions. JAAIDS' monthly AIDS News Service Bulletin provides ready-to-use news resources on HIV/AIDS to 4000 journalists. We also run training programmes on HIV/AIDS in journalism schools.
In January 2000, JAAIDS started an online discussion forum, the Nigeria-AIDS eForum, which is an avenue for building skills, gaining knowledge of best practices and creating information partnerships among stakeholders working on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.

In April 2001, we opened a Media Resource Centre on HIV/AIDS in Lagos – the first in West Africa. The centre provides access to HIV-related information resources, a training room, library and trained staff to assist journalists develop HIV/AIDS stories for print and electronic media.

In May 2001, JAAIDS launched its website, www.nigeria-aids.org, as an online resource centre on HIV/AIDS in West Africa. In August, we launched the Nigeria AIDS eForum (www.nigeria-aids.org/eforum.cfm), a six-month-long open electronic conference. In many ways, this electronic forum has helped guide stakeholders' input into the HIV/AIDS policy formulation and implementation process: it has helped forge greater networking among AIDS activists, including PLWHAs, and exposed them to skills-building opportunities and best practices. It has also facilitated the greater involvement of civil society in the policy formulation and implementation process. Through the Nigeria-AIDS eForum, public health policy and issues regarding agenda setting, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and feedback have been brought before the public. Such internet-based forums have broken the silence surrounding AIDS in communities, and especially in the corridors of powers.

These are only a few examples of what journalist-stakeholders can do in ridding the continent of this epidemic. But all journalists need not be full-time advocates to demonstrate leadership. In everyday reporting, journalists need to continue focus on the issues and blow the whistle when things do not seem to be going right. And as leaders in our own personal lives we can speak and act up.