Nigeria, with one of the most robust and freest media in Africa, provides a
fertile ground for unencumbered investigative journalism. In the last five years,
except for episodic exclusives in one or two newspapers, investigative stories
have waned. Why are Nigerian newspapers not engaging in investigative
reporting, and what implication does this hold for the watchdog role of the
press? This article examined the challenges facing investigative journalism
using theoretical and empirically proven studies on variables that decrease
journalistic autonomy. Twenty-five structured interviews involving journalists,
journalism teachers, and civil society activists were conducted in Lagos and
Abuja. The two cities are where media are mostly produced and consumed,
where tensions and struggles for control of information, communication, political
thoughts, and social discourses take place and, where there exist, but largely
unreported, massive political malfeasance, rampant sleaze and pervasive pillage
of the Nigerian commonwealth. Findings show that investigative journalism is
bogged by a welter of socio-cultural and economic factors as well as professional
deficits. The ownership of newspapers by politically exposed individuals and
near-zero protection for journalists have worked to restrict investigative
journalism. These tendencies tend to imperil the watchdog role of the press.