Press Coverage of Senator Ike Ekweremmadu's Kidney Harvest Saga: A Study of Select Nigerian Newspapers

Background: On Friday, 5th May 2023, a Nigerian Senator and Former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was jailed for nine years by the United Kingdom’s Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey (Nimi and Allegra 2023). Senator Ike Ekweremadu, along with his wife, Beatrice, and a Medical Doctor, Dr. Obinna Obeta, were sentenced to nine years and eight months, four years and six months, and ten years in prison, respectively, in the first conviction of its kind under British Modern Slavery laws 2015 of the UK. The incidence of the Senator Ike Ekweremmadu’s kidney harvest saga in UK provided opportunity of press coverage for the Nigerian media. Objective: The general objective of the study was to evaluate the press coverage of Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s Kidney harvesting saga in three select daily Nigerian newspapers. Method: This study adopted the quantitative and qualitative content analysis research approach in answering the research questions posed for the study. Result: Findings revealed that the prominence given to the reportage on Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s kidney harvesting saga by Daily Sun, The Guardian and Vanguard Newspapers had a significant relationship with frequency of coverage; headlines portrayed some of the directions (slants) of the reportage on Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s organ harvesting plot. Conclusion: study concluded that Nigerian Press gave prominence to the coverage of Senator Ike Ekweremadu’s kidney harvesting saga. This was demonstrated in the number of editorial contents which appeared on the front pages of the newspapers under review compare to the contents which appeared on the inside and back pages of the studied newspapers. Thus prominence as a critical genre in newspapers’ content analyses, reveals how important and topical an issue is considered by the newspapers and the public sphere. Unique contribution: The study contributes to the discourse on social responsibility function of the press as the watchdog of society, and the relationship between the government and the mass media Key recommendation: Based on the findings, the study recommends that Nigerian press should uphold the virtue of giving prominence to important topical national/international issues.