One issue when it comes to uneven coverage is that of media visuals. While Paris is a global city and has thousands of reporters and cameras, all of whom can be easily dispatched to report on the event, Baga is a town in the remote northeast corner of Nigeria, on the receded coast of Lake Chad. Unlike Paris, the area is unsafe for journalists as Boko Haram fighters still roam freely and there is a risk of being attacked as the Nigerian army is still struggling to secure the area.
Although it may appear unfair to blame the Nigerian government’s inability to overcome the world’s indifference to Nigeria’s troubles, political motivation does play a role. As CNN noted, the attention on Charlie Hebdo and the national unity rally that followed it appeared to benefit Hollande, who before the attacks had an abysmal 13% approval rating, and also to hurt Marine Le Pen’s National Front because of its focus on national unity, ignoring the issues of internal disunity in French society that caused the radicalization of the gunmen in the first place. Nigeria has the opposite problem as Boko Haram controls what the Wall Street Journal calls the primarily Muslim stronghold of opposition to the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, who is a Christian. Because of that, it is politically beneficial to the Nigerian president to not have that part of the country be able to vote in the upcoming Nigerian general election in February.
However, the world’s media ignoring the tragedy in Nigeria and the threat of Boko Haram is also criticized. Nigeria’s Catholic Archbishop Kaigama told the BBC World Service that with the international support and national unity of France after its terrorist attacks, "We need that spirit to be spread around. Not just when it happens in Europe, but when it happens in Nigeria, in Niger, in Cameroon."
Altogether, the problem of reporter access and the lack of social media coverage left the killing of over 2,000 people in Nigeria overshadowed by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. France had those benefits as in addition to a government that took advantage of the spotlight directed toward the attacks in an attempt to increase its popularity over the opposition, whereas in Nigeria chaos and violence in an opposition stronghold appears to benefit the president.