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By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
Leading journalists and media executives have resolved to seize the initiative of setting agenda for the 2027 political dispensation, insisting that it was part of the innate responsibilities of the media to do so.
They agreed that the role of setting political agenda should not be left to politicians who are already all propagating narratives intended to feather only their own political nests to the detriment of the development of democracy, good governance and the masses of the country.
Rising from a one-day European Union funded workshop on ‘Strengthening Media Professionalism and Collaboration for Democratic Governance in Nigeria,’ organized by the International Press Center (IPC) in partnership with Center for Media and Society (CEMESO), the journalists made commitments to give quality time and attention to various issues that enhance the deepening of democracy and good governance ahead of the 2027 elections.
The workshop, which was attended by professionals in the broadcast, print and online media platforms featured remarks by representatives of the organizers and breakout sessions for brainstorming on the workshop theme and setting implementable timelines for agreed activities and actions.
Executive Director, International Press Center (IPC) Lanre Arogundade, highlighted the essence of the workshop noting that the roles that the media – be it broadcast, print and online – play at elections have been universally established and well categorized into; civic and voter education, public educator, campaign platform/open forum and conflict management role.
“Each of these roles is deemed important and cannot be taken for granted because citizens consume and interpret media information to make informed decisions and judgements.
“They are equally important because the conduct or misconduct of media institutions often impact heavily on democratic processes”, he stated.
Arogundade stressed that in relation to elections, the actions or inactions of media professionals – reporters, photographers, cameramen, producers, presenters, editors, etc – could also impact positively or negatively on the credibility and fairness of the electoral situation under which the people exercise the right to choose once they make their decisions.
He highlighted that the overall goal of the activities under the workshop was to ensure the ethical, fair, accurate and inclusive reporting of elections.
The IPC Executive Director, listed the expected results to include; the enhancement of the professionalism of media practitioners, especially women; strengthening of media professional capacity to deal with electoral misinformation/disinformation; and enhancement of media platforms’ ability to diversify, deepen the coverage of the electoral process and deliver civic and voter education.
Others are the improvement of media awareness and use of FOI Act for increased accountability; strengthening of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to perform its mandate; and improvement of media engagement in promoting women, youths and marginalized groups in politics.
He added; “IPC and CEMESO have along the lines of the expected results embarked on series of capacity building programmes, advocacies, roundtables, publication of very rich resource materials online and offline and collaborations with media umbrella bodies such as the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Nigerian Union of Journalists, the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, etc.
“The thrust has been to promote factually accurate, issue-focused, socially responsible, inclusive sensitive and conflict-sensitive reporting of electoral processes and elections, devoid of hate speech and disinformation, misinformation and disinformation. I believe some of you here and your organisations must have been beneficiaries of these engagements”.
Dr. Akin Akingbulu, Executive Director, Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) explained that under Component 4 of the EU-SDGN II Programme, and through implementing partners like IPC and CEMESO, strides were made in empowering Nigeria’s media ecosystem.
He noted that despite the strides there were yet several areas that require attention and improvement describing the achievements so far as “foundations”.
He observed; “In our nationwide engagements, we’ve seen the cracks in our media architecture: Our women’s programming remains trapped in domestic tropes rather than showcasing female leadership.
Our youth voices have been exiled to social media ghettos when they should be anchoring prime-time debates.
Persons With Disabilities are still portrayed as objects of pity rather than citizens with perspectives. And civic voter education remains seasonal jingles rather than permanent civic infrastructure”.
He pointed out areas for immediate attention as Content Revolution: saying the media should advance from marginalisation to mainstreaming, “We must re-engineer our programming DNA: transform women’s content from limited conversations to large dialogue”.
“Amplify youth voices, elevate people with disabilities narratives from charity cases to change agents and make civic education daily bread, not election-season snacks”.
