In the face of the current challenges bedevilling the country, journalists across Nigeria converged on Abeokuta, Ogun State, to chart a new course. Time Nigeria Magazine’s Kwara State Bureau Chief, TOPE SUNDAY, who attended the summit, chronicles the event.
For three days, over 460 Journalists assembled in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, to brainstorm on the way out of the some of the problems plaguing the country.
The high point of the forum was the resolve by participants that media practitioners must play critical roles in sustaining and ensuring that the country’s sovereignty was protected through reportage that is laced with national security interest.
The first Nigeria Union of Journalists’ National Media Summit held between August 16 and August 19 at Abeokuta, which centred on Media and National Unity, agreed that the Nigerian media should move from the traditional way of informing, educating and entertaining to an agenda setter for the society.
At the event held at Green Legacy Resort, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, different fora were provided for eminent Nigerians to address the multitude of problems aiding the fragility of the country on one hand and the role of the media on the other.
In his keynote address, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, represented by the former Executive Secretary of the National University Commission, Professor Peter Okebukola, said the media should objectively inform, educate and entertain, saying its relevance underlines its label as the “Fourth Estate” by serving as watchdog to uncover the excesses of the other “Estates”.
He explained that the process of deepening democracy in Nigeria involves empowering people to participate in the governance process, adding that the role of journalists is to provide the space for constructive engagement between the people and the government as well as promoting good governance.
The ex-president alleged that some journalists in the country, rather than maintain neutrality all through in their practice, have been seen to be partisan thus influencing news items and editorial policy in their respective places of work.
He said the NUJ summit could only bear fruit if a niche was found for the media in the nation’s march to greater national cohesion particularly in this historical time of the country.
The former president said: “We are faced with great disparity in news items of the same event. Little or no attention is paid to accuracy, coherence, truth, clarity, fairness and objectivity. Many Nigerian journalists are still partisan telling the news from the viewpoint of the owners of the media houses.
“For me, this summit will only be successful if we find a niche for the press in our march to ensuring greater national cohesion especially at this time in our history. At no time in our history, except probably during the civil war has Nigeria being so fractured in the feeling of oneness and belongingness by the citizenry.
“In the last four months, we have an average of twenty hotspots across the country with huge potential for national disintegration. Among the top three of these hotspots are the activities of the Niger Delta Avengers in the South-South, Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East and herdsmen-farmers’ clashes across all geopolitical zones.
“The twin questions that immediately arise are: how did we get to where we are; and what actions must we take to arrest the slide towards fractionalisation and national disintegration and get back on the national unity track to which the founding fathers laboured and for which many lives were lost during the civil war? It is to these questions that this summit must find answers by finding roles of continual nation building for the media.
“Let me emphasize that national cohesion is not an event, but a process of constructing an integrated citizenry with a sense of belonging among members of different groups. It can only be achieved through the regulation and reconciliation of differences, and competing interests and demands”.
While declaring the summit open, the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, challenged the media on national unity, saying the country’s continuous existence in view of the current security challenges depends on positive reportage.
On his part, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State urged the media to use the power conferred on it to foster national unity despite obvious diversity of the country.
Ahmed, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mahmud Babatunde Ajeigbe, appealed to the media to use its reportage to de-emphasize terror activities and divisive tendencies.
He said the press should embark on aggressive campaign to promote unity as well as sustain good governance and democratic institution.
Describing the media summit as timely and pivotal, the governor said the nation needed the media to set up the agenda for good governance while avoiding biased reporting.
“This national media conference has come at a pivotal moment in Nigeria when we need the media to live up to their social responsibility by setting the agenda for governance and reporting without bias.
“No doubt, the media is not just a mere instrument, rather it is an institution in its own right with power and influence to shape the nature and essence of human societies.
“Indeed, we cannot discuss Nigeria’s history without acknowledging the role the Nigerian media has played over the years. For instance, Nigerian journalists were foot soldiers for Nigeria’s nationalist agitation in the years leading to independence.
“In furtherance to this is the pivotal role the Nigerian media played in enthroning and entrenching democracy in the country as can be seen in its partnership with other civil society groups to end military rule mid 1999.
“No doubt, the Nigerian media has come a long way as demonstrated in the quality and array of platforms currently competing for a niche in the dynamic media industry.
“It is therefore imperative that the Nigerian media industry, including the new media, utilize their power and influence appropriately to foster national unity in spite of the profound diversity of Nigeria,” Ahmed said.
The summit treated topics such as “The Media and National Security; “Financing the Economy for National Unity; ” Social Media and National Cohesion and ” Building a strong union.
At the technical sessions, the former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, a former President of NUJ and now member of the House of Representatives, Mohammed Sani Zorro, his predecessor in office, George Izobo, and a host of others, advocated the professionalisation of the journalism profession in Nigeria.
They argued that the only way to tackle the serious problems confronting the profession was for it to be professionalised, adding that journalism should not be an all-comers affairs, but one that is properly regulated like other professional associations.
At the end of the summit, the NUJ President, Abdulwaheed Odusile, in a communique he signed, said the media should be encouraged to subscribe to national development and national security.
The communique reads in part: “The confab also observes that the media are key instruments in engendering national security and must play this role passionately towards further enhancing the confidence of the public in the operational efficacy of the security agencies, hence media should always collaborate in communicating security objectives to the public.
“And government should consequently initiate a deliberate policy for proper sustainability of the media industry to enable it play its role effectively.
“The conference also notes that the media should rise above commercial, regional and political interests to the heights of patriotism and nationalism in the discharge of their duties.
“The conference resolves that there is the need to enhance the media by developing mechanisms through which new entrants into the profession are inducted. In this wise, the Nigeria Press Organisation comprising NUJ, NGE, BON, APCON and NPAN should renew the status of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ), Abuja, and the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Lagos, with a view to making them serve as a professional clearing houses for would-be practicing journalists.