The Executive Director of the International Press Center, Dr. Lanre Arogundade, has advised the media to be the catalysts for the implementation of good governance in the country.
Arogundade gave the advice on Thursday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, during a two-day workshop.
The workshop was organised for 40 journalists in the South South and South East by the centre in collaboration with the European Union.
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The Director of the IPC said that the EU provided the resources to achieve its project: EU Support for Democratic Governance and empowerment of women, amongst other programmes in the country.
“This is why we incorporated deepening reportage of gender issues in post-election in this training to also achieve the EU project on women empowerment,” he said.
The IPC boss said that the essence of the capacity building workshop series for journalists was to encourage them and other media practitioners to become agents of change by holding elected leaders accountable.
Arogundade said the training was organised within the context of accountability that after elections, journalists should not go to sleep.
He said rather, they should be interested in good governance issues that arise from the election campaigns that relate to the welfare of the people.
According to him, campaign promises, in terms of infrastructure, education, employment, health and welfare of the people, can be implemented by those leaders who made promises when media practitioners remind them of those campaign promises.
Arogundade gave reasons citizens do not participate in elections, pointing out that elections do not make any difference or have a good impact on the people.
He said: “We make a lot of emphasis before the election about women participation and inclusion of gender equality.
“But after the election what happens to those issues that concern women in governance?
“These are the reasons we organised this workshop.
“We are hopeful that after this workshop, journalists will be interested in following up stories, particularly relating to electoral promises, and see to their logical conclusion.”
Arogundade said that the media had the responsibility to change the narratives by using some information tools or instruments such as the Freedom of Information Act.
He said: “We are in the age where we have a lot of misinformation and disinformation, which we call fake news.
“Sometimes, these come from the elected leaders, who make false claims about what they have done, which are not in place.
“This is why we are interested in equipping the trainees with fact checking skills so that the combination of fact checking, investigation and the use of FOI can help to attain the objectives set for the media.”
Arogundade also advised journalists not to imbibe inappropriate skills, live above biases and face their duties to know the condition of the people in reality
Dr. Edetaen Ojo, the Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, an NGO in Lagos State, spoke on the use of FOI and other investigative methodologies to report democratic governance after post election.
Ojo urged journalists to hold elected leaders accountable on their campaign promises.
He urged journalists to harp on the privilege of using data obtained from surveys and polls to access information that would enhance governance.
He gave one of the values of the use of FOI Act as safe to get information without endangering oneself than the use of undercover tactic, which might put one’s sources in trouble.
He also advised journalists to intensify efforts to hold the attention of their audience by ensuring that they use various skills that would give out accurate information.
According to Ojo, FOI is a powerful tool that can counter misinformation by presenting evidence obtained from official sources.
He said: “Journalists should request for FOI in Ministries, Departments to track changes in government policies, statistics or decisions over time.
“You can obtain historical records through FOI requests and analyse such records to assess the accuracy of current claims and statements from elected leaders.”
One of the resource persons from the University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Titilaya Osuagwu, spoke on: “Deepening Reportage of Gender Issues in post-election.”
She urged journalists to be intentional about reporting issues concerning women.
Osuagwu also advised them to embark on advocacy on violence against women and for 70 percent women inclusion in governance.
She also called on female journalists and the public to support women in governance.
She said that such a gesture would help reduce the 70 percent of women living in extreme poverty in rural communities.
