The Nigeria Guild of Editors in conjunction with the U S Embassy in Nigeria has flagged off a North East town hall meeting in Yola.
The town hall meeting is the third in the series with the first two held in Lagos and Kano under the NGE/US Embassy capacity building programme for editors.
In his welcome address,the President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Mr. Mustphar Isah said the pertinent question the town hall meeting want to find answers to is: What role should the media play in setting the agenda that would lead to a sustainable democratic culture in Nigeria and how do we encourage the youth and the women to participate more actively in the democratic process?
According to the President, section 22 of the 1999 constitution says ” the press, radio, television, and other agencies of the media should at all times be free to uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people”.
Stressing that this section gives the media the enormous responsibility to hold the government accountable to the people, adding that this Town Meeting is expected to assess our performance and suggest ways for improvement.
Noting that “In the last one year , there have been four coups in West Africa alone in which the military truncated democracy. A democratic government was toppled in Chad on April 20, 2021”.
“We’ve had two coups in Mali in less than one year, On September 5, 2021, the military struck in Guinea and on January 24, 2022, Burkina Faso military followed the dangerous trend”.
“All these happenings in our West African neighbours should serve as a warning to us here to jealously protect our democracy through good governance , openness and citizen participation”.
The Guild of Editors believes that democracy remains the best form of government because it guarantees freedom and it has the ability to correct its own mistakes if the people don’t go to sleep after elections.
On the role of the media in setting agenda for sustainable democratic culture and deepening of the democratic space, Mr. Isah said one of the major roles of the media is agenda setting, the more stories the media do on a particular subject, the more importance the audience will attach to it.
What is currently dominating headlines in the media on the 2023 general elections is zoning and power rotation which is often laced with religious and ethnic sentiments but we should realize that this is the agenda of the politicians that the media must not allow these politicians to set the agenda for us.
In her remarks the U.S. Embassy Spokesperson Jeanne Clark said the Embassy is grateful to partners with the Nigerian Guild of Editors, for a more deeply reflection on the freedoms afforded in a democracy.
We are proud to be here in Yola today for our third town hall meeting called to recognize the importance of a free media in a democracy, and to more closely examine roles and responsibilities as citizens and professionals in strengthening democracy.
Stressing that the U.S. is taking bold action in 5 key areas, Supporting Free and Independent Media, Fighting Corruption, Bolstering Democratic Reformers, Advancing Technology for Democracy and Defending Free and Fair Elections and Political Processes.
Professor Jacob Udoh Jacob in his presentation said the media has key roles to play in strengthening our Democratic cultural, stressing that the Radio remain the leading channel of elightenment and nothing that the youth under the age of 14 form 43% of our population.
According to him these youths in their teens if well nutuched through mass media elightenment campaign, they will be assets to the country.
