A University don, Professor Ayobami Ojebode of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan has said that the Nigerian media deserved great kudos for its efforts at ensuring the inception and continuity of stable democracy and good governance in the country.
He said this in his speech titled “Focusing on the “in-betweens”: a charge for the media”, during a media stakeholders’ meeting and public presentation of publications under the Support to Media (Component 4A) of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Project.
According to Ojebode, the Nigerian Media played a most remarkable role that led to the botching of the tenure elongation intention of the Obasanjo regime by boosting its fame and rejection through its coinage as the ‘third term agenda’.
“The coinage of the term ‘third term agenda’ to replace the intended constitutional amendment by the Obasanjo regime led to the total rejection and sabotage of the plan and this was fully orchestrated by the Nigerian Media”, he said.
“The media had thrown its weight behind the emergence of strong institutions and we would not have reached 1999 as we did, if not for the full and total involvement of the media”.
“As a matter of fact, it is better to have free media without democracy rather than have democracy without free media. If you have free media where there is not yet democracy, it is a signal that the onset of true democracy is in sight”, he added.
But according to Ojebode, there still exist some areas needing attention in order to achieve best results for democratic governance in Nigeria.
“In our efforts so far, we have not yet captured the whole gamut of democracy, hence we need to focus more on some areas I here refer to as the “in-betweens. The apathy phenomenon is getting more rampant as the citizenry gets less interested in the electoral process as exemplified in decreased voter turnout while the downward trend in post – elections civil liberties also needs to be looked into”, he added.
The event was organised by the Institute for Media and Society (IMS) to engage media stakeholders on progress made on the Support to Media Component of the EU-SDGN Project implemented by IMS, discuss salient and emerging issues affecting the media, and collectively generate ideas towards strengthening media professionalism in Nigeria.
Participants at the event were journalists from broadcast, print, online media and other relevant stakeholders, including members of media industry groups, academia and civil society organisations.
