As a follow-up to a recently held conference at the National Assembly, Abuja aimed at reiterating the need for the adoption of a set of citizens’ priorities for the 2021 Electoral Amendment Bill, the International Press Centre and the Institute for Media and Society held a stakeholders’ parley/press conference on electoral reforms in Lagos.
The latter conference was convened by IPC/IMS to further sensitise and enlist the full support of Nigeria’s print and electronic media towards monitoring governance and holding government accountable to the people as regards the needed and imperative citizens’-driven electoral reforms.
In his address at the occasion, the Executive Director, International Press Centre, Mr. Lanre Arogundade reiterated the importance of the full and detailed adoption of a citizens’- driven electoral reforms which entails the full participation of all stakeholders in the electoral process viz the women, youth and the people living with disabilities.
Arogundade said that this was very necessary and that the Nigerian media had a responsibility of holding the National Assembly accountable to ensure the full enlistment of all stakeholders in the current electoral reforms amendment.
“The voting rights of women, youth and people living with disabilities must be adequately protected if the much needed enhancement of the nation’s democratic process was to be achieved”, he said.
In his address, the Executive Director, Institute for Media and Society, Dr. Akin Akingbulu made reference to Section 100 of the Electoral Act which focuses on media coverage of the electoral process.
He pointed at a new regulation in the electoral process which called for equal media coverage for all participating political parties in elections.
According to him, it was practically impossible to achieve equal coverage of political parties’ activities in elections.
“It would be foolhardy to imagine the possibility of equal coverage of political parties’ activities at elections. The only possibility is an equitable coverage which entails a fair and impartial inclusion of political parties”, he said.
He also mentioned the unfortunately low coverage of people living with disabilities which he said was as abysmal as four per cent, implying that the law made inadequate provision for them.
“The most unfortunate of all is the new attraction of penalty for media organizations that fail to give equal coverage to political parties which stipulates extension of fines/punishment to the principal officers of erring media houses, apart from the organization as an entity”, he added.
