Media practitioners in Nigeria are to celebrate National Media Peace Day on February 14, as part of the efforts to promote violence-free elections

By Maureen Chigbo

NIGERIAN journalists and other media practitioners, who attended the just ended two-day meeting in Abuja, are to celebrate a national media peace day on February 14, which is also Valentine’s Day.

The national peace day is part of the efforts to promote peaceful elections in the country as the nation goes to poll on February 16.

The declaration of the peace day was made on Saturday, February 9, in Abuja, by the Chris Isiguzo, national president of the Nigerian Union of Journalist, NUJ,  who mandated all the state councils of the union to celebrate the day.

With Isiguzo at the declaration are Hajiya Sani, vice president, North, Nigerian Guild of Editors and Aubrey McCuthcheon, senior resident director, National Democratic Institute, Olubukola Ademola-Adelehin, senior programme and policy analyst, Search for Common Ground and Richard Akinnola, veteran journalist and humanrights activists.

Others present at the declaration are practitioners from the print, broadcast and new media who made the declaration for the peace day conscious of the need to engender violence-free 2019 elections

The meeting, which was organised by the Search for Common Ground, an international non-governmental organisation, expressed apprehension about the proliferation of small arms, thuggery, hate speech and fake news and called for caution on the part of media practitioners and political actors.

It also expressed concern about the fate of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups taking part in the electioneering process and urged election management bodies to address the issue with the seriousness it deserves.

The Nigerian media also enjoined all stakeholders in the electioneering process, the political parties, politicians, the electorate, the judiciary and election management bodies to put Nigeria first in all their actions during the build-up to the 2019 general elections and beyond.

The meeting declared that the Nigerian media is poised to disseminate news items, features, analyses, talk shows that would engender peace as a prerequisite for development.

Prior to the declaration, Ademola-Adelehin lauded the participants for their commitment to the meeting which resulted in the national media peace day. She also appealed to the national president to ask state councils of the NUJ to celebrate the national peace and ensure continuos discussion on the theme to engender a violence-free elections in the country.

McCuthcheon had urged the media to promote peaceful election and inclusion of women and people with disability in electoral process to ensire they are not discriminated against.

Also, Grace Jerry, excutive director, appealed to the media to help ensure that people with disability are included in elections. She also expressed delight that in the forthcoming election the Independent National Electoral Commission will use the braille ballot papers for the forthcoming elections for the first time in the history of Nigeria.

On his part,  Richard Akinnola, veteran journalist and human rights activists, advised journalist not to be partician and align themselves with those who want to destroy the country. “If you align yourself with those who want to destroy the country you are culpable,” he said, adding that some “journalists have become more particisan than spokesperson of political parties.

He also urged journalist to be careful the way the cast headlines so as not to trigger crisis and to make sure that circulations managers do not give headlines in order to boost sales as such may have unintended negative consequences.

Stating that Nigeria belongs to us, Sani said: We don’t have to sell our self short ‘because of any candidate.’ After election Nigerian remains. In every election their must be a winner. We should elect candidate without allowing ethnicity or religious influence. Everybody should go out and vote peacefully making sure nobody is disenfranchised.”

Search for Common Ground promotes peaceful resolution of conflict. Its mission is to transform how individuals, organisations and governments deal with conflict, away from adversorial approaches and towards cooperative solution. Search for Common Ground has been operational in Nigeria since 2004 in Niger Delta, North East and North Central.

– Feb. 10, 2019 @ 3:54 GMT |