A media support group, Mediahangoutng, has partnered the American Corner (US Consulate) in Nigeria to organise a roundtable to explore the need for synergy between the media and other stakeholders in the run-up to the 2023 elections.
According to a statement released at the end of the event, the Convener of Mediahangoutng, Rosemary Egabor-Afolahan, said it organised the event because it believed that the 2023 elections would be one of the most important in Nigeria’s Post-independence political history.
Egabor-Afolahan said there was a need to promote professionalism in the media space as the polity was already heated up as a result of the rising insecurity as well as the desperation of some politicians to seize power at all cost.
She noted that the media has a pivotal role to play in educating the electorate accurately.
“There is a need for us to bring people in the media together with other stakeholders to see how we can collaborate by working together to ensure that we have free and fair elections in 2023,” she said.
She added that it was the responsibility of the media to control the narrative and ensure that more people turned out to participate in the electoral process.
The event had among its objectives highlighting cases of violence against Nigerian journalists and pushing for commitment from the police that no journalist would be mishandled during election coverage but would be protected by them.
The Zone 2 Police Public Relations Officer, Aliyu Giwa, who was in attendance, said there was a limit to what security operatives could do during elections.
He encouraged journalists to keep abreast of the responsibilities of security operatives during elections.
“There are a lot of things that we see and won’t be able to do anything about,” he said.
