Echoes Of NEDC’s Capacity-building For Journalists On Conflict-sensitive Reporting  

One of the major challenges faced by journalists in the North East region in reporting the over a decade war against the Boko Haram insurgency is cutting in the web of reporting the damages, destructions, and killings amid the crisis and facing the challenges from the terrorists who had at different times accused the journalists of not adequately reporting their atrocities.

It is a known fact that at the early stage of the activities of terrorism, the terrorists usually organise press conferences through their anchor where they usually made their demands to the government as condition for peace.

The terrorists most often than not do share letters through various vendors in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, instructing that the letters be distributed to journalists in the state. These letters do contain their horrible demands from the government.

Thus reporting Boko Haram conflict which is alien to journalists in Borno, Northeast and indeed Nigeria at large requires extra caution due to its sensitivity.

To this end, the gathering of over 71 journalists reporting insurgency in the Northeast to Maiduguri some days ago by the North East Development Commission (NEDC) on a three-day capacity building workshop on conflict sensitive reporting speaks volumes of the Commission’s efforts to ensure that while it is rebuilding infrastructures destroyed by the terrorists and resettling the victims displaced by the insurgents, journalists in the region are kept abreast of issues involved in conflict reporting amidst a peace process.

Similarly, with the intense onslaught against the insurgents and the efforts of the state government and stakeholders which have seen mass surrendering of the terrorists, journalists need to strike a balance in reporting their rehabilitation and reintegration into the society, and how citizens who had bear the brunt of the activities of the terrorists who have now turned a new leaf can accept them back through solution reportage that would further enhance the relatively achieved peace in the state and region.

Journalists who participated in the training have promised to take what they have learnt to colleagues and affirmed that henceforth reporting the crisis is going to be a new ball game in terms of conflict-sensitive reporting.

The participants who were drawn from both print and broadcast media were impressed that the three-day workshop was principally designed to inculcate in them the idea of not only depicting neutrality in their reportage of the insurgency and sensitive events but seeing themselves as mediators and peace builders.

The chairman, Board of NEDC, Major General Paul Tarfa (rtd) during the opening ceremony of a 3-day Capacity Building Workshop on Conflict Sensitive Reporting said that the activities of the NEDC have fast-tracked the return of relative peace to the subregion as victims of the insurgency are gradually being resettled and getting back to their normal routine of life.

Tarfa stressed the importance of peace, stressing that NEDC is striving to ensure that the victims were resettled and allowed to live their normal lives.

He commended journalists for partnering with the Commission in publicising its activities which have made the public real reasons for the establishment of the Commission.

Speaking earlier, the MD/CEO of the NEDC, Mohammed Goni Alkali, said that for the Commission to be able to discharge its mandate, it has to form many partnerships with critical stakeholders including the media.

According to him, “What we have here today is the media in the value chain, from the field reporters to the executives from the various organisations in the country. We are happy to see you all here.

“As I have always said, the media, the journalists in whatever form are very crucial and critical to us, there is a partnership between us to the improvements of the public we are serving. We may spend the whole day talking here, the people will not understand until they hear it from the media,” he said.

Alkali added that the initial plan was to just have a media parley with the Senior Management team but he was told that, that would have been a major mistake because the field reporters must not be left out because they are the ones filing in the reports.

He further said that the journalists based in the North East region have done well in effectively reporting the activities of the NEDC since it was established and became operational, noting that their reports are very different from the general reports.

On her part, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development Hajiya Sadia Umar Farouk who was represented at the occasion lauded the resilience of journalists towards information dissemination and encouraged them to continue living up to the tenets of their profession despite all the challenges they face in the course of discharging their responsibilities.

In a paper presented at the workshop, a senior fellow of the Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan, Dr. Nathaniel Dominic Danjibo, said that journalists and media owners must consider themselves as mediators on issues of conflict and crisis.

He advised that in every report bordering on conflict, issues of national interest should override no matter how much a reporter stands from exaggerated reportage of such event.

Danjibo, however, urged journalists to always avoid sensational headlines that would trigger feelings that would cause conflict against each other in the country especially, the Northeast, even as he urged them to always cross-check facts before rushing to the press particularly, in times of crisis.

While frowning at the negative impact the leadership of the country has on reports in the media, Danjibo challenged journalists to put off regional, sectional, religious, ethnic, and political differences and engage in peace reporting, insisting that it was the only way to catch up with the development progress of the developed countries.

In another paper presented by the vice chancellor, Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State, Prof. Umar Pate, the journalists were encouraged to see Nigeria as their only home and to do everything possible to protect it through effective and accurate reportage.

The vice chancellor who took the journalists on the topic: ‘‘Conflict-sensitive Reporting from the Humanitarian Dimension’’, challenged journalists who allow sentiment to overwhelm them in the course of performing their duties and urged them to desist from such unprofessional habits.

The national president, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Chief Chris Isiguzo presented certificate of attendance and a modern gadget to one of the participants symbolically on behalf of NEDC.

Isiguzo after the presentation maintained that conflict and war emanate from the perception of individuals and urged journalists to work more on the ethics of their profession, than the belief and perceptions of the people.