Why Media Must Lead Charge For Good Governance – Adedoyin 

The member representing Africa in the Executive Board of the International Press Institute, Alh Raheem Adedoyin, has challenged the Nigerian media to lead the charge for the promotion of good governance in the country.

Adedoyin spoke in his virtual address at the inauguration of the Kwara chapter of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professional of Nigeria (ACSPN).

His inaugural address was entitled : “Journalism, Communication and the Imperatives of Good Governance. ”

According to Adedoyin, the media is the only institution given the onerous responsibility to hold government to account.

“So critical is journalism to a thriving democracy that our grundnorm creates a pride of place for it.

” Chapter 2 Section 22 of the Nigerian constitution, under “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, ” gives the media a constitutional responsibility,” he said.

Adedoyin said the challenge before the media remained ” “to solidify the architecture of good governance through a reportage which promotes and elevates the ideals of pluralist democracy.”

” “While it is true that politicians and public officials have innate predilections for cover up of crimes and misconduct, it is good journalism to strive to expose them in the interest of the public good.

” “But public interest journalism is simply not for the media to transmute into an institutional opponent of government.

“Where government performs well, our reportage must reflect this, but where government fails, journalism must also expose the failure of the state.

“Only a free, fearless and professionally responsible press can sustainably act as staunch enabler of a virile democracy, ” he said.

Adedoyin, a former Information commissioner in Kwara, also said communication remained sine qua non to good governance.

The veteran journalist said “while governance is the art of translating public authority into public good, communication is

the bridge that connects the two. ”

He added that while government takes policies and initiatives to the people through diverse communication channels, citizens also express their needs through the same routes, with the media standing in as participant observer.

The Chairman, ACSPN, Kwara Chapter, Prof. Rasaq Adisa, commended Adedoyin on his presentation.

“You have set an agenda, and we shall turn it to a workshop where scholars will debate it then come up with a communique,” he said.