Israel Umoh
The Managing Director of XL Communications Limited, Mr. Utibe Ukim has urged Nigerian journalists to use the profession as a critical tool to help the country in emerging from its current challenges.
Speaking at the opening of 2022 Press Week of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Akwa Ibom State Council in Uyo on Monday, Ukim noted that ‘‘Journalism must play a critical role in helping us to emerge from our current challenges. It should help us to transition to sustainable prosperity by serving the common good.’’
Ukim, who spoke on the topic: Journalism in The Season of Change, said ‘‘In this season of politics, the media remain the fourth pillar and a fundamental force for our democracy. The media I am talking about is not the shy, compromised, divisive, ill-informed and ‘thanks-for-coming’ community; not the exploiter and exacerbator of political fault lines; not people who report issues through the prism of one-sided politics.’’
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According to him, ‘‘Our readers and listeners need trusted voices, whom they can turn to for reliable reports and insightful commentaries. They need explainers, backgrounders, and analysts to help them make sense of the goings on. They also need inspiration.
‘‘They want to hear creative solutions to our current challenges. They want to know what those who are seeking our votes have for us. In this season of Governance through Media Aides of elected officials and candidates for public offices, we owe it to our readers and listeners the duty of stimulating the right discuss.
‘‘It is not journalism to take side in politics or any issue. Neutrality and balance are critical requirements in the practice. We live in changing and challenging times. At the national level, Nigeria currently faces multi-faceted economic and social challenges.
‘‘The World Bank says 95.1 million Nigerians or 40 percent of the population live below poverty line. There’s spiraling inflation, dwindling value of the naira, scarcity of foreign exchange, rising energy cost, rising debt, depleting foreign reserve, lingering issues of fuel subsidy and state of road and transportation infrastructure.
‘‘On the social front, the state of education, insecurity, growing unemployment, endemic corruption, divisiveness and ethnic distrust are threatening our ability to face the future with confidence.
‘‘In Akwa Ibom, 57 percent of the people live in poverty and our poverty rate is the highest amongst all four core oil producing states. The rate of out of school children and high unemployment, cancel out whatever gains we are making in infrastructure. Also, trust, credibility and integrity in government have come under severe attacks in recent times.’’
The Chief Executive Officer of XL Communications Limited averred that true democracy could not thrive without a flourishing press, saying ‘‘While we have come a long way from the asphyxiating grip of dictatorship and its rabid attacks on press freedom, journalism still faces new existential threats.”
He quoted Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, saying, “The regular attacks on journalists carrying out their legitimate editorial assignments by over-zealous security agents, the current attempts to criminalise journalism practice in the country through obnoxious proposed laws, the suffocating economic environment and harsh political/economic policies of the Federal Government, have in the past few years, made it almost impossible for the media sector to carry out its constitutional responsibility for the benefit of the citizens.”
The one-time Associate Editor of Newswatch magazine queried, ‘‘As practitioners, how are we responding to these threats? More importantly, how are we addressing the chemistry of harsh economic realities and poor professional disposition that are now more threatening and are blinding us to our responsibilities to our communities?’’
Ukim expressed worry that ‘‘The quest for survival seems to have scared us away from doing reports that may hurt our supporters in and out of government and cut off our lifelines. We no longer ask questions that ought to be asked. And even when we do, we fail to ask all the questions, to probe deeper, to work harder and exhume the facts with which we can help our readers and listeners to draw the right conclusions.”
He, however, challenged journalists ‘‘Let’s make journalism count. Journalism that counts is one where practitioners dig deeper to unearth the truth others want buried in the interest of public good.
‘‘Journalism that counts is one where practitioners constantly remind those in the corridors, bedrooms and sitting rooms of power that democracy thrives on dissension, a healthy intercourse of divergent ideas, and a constant current of conflicting narratives seeking validation on the table of truth, collective aspiration and future good.’’
He explained further ‘‘Journalism that counts is one that is respected, courted and treated with dignity because journalists see themselves so.
‘‘Journalism is not a practice hall for a band of self-serving praise singers seeking short term lucre with their ludicrous anthems of praise to any one in power or the means to hire. This is the trade for believers in the common good, men who will never take information on face value but will interrogate them until every question is answered and all sides of the issue brought to the table.’’
‘‘Good journalism,’’ according to him, ‘‘does not come cheap. At XL106.9FM, we are building the reporting infrastructure to operate completely unencumbered. Real press freedom comes when the resources are available to match journalistic ambitions.’’
‘‘In a changing time, journalism must offer the hope and the roadmap to a future of peace, progress and prosperity.”
Quoting Pedersen, he said, “The craft of journalism can only win approval through our ability to ask critical questions, expose counterarguments, relentlessly checking facts and presenting the findings in a context which appears both comprehensive and proportional.”
To cap his speech, he instituted a N1 million prize for Good Journalism in Akwa Ibom State in honour of Ibanga Isine, the Managing Editor of Next Edition newspapers.
The 2022 Press Week that kicked off with thanksgiving service led by NUJ Chairman, Comrade Amos Etuk at Destiny Chapel International, Ewet Housing Estate, Uyo officially commenced with a public lecture on the theme: Imperatives of the Media on Industrialisation, Socio-Economic Development and Good Governance.
Tonnie Iredia, a professor of Mass Communications, and the keynote speaker spoke on the topic: Media as Facilitator of Good Governance in Developing Societies.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Comrade Ini Ememobong observed that the Nigerian society contributes largely to the poverty of journalists, but called on the journalists to engage in patriotic reporting despite seeming challenges.
