Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The Nigerian journalists have been advised to be agents of the nation’s economic development through their professional skills.
A Veteran Journalist and former Chairman Of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Rivers State, Mr. Amaopusenibo Bobo Brown, gave the advice at the weekend during a two day media training on “Investigative Reporting, Inclusive Development and Accountability” held in Port Harcourt by National Point Newspaper.
Brown, who was a former president and council chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), charged journalist to be competitive in terms of news management, adding that they could report news pointing in the direction that have hampered development in the regions and nation at large.
The veteran who made a presentation on Ethics, Media and Development advised that “Nigerian journalists must learn to break the structural impediment of operating alone by learning to work together, collaboration on major stories that can help our people understand the reason for poverty in our country and lack of development.
“We can begin to target Nigeria diaspora communities, wherever they are with our stories to drag the huge sums of money that have left Nigeria as a result of collaboration between politicians and some of our sons and daughters overseas to track projects that were promised, voted for, money provided and yet not done.”
“The capacity of Nigeria diaspora communities to invest in economic revival of Nigeria, every year, Nigerians constitute the highest donor community of foreign remittance to Nigeria and Africa. In recent times it grew up to $25 billion. If Nigerians can do as high as that, they can be encouraged to invest even half of that every year in economic projects that can create factories, production and marketing capacity for European and American markets.”
Brown added that through collaboration Nigerian journalists must work to create and influence the Nigerians in diaspora to invest more in the country because without that the economy will not find efficiency, competitiveness and poverty will remain dominant in our environment.
On her part, the convener of the training and Publisher of National Point, Ms. Ibiba DonPedro, said the major challenges facing the Niger Delta region included insecurity, environmental degradation as a result of series of crude oil spill in the area, corruption, others.
DonPedro urged leaders of the region and Nigeria to channel their nation’s resources to youth’s employment and development, adding that with it the issue of crude oil theft will be reduced.
DonPedro, who was serial times media award winners, said: “The kind of devastation that has happened in the Niger Delta is unprecedented, but has never happened before. I want to say authoritatively, 99 per cent of politicians in the Niger Delta didn’t have up to N50,000 in their accounts by 1999. The stealing should stop and the money should be diverted to empower the youths.
“We have lost too many young people to killings due to Kpofire activities or fuel being transported in vehicles going on fire. It has to stop, let the looting stop first of all and is our duty as journalists to speak up.
“We know that the economy is down but we are so blessed in the Niger Delta. There is war in Ukraine, they need our oil, they need our Gas, all of the resources that will come from this region must be channeled to youth employment. The looting, the pollution should stop in Niger Delta.”
