The President of Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr. Eze Anaba, has urged media practitioners to change the narrative in reporting issues regarding child development, stressing that the media can play a significant role in solving the challenges faced by Nigerian children.
His appeal came on the heels of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU) by the NGE and the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Abuja.
Anaba who made the appeal during a television interview on AIT lamented that the Nigerian media has long neglected issues concerning child development with much focus on politics.
He urged media practitioners to dedicate more space to child issues in their reports, adding that the media community can bring solutions required for the development of the children as well as ensure their rights are not trampled upon.
Anaba who expressed optimism that the solutions if brought to the doorsteps of the Federal government would be implemented, charged media practitioners to do more reporting on the rights of children.
He said: “You cannot talk of development without talking about the child and vulnerable people. And increasingly in our country, today, we are too focused on politics. As an editor myself, we are guilty of talking too much about politics without talking about the child and issues concerning the child.
“Today we have food inflation. Who are the worst hits? Is the children, we have banditry. We have terrorism. We have kidnapping. Who are the worst hit? Still the children.”
Identifying some diseases and child-related challenges, he said: “There is a resurgence of polio, and we are not magnifying these issues. We have child marriages and the reports are coming out now showing the detrimental effect of what child marriage is doing to the development of the country.”
Anaba said it is time for the media, particularly the editors who in most cases determine what is published in the various media outlets, to retrace their steps through proper coverage of child development issues.
“Let’s trace our steps, even as editors. Let’s focus on the children because you cannot talk about the future without talking about the children.
“And that’s why I think this partnership with UNICEF will help us in terms of research, training, capacity building, even for editors. Not everybody understands the issues of children and vulnerable people. That’s why this partnership is very timely and I’m happy that we are part of it,” he noted.
Giving insight on the MoU signed with UNICEF on children’s rights advocacy, Anaba who noted the roles artificial intelligence plays in providing data and information, lamented that the statistical percentage of school children has become alarming.
Lamenting further that only a few states in Nigeria do not have IDP camps, he queried the kind of development children in those camps would have.
Maintaining that the collaboration with UNICEF was not an advisory thing, he said: “And we are talking about the future of this country. We are talking about all sorts of diseases creeping up. You have to help government officials. This is not an advisory collaboration. No, it’s cooperation. We have to work with the government to solve our problems.”
Expressing optimism that the government would buy into the project, Anaba said the essence of government is development and the people and there was no way the government would not work with them.
“The role of the media, even in getting the Child Rights Bill passed into law; the media played a very prominent role. And working with UNICEF and the Diamond Award to get this thing together is not just a media thing, it’s a developmental thing. It’s what I call solutions journalism. This collaborative effort will help development.”
He said the collaborative efforts would bring to the doorsteps of the government issues and areas the government would be required to act upon.
* Media Report