Campus Daily Online

'This is an opportunity to sow a seed that will grow; when the fruits are being reaped,you will remember and I will remember’. These were the opening words of Mr Femi Adesina on day two of a seminar organised for students of mass communication.It was indeed a sowing of seeds as the capacity-building program impacted positively on the participants as testified by them. The seminar titled :  Reproductive Health and Rule of Law Reporting Workshop for Mass Communication Students was organised by the Human Development Initiatives (HDI), a non-governmental organisation on Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 December 2010 at University of Lagos.

Day one of the event was facilitated by Dr. Abigail Ogwezzy-Ndisika, Mr. Yinka Akanle and Mr. Tayo Popoola.

Speaking at the seminar, one of the facilitator, Dr. Ogwezzy-Ndisika, in her paper titled Mass Communication and Reproductive Health, took participants through the meaning of reproductive health, human health and the millennium development goals. She highlighted some of the components of reproductive health as safe motherhood, prevention and treatment of infertility and sexual dysfunction, elimination of harmful traditional practices e.g female genital cutting.

She gives the UNFPA definition of Reproductive health security (RHS)  as improved availability of essential reproductive health drugs and supplies to ensure safe motherhood, manage emergencies, during childbirth, treat sexually transmitted infections and prevention of mother  to child transmission. In addition, she provides the students with steps to ensure security of reproductive health using the communication approach.

Ogwezzy-Ndisika while responding to questions emphasised that life is cheap in Nigeria as the country’s policy makers give little attention to health matters while paying more attention to other issues. The development and public realtions lecturer of the department of mass communication, University of Lagos states that the reality on ground warrants that condom use in the fight for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Nothing is 100% foolproof. We therefore provide people with information and let them make choices that suit them. So we tell them about condoms and also preach faithfulness and abstinence’.

The most contentious session of the two-day event was that on gender equality and the rule of law anchored by Mr Yinka Akanle. In the very explicit and interactive presentation by Akanle, participants are informed on the operational difference between gender and sex, the socio-cultural, institutional and developmental perspectives of gender equality vis-avis rule of law.

Akanle quotes the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative thus: Lack of gender equality and respect for women’s rights is a major stumbling block to rule of law, personal well-being, and develoment around the globe. Societies with a greater gender inequality face higher incidence of poverty, malnutrition, and ill-health and have lower education attainment. They also have slower economic growth and weaker governance.

He provides relevant and current statistics about women related problems like the fact that between 60 to 90 percent of women still suffer female genital mutilation (FGM) and that females have lower literacy rate and lower school enrolment.

He chronicled the instruments both local and international that make provisions for the respect of women’s rights and makes recommendations for upholding these statutory injunctions as expected of reporters like gender sensitivity in media reporting, better reporting on women empowerment issues and improved language use that respect women and appreciate their existencies etc.

A heated debate ensued after this presentation over the propriety of the concept and the feasibility of achieving gender equality. While some participants believe gende equality is impossible and what should be advocated is gender sensitivity others believe it can be achieved and that the laws on gender equality should be respected.

The first day ended with a group discussion and plenary session where participants worked out and articulated their own strategies for ,aking reproductive health issues a frontburner in the media. This session was facilitated by Mr Popoola of the department of mass communication, University of Lagos.

 

Joshua Steele of the World Justice Project (an organisation based in Washington saddled with the responsibility of ensuring rule of law globally) kickstarted proceedings on day two of the workshop. He enumerated the four principles by which the ruke of law can be ensured in any society in his lecture: The Media and the rule of law.

The first of these is that the media has the responsibility to hold governemnt officials accountable. The media should also ensure fair and stable fundamental rights that are usually entrenched in country’s constyitution. Next is access to justice [system] which should be available to all citizens and should be upheld by the media. Finally, efficient due process of law should be guaranteed and strongly advocated.

Deputy editor-in-chief and columnist, the Sun newspaper, Mr Femi Adesina presented next a paper titled Pro-development reporting in Nigeria, what has the media done?

He began by identifying advocay journalism, investigative reporting and adversarial reporting as other genres of niche reporting asides pro-development or simply development reporting.

The editor claimed that strict developmental reporting by the mainstream media is quite impossible due to the economics of news. This is because media that focus on development issues will not be able to make profit and break even in tne saturated Nigerian media environment.

What the media are doing is that they focus on other profit-yielding subjects i.e genera interest reporting while giving constant consideration to develompental stories instead of fully focusing on them. His word: it is the duty of the media to reflect the society, and report events as they transpire. The media are also in business, and must ensure commercial access to  stay afloat and alive. So, we don;t have many publications that dwell on development issues. In the past, some ghad attempted to position in such niche, but they soon died. So what we have is a combination of general interest reporting alongside develompent issues...

The following are what the media can do according to him: build capacity of the staffers, encourage specialisation, stay on top pf developments (sustainable coverage) and better space and prominence for sexual reproductive health and rights (SRH & R) issues. Others are advocay, versatility in treatment of SRH & R stories, celebrate success stories and share information.

The last two speakers were Odishika Egweni of Unilag FM and Kayode Ogunbunmi of Next newspaper. Ogunbunmi spokr on thr role of the media in promoting the rule of law while Egwenu delivered his lecture on the mass media and the rights of vulnerable groups in Nigeria, in this session participants discussed and identified vulnerable grou[ps like orphans, widows, lunatics and the disabled. At the end of his talk, Egweni asked the students to write suggestions on how the media can promote the case of such groups in the society.

HDI is a centre for free legal and psychological services. The thirteen-year-old centre conducts capacity bulding programmes such as the just-ended one, research studies, seminars, conferences, development projects and poverty alleviation.

The president of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has launched his new book “ MY FRIEND AND I, conversations on policy and governance” and his campaign initiative “ BRING BACK THE BOOK” at the EKO hotel and suites, Lagos, Nigeria. The book is a documentation of the President’s interactions with young Nigerians on the networking site, Facebook.

Mr. Jonathan, who claimed to have over 350,000 “friends” on his Facebook page, said, “I decided to publish because I wanted to promote a reading culture and accountable governance.” He added that the direct feedback from Nigerians over the last four months on Facebook has been an “invaluable” one in formulating government’s policy. “Leadership is a two-way traffic. I am leading because I have a mandate,” he said.

In addition to the president’s claim, US Facebook guru, Joe Trippl, said there are two million Nigerians on Facebook, out of the 400 million worldwide. He said that while the Obama campaign made use of Facebook to great effect, Nigeria is the first example of the networking site usage in governance.

The event was attended by, Dimeji Bankole, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Diezani Allison-Madueke, Petroleum Minister and Labaran Maku, Minister of Information and Communication among others.

Explaining the rationale for the launch of the BRING BACK THE BOOK INITIATIVE, the president said it is aimed at placing the country on the platform of irreversible progress.

According to Mr. Jonathan, the decision to embark on the campaign came after consultations and “a consensus that we require a nation-wide campaign to bring back the book reading culture”. He, however, suggested that the focus be on the children and the youth, following the adage of ‘catch them young’.

Other dignitaries at the event included Ken Wiwa Jr. and Toyosi Akerele of the Rise Initiative. There were musical performances by some of Nigeria’s biggest pop stars, including Tuface Idibia, P-Square and D’Banj. The president’s book was reviewed by social commentator and columnist, Reuben Abati of the Guardian newspaper, Nigeria

Members of the kegites club of University of Lagos were not left out on Friday last week at the matriculation ceremony of the institution as they use the opportunity to create awareness about the club and recruit new members.
When campus daily spoke with the president of the club, Chibubuzo Okorie Andrew, a final year student of business Administration, he said that it one of their age long practice to come to every occasion in the University to perform their corporate social responsibilities. These responsibilities according to him include, entertainment of the public audience culturally, social interaction and recruitment of new members, usually called 'Induction' in Kegites language.
Speaking on the recruitment exercise, the president said that Kegites recruits at the end of every Keg year (academic session) but there are procedures for the recruitment. These procedures includes; application for kegites club form at at the shrine (kegite office behind Jaja Hall, UNILAG) and training in the cultures of the club to be able to relate with other kegites members outside University of Lagos.
When campus daily asked the president about the benefits of kegites club to student, he said it is first for social interaction among students from one University to another, it also affords student the privilege of meeting with top politicians. He added that Kegites also helps students with their academics by introducing them to members of the kegites club who are lectures and professors to be a role model to them. He went further to say that kegites educational services also include; enlightment of students on the negative effects of cultism, HIV/AIDs, Aristoism, and examination mal-practices.
He however concluded by saying that the Kegites club is not about drinking but about social interaction, according to him, drinking is not compulsory, it is optional for those who are interested. In fact, kegites has a disciplinary measure for members who misbehave or drink themselves to stupor. These disciplinary measures includes fines and in extreme cases, the use of 'Dekegation'(withdrawal of membership).