Journalists challenged on practical evaluation of governance

Sony Neme, Asaba

A three-day critical media practice workshop organized for practitioners in the South-South and South-East geopolitical zones has ended with a call to journalists to apply practical methodologies in evaluating the policy directions of government at all levels in the country.

The workshop themed ‘The Convergence Journalism’ that took place at the Africa Institute of Public Policy, at Onicha-Ugbo, Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State, was organized by the Folio Media Group, Publishers of the Daily Times Newspapers and sponsored by the Dangote Group and Midwestern Oil and Gas Company Limited.

The resource persons took turns to train the participants on various topics, including the thrilling “Performance Management and Evaluation,” by the founder of the institute, Prof. Sylvester Monye.

Monye, in the lecture, maintained that “journalists in the country were adequately trained to report happenings around them, but lacked the essential parameters at assessing the performances of those in government for the requisite developmental growth of the country.”

“Journalists should shift the paradigm from mere reportages to critical evaluation of the policy directions of government at all levels,’ he stressed.

Monye emphasized that “the country was not lacking in the right persons to govern the country, but what was dangerously missing was the practicability and sustainability of the various plans, enunciated by succeeding administrations in the country.”

He enjoined journalists “to look beyond the face values of policy thrusts of government by taking advantage of the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) to dig deeper into governance, towards ensuring responsiveness and accountability of those in power.”

He promised to partner with the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Delta State Council, in organizing practical media training to enhance the performance of the journalists.

He added: journalists, as the watchdogs of the society, should continue to build on their capacity for efficient reportages and constructive criticism of government policies and programmes.”

Speaking at the end of the training workshop in Asaba, the state capital, the Chairman of the NUJ, Delta State Council, Comrade Michael Ikeogwu, thanked the organizers and sponsors of the timely workshop, saying:

“Not only was it exciting, but quite loaded with informative values that would strengthen the capacity of the participants in discharging their duties efficiently and with an ethical depth of professionalism.

“Necessary measures would be put on the ground for journalists in the state to continue to tap from the versatility of Prof. Monye through invitations of him to talk to them in workshops”, adding that training and retraining of journalists in the state would be accorded high premium in his administration.”

He also said that there were over 600 journalists as members of the NUJ in the state, out of which about 30 were nominated for the training workshop, and the selection of those that participated was at his discretion, even when he said that the task was quite difficult.

He pleaded with those that could not make the list now to wait patiently as every journalist would benefit from the training programme in the state. He stressed the need for all the members of the union to form a common front to address the teething issues confronting the NUJ in the state.

Over 50 journalists from various media outfits from the zone participated in the workshop that was given a thumbs up by the participants for its excellent and thrilling organization.