A number of senior media personnel and editors have called for media stakeholders to leverage technology with journalism, and that journalists should pay attention to technology’s paradoxical attributes for the media as it is an enabler, which is growing in application in the industry.
At a media roundtable on ‘The Nexus Between Media and Government Accountability’, organised by FrontFoot Media Initiative and Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), in Lagos recently, the editors stated that media stakeholders should bridge the gap between technology and journalism, while highlighting technology’s critical role.
They further said that technology has created a severe divide between tech-compliant personnel deficient in journalism know-how and experienced journalists who need more digital technical knowledge and ability.
The editors, who came from leading print and online publications in Lagos, disclosed that manpower development is essential, and effective media workforce development requires a strong focus on enhanced supervision in newsrooms and comprehensive training programmes.
They urged editors and supervisors to pay closer attention to the activities and output of outstation personnel and ensure compliance with organisational ethos. “Editors must also get correspondents to do follow-ups, as too many of our stories go unnoticed due to a lack of sustained reporting”, they said.
The media professionals charged reporters to improve the content and context of reporting of all issues, including government audit reporting, while also advocating for enhanced professionalism within its ranks to minimise troubling trends such as wilful plagiarism, and wrongful or non-attribution of story sources.
On audit reporting, FrontFoot’s co-founder, Mr. Sonala Olumhense, who participated virtually tasked journalists to focus more on audit reporting, and that training, workshops and roundtables were organised to equip journalists with skills to analyse and report on state and local government audits. He also said that the Auditor-General is not accountable to the governor, nor under his supervision or any other offices and beyond it.
He said: “In 2022, FrontFoot joined the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development, Inclusion and Accountability Project (C-MEDIA), led by WSCIJ. It is a cohort of some 26 civil society organisations working on the cause of public accountability, sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation.
“Each partner in C-MEDIA focused on a single aspect of the challenge of accountability and transparency. FrontFoot Media chose the subject of audit reporting, specifically, the institution of the Auditor-General of the states and the reports that it produces, as a contribution to the subject.
“Our Audit Reporting training/workshops and roundtables were built on the vision and mission of FrontFoot Media Initiative. That vision is to expose Nigerian journalists to the principles and practices of public service journalism focused on reporting the constitutional mandate to the governments to publish these audited accounts. We wanted to train the first set of journalists as arrowheads for integrating audit reporting into mainstream media practice in Nigeria, beginning from the state level.
“The Audit Reporting training, which we sometimes called, ‘x-raying state government Audit Reports”, was designed to equip journalists to find and mine state and local government audits as an accountability tool. The stories that develop from the audit reports are factual yet potentially explosive. They go to the heart of the management of state finances as attested to by experts within the system constitutionally empowered to do so.
“In our workshops, we trained participants on commonsense methods of finding these reports, as journalists normally do: walk around and ask for them. But we also trained them on other methods that may sound like a police detective. In the end, that is what good reporting is about.
“In these three years, in five, two-day workshops in Benin, Awka, Abuja, Lagos, and Gombe, we have trained about 160 journalists who learned how to interpret these reports and, through you as their professional bosses, to educate the voter. We offered and discussed sample reports. We established post-workshop mentorship schemes to help interested reporters develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter and pursue stories”.
“The Auditor-General of a State is appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the State Civil Service Commission and confirmed by the House of Assembly. But he is not accountable to the governor. He is not subject to his supervision or the supervision of any other authority in the state or beyond it.
“The job of the Auditor-General is to audit the public accounts of the State and all offices and courts of the State within 90 days of receiving the Accountant-General’s financial statement and annual accounts. He submits his reports not to the governor or the deputy governor or any member of the executive, but to the House of Assembly, where it is to be considered by the committee responsible for public accounts. As we have always educated participants in our workshops, the Auditor-General has the authority to undertake periodic checks of all government statutory corporations, commissions, authorities, agencies, including all persons and bodies established by any law of the House of Assembly of that state”.
He explained that “an audit report is not the same as the budget, which every government is eager to publicize because that one is a promissory note that may be deployed to dazzle the populace. An audit report, on the other side of the spectrum, is a review of the implementation of budgets and other expenditures, and the Auditor-General’s review may be as unpleasant to the governor as the budget was tasteful to him. Because of that, it is to be expected that a new audit report may not lead the evening news or the front pages because someone is trying to suppress it”.
He elaborated on the procedures that come into play when an Auditor-General vacates the office or passes away. He said that “the governor can appoint an acting Auditor-General for up to six months, after which the House of Assembly must approve any extension.
“A duly-appointed Auditor-General cannot be removed by the governor without the Assembly’s approval and can only be removed before retirement for misconduct or inability to perform duties. Otherwise, they remain in office until retirement or death. “This qualifies the Auditor-General to be described as an institution. These provisions empower the holder with the independence and confidence to deploy his authority without fear”.
Reporting on the work of the media ombudsman, CEO/Editor in Chief at Diamond Publications Limited, Mr. Lanre Idowu said that “the body would enhance public confidence in the media by promoting higher standards of journalism ethics and defending the profession”.
He disclosed that the Media Complaints Commission has resolved one of the cases brought to it to the satisfaction of the parties involved and asked the public to take advantage of the forum.
The senior media personnel observed that following the path of consistent reportage of the statutory government audit reports at federal, state and local government levels would enable the media to improve its ability to hold governments accountable.
They also highlighted many hindrances blocking the way of media scrutiny of governments as stipulated in Chapter 2, Sections 2 and 22 of the Constitution.
They expressed concern over how governors have expanded their powers to emasculate the office of the Auditor-General and lamented deeply on the absence of official support of any kind to the media despite the growing and high cost of essential inputs in the industry.
They called for enhanced cooperation among the media and civil society organisations such as the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, Media Rights Agenda and the FrontFoot Media Initiative to develop training and support programmes.
Expressing concerns about the state of intellectual property and Google’s dealings with Nigerian media houses, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editor, Mr. Eze Anaba remarked: “If the online community decide today to take on Google, the legacy media agree, work together to cut Google’s bluff, Google will sit up.
“They are playing with us, the stipends they roll out, they slashed it. Vanguard is very strong online but I know what we used to earn two years ago from what we’re earning now. Because of this, we had a digital office in Ilupeju and we’re paying hugely for it, but now because of the slash of Google’s earnings, we are looking at other ways of earning revenue. So, this is one area FrontFoot Media Initiative, the Civil Society Movement and Legacy Media should come together to secure fair benefits from intellectual property”.
