- Boluwatife Abiola and Abdulhafeez Oyewole
The General Manager of Herald Newspaper, Ilorin, Mr Yomi Adeboye has said that Journalists should concentrate more on the local government.
He made the statement earlier Wednesday at a One-Day Quarterly Media Roundtable on Media Independence and Government Accountability as the Guest Speaker.
While addressing the Journalists present at the event, he mentioned that Journalists must be ready to report about the activities of the local government elected representatives.
According to him, the local government representatives must involve the citizens in accessing their needs before deciding what they will do for them.
Stating the attribute of local government, what it should be and the reality of things in Nigeria, the Herald newspaper's boss said the elected local government repree should be accountable to the people, not to the state government, and that they should be answerable for their actions, inactions and conduct in office.
"As Journalists, these are some of the reponsibilities that we need to begin to take very seriously. We are the ones who help the society to take these people [our representatives] (into) account.
If the journalists succeed in making the local government representatives' accountable successful, there is also a possibility of affecting people's decision when it comes to voting at the grassroots level".
He further stated that, journalist ought to take interest in the local government activities more than they have done before.
"It is better for us to concentrate at the local governance level,let's leave the state and federal for now, if we get it rights at the local level, it will not take too long before we get it right at the state and federal level".
Also speaking, Mrs Zainab Sanni from News Verifier Africa charged Journalists to make use of various fact checking tools in ensuring accuracy in their reportage.
Delivering a virtual lecture on the topic; Fact-Checking as a tool for investigative reporting, Mrs Sanni emphasized the importance and advantages of the usage of fact checking in order to avoid information disorder, such as misinformation, disinformation and as well as mal-information.
She listed some important Fact-Checking tools that will help investigative Journalists during the course of discharging their duties.
Mrs Sanni therefore advised Journalists to be skeptical and create a habit of Fact-Checking for more credibility.
FACTUAL NAIJA NEWS reports that the quarterly roundtable discussion was organized by Albarka 89.9 FM Ilorin with the support of the Wole Soyinka Center for Investigative Journalism and funded by MacArthur Foundation.