The President, Nigerian Guild of Editors, Funke Egbemode, on Tuesday advised women politicians to always comment on critical national issues that could give them visibility in the media.
Speaking at a one-day seminar on Media and Gender Sensitive Reporting of Elections held in Lagos, the NGE president said headlines were gender insensitive.
Egbemode said: “Headline is gender insensitive.
“What is news is news, it is not about female or male.
“Women (politicians) must be found saying something about issues that resonate so as to make headlines and end in front pages.”
Egbemode, Editor-in-Chief of New Telegraph newspaper, urged reporters to begin to ask questions that emphasised the intelligence of women in politics on critical national issues and not their looks.
The NGE president, who urged women politicians to change their approach and learn from the system, said “neither power nor political offices is served like a gift”.
According to her, women journalists need to also educate female politicians to understudy the system and come up with strategies that would work for their aspirations of getting involved in governance.
She said: “Women must master the system and take advantage.
“We are smarter than the men but why is it that men keep getting better deals?
“Women need to take realistic steps and make realistic demands for journalists to be sensitive to their political space.
“Women need to also start doing what they need to do (early enough).
“Men who want to be president in 2023 had started like 20 years or 30 years ago.
“It will be difficult to offstage somebody who had been working, talking and preparing for 20 years.
“It is not going to happen like that.”
Egbemode said women could make things happen in politics if they prepare and mobilise adequately, urging that women should commence work to take over the political space by 2023.
She said: “Even if you attempted and you didn’t get it, this is the best time to start getting involved.
“If we don’t get involved, then we can’t get nominated and if we don’t get nominated, we can’t get anything.
“Let’s get into the parties, let’s form alliances, let’s come up with strategies and understudy the system.
“Let’s look at what the men do and learn all the good things from them and ignore the bad habits.”
The president, who highlighted the issue of funding, urged women to understudy how men fund their ambitions for political office.
She also urged women to push out their best team into political arena and stop being only emotional.
Also speaking at the event, Ifeyinwa Omowole, President, National Association of Women Journalists, urged women to be resolute and persistent in their involvement in elections.
Omowole, who delivered a paper on: “Media and Gender Stereotypes in Nigerian elections,” urged female journalists to stop playing lip service to issue of women in governance.
She said: “It goes beyond lip service, it is action which should be seen in our reportage. Our clamour for women in governance is not a cliché, it is a development issue.
“If we look at societies or countries we call developed or advanced, it is because equity is promoted for both male and female. That’s what we must achieve here.”
Omowole said any society that allowed women to thrive always develops, adding that such inclusive practice remained a catalyst for development.
The NAWOJ president frowned at the habits of tearing down women politicians, saying such had discouraged so many other women.
In his remarks, Lanre Arogundade, President, International Press Centre, said female politicians were often less projected by the media, urging that the gap in media coverage should be addressed.
Arogundade said the media should adequately report and project issues of women and other marginalised groups to inclusive governance.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the event, attended by several media practitioners, was aimed at ensuring gender friendly and responsive reporting in the build up to 2019 elections.