Nigerian media practitioners have to make tough choices of either staying on the side of the Nigerian people or mortgaging their conscience as those who looted the treasury strategize to fight back.
This was the submission of the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, who spoke separately at the opening of a three-day retreat for State House Press Corps.
Governor El-Rufai lamented that the immediate past administration, led by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan “simply ran the country aground”.
He noted that treasury looters will soon fight back using the media as President Muhammadu Buhari continues to beam the searchlight on their actions and inactions while in office.
El-Rufai, therefore, charged the media to stay on the side of the Nigerian people, saying: “You have tough choices of either staying on the side of the people and secure the future or support the looters and be comfortable today.”
He thanked the leadership of the State House Press Corps for holding the retreat in Kaduna, saying the Change Mantra can only be realised with the support of the media.
Shehu, who is also the Convener, lamented that President Buhari is not being reported accurately.
He said: “As the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, I and my colleague, Femi Adesina, have spent a good deal of our time over the past few months countering false information that has been published by one news medium or the other and presented to the public as fact.”
Shehu noted that the freedom that Nigeria’s press enjoys today did not come easy but won at high cost, insisting: “Freedom must come with responsibility.”
He spoke further: “Accuracy in journalism is essential. Accuracy must come ahead of speed. If you are not sure, hold fire. Myself and Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media, have made ourselves available to the press, I dare to say more than many people who previously occupied similar positions in the past.
“You have our phone numbers, our email addresses, you are free to stop us whenever you see us outside…and so, any information can be easily verified by first contacting us. A journalist, rather than misinform the public, should hold fire. Being first to publish is not as important as being reliable.
“As always, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is grateful to the Nigerian media for the role you played in igniting the CHANGE agenda, which has swept into Nigeria in March 2015.”
Those billed to present papers are the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi; the Editor of Guardian newspapers, Martins Oloja; and US Counsellor for Public Affairs, Victoria Sloan.