By Edith Ike-Eboh
Former Director-General of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Prof. Tonnnie Iredia, has urged the media to set agenda for positive result through reporting the power sector.
Iredia made the call at a Power Sector Conversation organised by Reboot, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), in Abuja on Friday.
He said that there was the need for continuous report on the issues of power and its importance to a nation.
He said that the media needed to study what the audience needed to know and used the right language while consistently reporting the issues.
Iredia added that reporters should adopt the principle of “force multiplication’’ and set strategic agenda for creating awareness on issues in the sector.
“We have to find a way to make power sector reporting the issue of the moment instead of politics.
“We must get people to talk about these issues regularly by the awareness we create and this will make the power very significant.
“We need to adopt the principle of force multiplication which simply means that the more you talk about power issues, the more it rings on the minds of the people,” he said.
According to veteran journalist, the principle will help to set agenda and thereby change the methodology of discussion.
He said that it was unfortunate that Nigerian journalism was foreign-based but noted that media organisations should give preference to indigenous languages in dissemination of news.
He said that Nigeria, with low literacy level, required use of local languages in information-sharing.
This, Iredia said, would also help to sell good ideas and bring about change of orientation among Nigerians.
He said that government must find a way to partner the media to plot ways and means to move the nation forward.
“The media are always criticising; we need to look at what has been done, what next to be done and the best approach to issues in reporting
“We need to appreciate the challenges of development and tell government the right things to do,” he added.
On corruption, he said that government needed to embrace the use of technology to fight corruption.
“If we don’t embrace it, we cannot stop corruption,” he said. (NAN)
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