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Nigeria needs journalism practice that pushes people to solve problems

By
Mutiu Iyanda
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Editor’s Notes

Despite the existence of theoretical grounds that emphasise the need for development and developmental journalism practices, Nigerians have been bombarded with negative events more than positive events throughout the years. Solutions journalism originated as a new style of journalism practice as a result of the media stakeholders’ failure to produce good news more than bad news. Reporting on people’s responses to issues is the emphasis of solutions journalism.

In this regard, our analyst interacts with Dr. Adebiyi Rasheed Ademola, who recently received a Solutions Journalism Fellowship from the Solutions Journalism Network in the United States, which was implemented by Nigeria Health Watch in Abuja. He believes that it is high time that media practitioners and owners have mindset shift in terms of news they produced and how they produced them for the public consumption.

Excerpts

Tekedia: Can we meet you, please?

A: I am Rasheed Ademola Adebiyi. I hold a PhD from the University of Ibadan. I teach at the Department of Mass Communication, Fountain University, Osogbo, Nigeria. Currently, I am a 2022 fellow of the Solutions Journalism Africa Fellowship with the main aim of mainstreaming Solutions Journalism practice and teaching in the media ecosystem in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria.

Tekedia: Can you tell us more about the fellowship?

Adebiyi: Thank you very much. As I stated earlier, the main mandate of the fellowship is to advocate for the practice and teaching of Solutions Journalism by newsrooms and media learning centres. The fellowship is supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, New York and implemented by the Nigeria Health Watch, Abuja. I intend to achieve this in four different ways. One, I put forward advocacy. Two, I train the newsrooms and their journalists on solutions reporting. Three, I create a WhatsApp hub for SoJo in the state. Four, I monitor the generation of solutions stories. I have been on advocacy visits to selected newsrooms and Departments of Mass Communication in the state talking to them on how to mainstream this brand of journalism into their curriculum and practice.

I have been advocating for four mind-shifts- focus, pedagogical, role and space. I have been engaging newsrooms on how to shift focus from problem reporting to solutions reporting. I have had conversation with the learning centres on how to shift from the philosophical background of bad news is news to good could be news. I have also told the media ecosystem in the state to move from the watchdog role to the guide dog role. I have also advocated for more space for solutions reporting. On this mandate, I have visited Rave FM, Osogbo, Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), Osogbo, Nigerian Television Authority, Osogbo as well as state offices of News Agency of Nigeria and Voice of Nigeria. I have also met with media professional bodies in the state such as the Nigerian Union of Journalists, National Association of Women Journalists and Online Media Practitioners of Nigeria. The reception has been wonderful. I also had a training for selected journalists last Wednesday. Besides these interactions with professionals, I also engaged the academia through seminars and presentations. I am due to present to a panel comprising of both the media teachers and practitioners at the Lagos Studies Association conference coming up later this month (June, 2022).

The Convener, Facilitators and Participants after training

Tekedia: You have mentioned a lot about Solutions Journalism, its practice and teaching. Could you tell us how it is different from the usual journalism practice that we know?

Adebiyi: Well, Solutions Journalism is a new trend in journalism that focuses on response to social problem. It is rigorous and evidence based and it seeks to draw insights from the response. Not only that, solutions reporting also looks for evidence that the response works (or not) and reports limitations of the response. It is different from the problem-focused reporting because instead of considering the problem, it engages the response to the problem thereby giving agency to people to solve their own problems. It gives the opportunity to people to at least take off their eyes from the everyday problem which is becoming normal in their lives and directs such focus on responses to these problems. SoJo also ensures that the whole story is told. The whole story in the sense that for every problem in any society, there are responses to such by people within the society whose voices are not being accentuated. So, what we are advocating is that journalists and reporters should tell the complete story of what is happening in the society.

Tekedia: Interesting. What was your experience on the journey so far?

Adebiyi: The experience has been wonderful. The reception has been amazing. Interestingly, the newsrooms have been generating some kind of solutions-related content. For instance, both the TV and radio stations visited have one or two programmes which are focusing on responses one way or the other. So, in those instances, we pleaded that SoJo should be incorporated into their everyday consumable content such as news. By bringing solutions stories into the news, they increase the frequency at which people have access to the solutions-focused stories.

For journalists, they see SoJo as what they have been doing but it comes only once in a while. To them, we urged them to put more focus on solutions reporting. A lot of the time, the question was to understand the difference between solutions reportage and development reporting. We always provided the difference as solutions journalism is a strand of development reporting which is seeking to put people in the driver’s seat of their development journeys. Questions that bothered on their fears were thrown at us, we tried to answer the questions as creatively as possible. This is because these fears are likely barriers against the practice of solutions journalism. Largely, the experience has been wonderful.

Tekedia: Moving forward, what is your focus after the fellowship?

Adebiyi: After the fellowship, continuous engagement of the issues raised in the course of the fellowship would continue. I have a plan to establish a Media Innovation Laboratory where I continue to engage issues militating against independent media such as financing, ownership interference, engagement of development issues and other problems. On the advocacy journey, I saw a gap in continuous professional education for journalists and media practitioners. I intend to fill the gap with the proposal of a media laboratory where we would continue to engage those issues and more.

Tekedia: Thank you for your time.

Adebiyi: My pleasure.

INEC should go fully digital

By
Stanley Alieke
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Why is no one asking questions about how strenuous INEC has made registering and getting PVC in Nigeria since the introduction of enfranchisement and Democracy. I can go with the conspiracy theory that claims that it is an intentional ploy to disenfranchise citizens, especially voters in the south. 

In the United States and the United Kingdom that Nigeria has been copying its political and democratic structure, there’s nothing like Voters’ cards or registration of voters. In the USA all you need to have to vote is a means of identification like your driver’s license or whatever valid ID you can provide to show you are a citizen, in the UK you don’t even need to provide any means of Identification because your details are already saved in the government’s database. 

Why will a Nigerian have different valid means of Identifications like Drivers license, NIN, BVN, International Passport, etc and they will still be expected to go and spend the whole day in the INEC voters registration centers to register for Voters card and after registration, the voters’ card will take months before it will be ready for collection and the citizen will also go and queue up for the whole day to sort out his own PVC and collect it. 

It is a shame. 

The Nigerian system is fundamentally structured to stress individuals. If we are to go by the augments in favor of the need for voters card/ PVC, why not make it totally digital and less strenuous, so that anyone of age who is ready to get one can apply at the comfort of his home online and if you the person is not technologically savvy to run the online application he can approach accredited cyber cafes to apply for the PVC, even if it is for a fee. Citizens would rather pay an application fee and get what they need quickly instead of going to INEC registration venues to fight and struggle and queue under the scorching sun or heavy rain just to be attended to. 

Why can’t the Nigerian government also have a unified database for citizens? How many means of identification will a Nigerian acquire in his or her lifetime and the process of getting any of these means of identification is unnecessarily stressful. Getting an international passport takes months, getting a NIN takes months, and the whole process is marred with the Nigerian factor of corruption. 

Since digital electioneering has been introduced, it will be in all good consideration and conscience if the means of registering to participate in the electioneering process for qualified citizens is totally digitized too if not anything other than this will amount to an intentional ploy by INEC and their cohort to disenfranchise some targeted set of voters. 

Microsoft Explorer to Be Finally Phased Out from June 15

By
Samuel Nwite
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Microsoft said it is finally phasing out Internet Explorer, the company’s oldest browser, from June 15. The 27-year old browser became a household name from the late nineties, but has faced challenges maintaining its reign amid internet advancement.

Internet Explorer was launched in 1995 as an add-on package for Windows 95. Microsoft later started providing the app for free as part of the package.

The nearly three-decade-old browser peaked at 95 percent usage share in 2003. However, IE could not maintain its position, and its user base started to decline drastically as other competitors released new browsers with better user interfaces, faster internet speed and smoother performance.

New feature development for Internet Explorer was discontinued in 2016 in favor of the new browser Microsoft Edge. This was the first time Microsoft had planned to slowly phase out Internet Explorer as over time, it has devolved into a default browser that is used to install other browsers.

“The future of Internet Explorer on Windows 10 lies in Microsoft Edge,” said Sean Lyndersay, Microsoft Edge program manager, quoted Mashable.

Lyndersay added, “Not only is Microsoft Edge a quicker, more secure, and more contemporary browsing experience than Internet Explorer, but it also addresses a crucial concern: compatibility for older, legacy websites and applications.”

“Internet Explorer mode (‘IE mode’) is incorporated into Microsoft Edge, allowing you to view older Internet Explorer-based websites and applications directly from Microsoft Edge,” the Microsoft Edge program manager said.

“With Microsoft Edge capable of taking on this and other responsibilities, the Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be discontinued and phased out of support for certain versions of Windows 10 on June 15, 2022.”

Microsoft 365 ended support for Internet Explorer on August 17, 2021, and Microsoft Teams ended support for IE on November 30, 2020.

It is the end of an era for the much loved browser. Edge, which replaced Explorer, has failed to fill the popularity gap that has been largely taken by Google’s Chrome.

Self-help is illegal and criminal

By
Stanley Alieke
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“He bashed my car so I will seize his motorcycle or tricycle till he repairs my car”. 

“He has overstayed his rent so I’m sending thugs to go and evict him or I’m going to pull down the roof of the house to force him out or I will break down the door of the house, after all, it is my house”. 

“ I will seize his phone or any other of his property of value and won’t release it till he repays the money I lent him”. 

“I won’t pay him his salary to serve as a punishment for him for going against the company policy”. 

“I will detain him in my house or my security post until he does what I want him to do”. 

“He threatened to physically assault me, so let me go and assault him first”.


              ********************

Have you made any threat or similar threat to the ones in the scenario above? 

If you do any of the above scenarios it amounts to jungle justice and in addition to your grievances or loss, you will be arrested and prosecuted for taking the law into your hands and acting as a jury and executioner in your case. 

Seizing someone’s property for whatever reason amounts to theft and it is illegal and criminal. Detaining someone for whatever reason amounts to abduction or kidnapping and it is a felony. Physically assaulting a person or sending thugs to attack your aggressor for whatever morally justifiable reason is a crime by law. Threatening a person for whatsoever reason is a crime and you will be prosecuted for it despite your reason for doing it. Breaking down your tenant’s door or forcing yourself into the apartment to evict the tenant amounts to a breach of the right to privacy and trespass and you can be prosecuted for that. 

Two wrongs cannot make a right and he who wants equity must do equity and he who comes before equity must come with both hands clean. 

There are appropriate authorities and institutions that have been established and put in place to address grievances and every aggrieved person is expected to approach those institutions, lay his or her complaint and count on the system to grant him or her the appropriate justice needed, any other thing done by the person other than registering his or her displeasure and handing over the grievances to these institutions amount to jungle justice and the aggrieved person will definitely be arrested and prosecuted for taking the matter into his hand and acting as a judge and executioner in his own matter.  

No matter how morally justified you think you are, you should never resort to self-help. The law is there to also protect your aggressor or your offender and once you cross the threshold to doing what you are not legally permitted to do to your offender the machinery of the law will be activated against you and it could backfire on you. 

There are frameworks to safely exercise your rights at law and every individual must utilize those frameworks. 

If someone owes you and refuses to pay back the debt, the better way for you to recover your money is by approaching the court of law and not resorting to self-help. If an Okada man or a Keke rider bashes your vehicle the right thing to do is to make inform the police or any other law enforcement agencies close by, If you decide to detain a person and lock him up in your backyard or security post for any reason without reporting the person or handing the person over to appropriate law enforcement authorities, you will be prosecuted for abduction or even prosecuted for the deprivation of a citizen fundamental right of movement. 

In all these, whatever your grievances may be, seek redress by approaching the appropriate authorities, and never resort to self-help. If everyone decides to resort to self-help and jungle justice, society will become “nasty, brutish and short”. 

Creating Gender Inclusion In The Workplace

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Despite the saying that goes “what a man can do, a woman can do better”, it seems it doesn’t apply to the business world, as there has been an unfair gender equity playing field in the workplace, which doesn’t favour the female gender.

Although women in most organizations make up half of the workforce, unfortunately, they are significantly less likely to hold leadership positions within their organizations. Research carried out by Mckinsey study, revealed that there is a huge disparity between men and women in executive roles.

Women held an average of 21% of all executive roles, but of that 21%, only 7% are in roles as opposed to staff roles which tend to have less direct decision-making power within the organization.

Reports reveal that women are complaining about the huge gender gap in the workplace and are feeling left out at work, due to the overall workplace culture that mostly favors men. Lately, there have been some global movements like; #MeToo, Encourage women, urging women to speak up against inequality in the workplace.

It might interest you to know that in 2018, Spotify was sued for gender discrimination and equal pay violation, also Walmart faced gender bias legal issues where a female worker who believed she was well-positioned to become the store manager, was overlooked, and instead the position was given to a lower-ranking male co-worker with less retail experience. Displeased with this unfair treatment, she didn’t hesitate to sue the company.

It is unfair that some organizations continue to undervalue women and deny them promotion and equal pay like their male colleagues. What these organizations fail to understand is that their organization will suffer a great loss when competent people are not given leadership positions, rather they give them to the male workers who are not even competent enough to take leadership positions, simply because they are men.

Organizations must not only see the need for gender inclusion in the workplace, they must also take the necessary steps to close the gender gap by creating a more gender-inclusive workplace.

Here are four (4) ways organizations can create gender inclusion in the workplace;

1.) Remove The Gender Pay Gap: It has been discovered that women earn considerably less than their male colleagues in the workplace, even though they perform the same role. Employers should therefore promote gender inclusion in the workplace by being transparent about the wages, to ensure that women are not receiving less than their male colleagues in equivalent roles.

2.) Skill-Based Assessments: When recruiting new employees in the workplace, it is ideal that employers use skill-based assessments when recruiting, to reduce the risk of unfair bias. If more females performed better during the recruitment process, they should not sabotage it by squeezing in males who underperformed simply because they are trying to create a balance. Employers also need to use structured interviews, where all candidates are asked the same questions, and also grade their performances using a standardized format to reduce the risk of an unconscious bias.

3.) Consideration Of Leadership Roles For Both Men And Women: It is commonly a mistaken belief that only men thrive in leadership roles, while women perform better at support roles. Such belief is unfair and flawed, which creates stereotypes in the workplace. A great way employers can promote gender inclusion in the workplace, is by giving leadership roles to deserving candidates irrespective of their gender. Women have on countless occasions proven to be better leaders in an organization.

4.) Creating An Open-Minded Atmosphere: Gender inclusion can be achieved in the workplace when employers operate an open-minded workplace policy, where women can also make decisions as well as proffer solutions that can improve organization, without feeling sidelined or overlooked. Employers should ensure to appreciate employees based on their talent and not by their gender.

Conclusion

In today’s dynamic business environment, gender inclusion in the workplace is considered to be an essential factor for the competitiveness and growth of an organization. Therefore, it is ideal that both male and female workers are treated equally in the workplace.

If a female employee deserves to be in a leadership position, such should not be sabotaged by giving a less deserving male colleague because it will stifle the growth of the organization. Women have also been proven to perform better in leadership positions, which is the strong reason why unfair bias against women in the workplace should be jettisoned.

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