2023 ELECTIONS: WE REFUSE TO BE MARGINALIZED – NAWOJ
Sarah Mudwa
The Nigerian Association of Women Journalist (NAWOJ), has expressed dismay over what it described as l as under representation of women in the political and media space space in Nigeria and had consequently vowed to stand against the trend in the forth coming General Elections.
The President of the Association, Comr. Ladi Bala revealed the association’s stand in Abuja, the Nigeria capital city, during a Two-day skill enhancing training for 35 female journalist across Northern part of Nigeria, organized by the International Press Center (IPC) and the Nigerian Association of Women Journalist (NAWOJ) under the EU-Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN).
The President stated that Women are key players in every democratic process and therefore must not be sidelined or neglected due to opinions of individuals or the society.
She said as one of the Ladi led administration goal, she would see to it that women journalists in Nigeria get trained in order to minimize the menace that had made women to be relegated to the back bench of both social inclusion and political process.
Mrs. Ladi applauded the Executive Director of IPC for giving women a great opportunity to become agents of change and to create a vision and mission for themselves.
Also speaking at the event, Mrs Moji Makanjuola, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), International Society of Media on Public Health (ISMPH) advised women to standout and carve a niche for themselves to have an edge come 2023.
“The overall essence of these programs is to strengthen the media for fair, accurate, ethical and inclusive reporting of the electoral processes and elections and particularly the improvement of media engagement in promoting women, youths and marginalized groups in politics through positioning female journalists to be in the frontline of professional, inclusive, conflict sensitive, fact-checked and data driven coverage and reportage”. He added.
In his remark, the Executive Director of IPC, Mr. Lanre Arogundade who adopted a slogan “To make journalism better for women journalists and women journalists better for journalism”, also encouraged women journalists to intensify efforts for their quest for inclusiveness in the governance of the country.
Mentoring during the first session, on of the resource persons, Mr. David Ajikobi, Editor Africa-Check who took participants on “Factual, Accuracy and Combating fake news; The place of fact checking and data use in reporting of 2023 elections, encouraged female journalists to be always conscious of the facts and fake news around them so as to always write professionally and maintain the integrity of the journalism profession.
Also, Mr. Taiwo Obe, Founder of the Journalism Clinic who spoke on Impactful Reporting of Electoral Processes and 2023 Elections; Focussing on Issues & Telling Stories That Matter, challenged women journalists to live up to their responsibility of given out to the general public, only things that can promote national unity and peaceful coexistence.
Meanwhile, the workshop is a project which seeks to make the media catalysts work towards credible elections. It is one of the activities being implemented by IPC, as lead partner, and the Institute for Media and Society (IMS) under Component 4: Support to Media of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGNII) project.
