The International Press Center (IPC) has launched a digitalized IOS Web App on media election code, with a call on the Federal Government to deepen democratic dividends by fulfilling all its campaign promises.
Mr Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director of IPC made the call in Abuja during a media and CSOs stakeholder’s roundtable discussion on the documented Campaign Promises of President Bola Tinubu.
He urged the media professionals to educate the citizens for them to monitor government activities, and demand for the implementation of those pledges.
“This days, we talk of solution driven journalism, but you can’t have a solution when you don’t pick promises, follow them up and ensure that they are actually implemented, and also ask questions if there are challenges of implementation or changes of the plan.
“During the campaigns, we were documenting the campaign promises of all the presidential candidates. Normally it is IPC tradition to publish that of the President, so that we can look at these promises in our respective beat on how they are being implemented.
“The digitalized IOS Web App was part of the commitment of International Press Center to ensure that the code of conduct for election media coverage gets to all Journalists, researchers, including mass communication students in tertiary Universities,” he said.
In a presentation on the role of citizens and the media in ensuring democratic accountability, the Dr Otive Igbuzor, Founding Executive Director, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development in his presentation on the role of citizens and the media in ensuring democratic accountability, noted that democracy still remained the best form of governance.
Otive explained that accountability promotes good governance, prevents corruption and abuse of power, while lack of accountability often leads to struggle for social justice.
He urged Journalists to utilize the available tools like the Freedom of Information Act to set political agenda and analyse progress made in various sectors, to hold the government accountable.
In a remark, Media Aide to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr Tunde Rahman, represented by Ayo Oyalowo, pledged the present administration’s commitment to implement all its campaign promises.
Rahman assured that the present administration will improve on all the good policies of the previous administration, adding that plans were underway to make Nigeria more of an exporting nation than an importing one.
Veteran journalist and recipient of A.B.C Yola, Reporter of the Year Award (1997), Hassan Umar Shallpella, works with WAP as a Regional Correspondence. He was trained at Institute of Mass Communication and Technology Jos and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, Training School Lagos.He was a News desk Editor and a Correspondent at the Punch newspaper and till 2019, was the Deputy Editor ofThe Scope newspaper.
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