A non-governmental organization, Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa, PAACA has urged journalists to get acquainted with the Electoral Act to further educate Nigerians about elections.
The Executive Director, PAACA Ezenwa Nwagwu made the call during a one-day capacity-building workshop for media in Kano.
According to him during voter and civic education, the media enlightened the public without drawing their attention to the actual laws, especially the electoral act.
The executive director explained that journalists serve as watchdog of the society, saying that partnership and robust engagements with the media would yield positive results.
“We are partnering with the media to educate Nigerians to pay attention to the legal framework whether you are a politician, media, CSO, it is important to arm yourselves with the requisite knowledge of what the law says about that all-important place of election”
He emphasized the need for Nigerians to familiarize themselves with election processes through the Electoral Act and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC guidelines.
Ezenwa pointed out that a lot of stakeholders are not conversant with the legal framework, the Electoral Act which is very crucial to the electoral process.
“We are in Kano in continuation of our engagement across the country to popularize the legal framework with which elections are conducted across the country”
“There is ignorance of the legal framework for the conduct of elections in the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines. And quite a lot of stakeholders are not conversant with the content and details of that process. So our work is to popularize it”
The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists NUJ Kano state chapter, Comrade Abbas Ibrahim described the training as apt and a wake-up call to journalists to acquaint themselves with the Electoral Act.
He stressed the need for journalists to adhere to the code of ethics guiding the conduct of the profession.
Radio Nigeria reports that the event tagged one day of media training on the electoral act witnessed a large turnout of Journalists from broadcast, print and new media and was marked by interactive sessions and panel discussions.
KHADIJAH ALIYU
