| Infrastructure, Niger Delta key to realisation of Vision 20:20202 COMMUNIQUE |
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| Written by Administrator |
| Sunday, 12 April 2009 13:22 |
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Infrastructure, Niger Delta key to realisation of Vision 20:20202 COMMUNIQUE The 5th All Nigerian Editors Conference (ANEC) held in Kaduna, Kaduna State, from April 1 to April 5, 2009, with the theme Vision 2020 Economic Growth and the Nigerian Editor. Six paper presentations were made at the conference with the resulting interactions offering several observations and the following resolutions and recommendations: OBSERVATIONS: . Conference notes that the media are critical stakeholders in the realization of Vision 2020, the Seven-point Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals. · That unfettered access to information will enable the media to more effectively drive the nation’s development visions. · That journalists have been sidelined in the core issues of the electoral reform process. · That the current leadership crisis in the Nigeria Union of Journalists is likely to hobble the practice of journalism if nothing is done to ameliorate the state of affairs. · That solving the Niger Delta crisis is key to the attainment of Vision 2020. · That fixing the power sector is a sine qua non to any form of meaningful growth and development of the country. · That governance in the country is unnecessarily bloated, costly and ineffective. · That a recourse to proper demographic projections is essential in order to avoid a situation where population issues eat up or discount strategies and logistics for any vision of development. · That the media for too long have placed politics at the centre of their agenda at the expense of development issues. · That ICT knowledge is compulsory for any journalist who wants to remain relevant on the job and adapt effectively to the predicted media convergence. · That the standards of mass communication graduates have fallen and the curricula of Mass Communication studies in the nation’s tertiary institutions do not reflect the reality of the industry. · That the Millennium Development Goals complement the parameters of Vision 2020. · That the proliferation of Beat Associations poses a major distraction to high professionalism by encouraging herd reporting and unnecessary delimiting of entrants to media work. · That the current global financial meltdown threatens the realization of the nation’s development goals. RECOMMENDATIONS/RESOLUTIONS: · The conference calls on government to partner more deeply and meaningfully with the media in the realization of the lofty targets of Vision 2020, Seven-point Agenda and the Millennium Development Goals. · It calls on the National Assembly to expedite the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill to enable the media to hold the public office holders accountable. · The conference recommends that Editors should be fully involved in the current electoral reform programme to ensure that election results are released to the media at the polling booth level to stem thuggery and rigging. · It further calls on Editors to put their professional union, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, to order as the strengthening of the NUJ will lead to more professional practice of journalism in the country. · The conference urges government to go beyond rhetoric in addressing the power sector and pragmatically ideate ways of stopping the flaring of gas in the Niger Delta and convert the gas into a necessary feedstock towards a sustainable power sector. · It calls for practical approach to issues of development in the Niger Delta through engagement and education of the youth, pursuance of aggressive physical development of the area by making the people feel the impact of resources got from their land. · The conference avows to the urgent need to reduce the huge cost of governance in the country so that resources can be deployed to critical sectors such as power, education, roads and other infrastructure. · It recommends that the enthronement of quality leadership at the state level invariably translates to the actualization of the nation’s development efforts, particularly Vision 2020 and the MDGs. · It advises the Bureau of Statistics to come up with realistic population and other demographic projection to accommodate future plans and developments. · The conference urges journalists to emphasize on what the nation needs to develop and decline from making politics the permanent agenda of national discourse. · It encourages owners of media establishments to assist journalists procure IT based paraphernalia of work, train and retrain journalists on current trends in the profession. · The conference champions the need to update the curricula of Mass Communication based on current realities in the field and approves the importance of lecturers to do their sabbatical in media organizations, while qualified journalists should do the same in the Universities and Polytechnics. · It calls on government to be far more proactive and take concrete steps towards stemming the possible impact of the financial meltdown. The Editors express profound gratitude to the people and government of Kaduna State for hosting the 5th All Nigerian Editors Conference. ------------------------ -------------------------- Mr Gbenga Adefaye Barr. John Ndukauba President Secretary |
