Political battle in Nigeria and function of the media

Political battle in Nigeria and function of the media

What grew to become Nigeria was a conglomeration of independently present nations with their political-cum-economic constructions. Towards this backdrop, it grew to become tough for a really very long time to speak about Nigerians, even with the socio-political entity known as Nigeria.

The ethnic and linguistic plurality of the nation has resulted in lots of political crises within the nation, particularly throughout electioneering. Within the face of this actuality, this piece will focus on political battle and the causes of political conflicts in Nigeria, media reportage of political conflicts in Nigeria and the function of the media in curbing political conflicts in Nigeria.

Vecchio (1991), for starters, explains battle as the method that outcomes when an individual (or a bunch of individuals) perceives that one other particular person or group is irritating, or about to frustrate, an necessary concern. Battle can be defined as a conflict of pursuits leading to confrontations.

Political conflicts lead to societal unrest and destruction. Within the phrases of Ekeanyanwu and Ajakaye (2020), political conflicts and crises, by their nature, elevate tempers and construct obstacles to communal understanding which is required for any sort or degree of growth.

Many components are chargeable for political unrest in Nigeria, and the primary amongst them is ethnicity-cum-nepotism. Ethnicity is a big group of individuals with a shared tradition, language, historical past, set of traditions, and so forth., or the actual fact of belonging to one in all these teams.

Ethnic sentiments typically lead to nepotism which is undue favouritism within the distribution of works. This ultimately engenders a state of affairs the place sq. pegs are present in spherical holes. An individual ready or state of affairs for which she or he is unsuited or unqualified is a sq. peg in a spherical gap. The top results of that is lack of growth attributable to inefficiency.

Subsequent, political management has been recognized as one other main issue necessitating political battle in Nigeria. There may be all the time the difficulty of who’s from the place each time nationwide leaders are to emerge. Electing or choosing Nigerians into workplaces has all the time resulted in uproar, given the belief that every particular person pursues the curiosity of his or her tribe fairly than the development of the nation as a complete.

Having survived this uproar within the 2023 presidential election, the president-elect and members of the nationwide legislative our bodies are hereby urged to pursue the overall curiosity of the nation in an effort to foster unity within the nation.

On prime of that, the worry of domination is one other reason behind political conflicts in Nigeria. There may be the belief that anybody in energy will promote the curiosity of their tribespeople. This leads to everybody desirous to get energy by all means, thereby resulting in an unhealthy wrestle for energy by means of the deployment of hoodlums and malicious fabrications within the media.

The Institute for Peace and Battle Decision summarised different components chargeable for political conflicts in a 2003 publication thus: emotions of alienation and the wrestle for recognition; worry of domination of 1 ethnic group over one other; state formation, delineation and contestation of borders; and entry to political energy. There may be, undoubtedly, the necessity for us as a nation to look into all of those components in direction of making certain true nationwide growth.

Instructively, the media has an important function to play in curbing political conflicts in Nigeria, however a great way to start the dialogue is to first perceive the media’s involvement in political crises within the nation in instances previous. The submission of Galadima and Enighe in 2001 is succinct on how the media has not lived as much as expectations within the face of political crises in Nigeria.

Of their phrases, “The Nigerian press are all the time utilized by their homeowners — personal get together or authorities — for the aim of propagation of the pursuits of such homeowners, particularly within the wrestle to realize energy or monopolize the identical. There may be recklessness and partisanship on the a part of the press throughout elections and transition to the civil rule programmes as an alternative of restraint and accountable reporting of occasions.”

Sadly, when Galadima and Enighe reported the foregoing in 2001, the state of affairs had not been as horrible as it’s now. The arrival of blogs that are much more than skilled media retailers has worsened the state of affairs, contemplating the proliferation of pretend information in a bid to realize followership.

Social media has additionally made everybody a producer of data which is accessible to hundreds of individuals, ensuing within the simple unfold of unfounded information and fabrications. The media has additionally been reported as involving in ethnic sentiments and persona assaults throughout reportage. The query that, due to this fact, follows is: what can the media do in a different way to curb political conflicts in Nigeria?

Learn additionally: How old is too old in Nigerian politics?

Students have supplied peace journalism as a succour to political conflicts in Nigeria. Peace journalism has been defined as battle free journalism. Ekeanyanwu and Ajakaiye submit that the underlying argument of peace journalism is the emphasis on media protection of points that have a tendency to advertise the resolve for peace fairly than protection which will escalate a battle state of affairs.

Basically, peace journalism exhibits backgrounds and contexts of conflicts; hears from all sides; explores hidden agendas; highlights peace concepts and initiatives from wherever at anytime (Lynch and McGoldrick 2005). Journalists also needs to promote peace by means of their language.

As disclosed by a famend peace linguist and vice-chancellor in Nigeria, Professor Mahfouz Adedimeji, language varieties, informs, reforms and transforms us. Which means that a battle state of affairs might be arrested if the precise alternative of phrases is deployed by the media practitioners.

In conclusion, political battle is an expectation in a rustic with completely different ethnic teams that talk over 500 languages. Basically, these elected and appointed into workplaces on the nationwide degree have a significant function to play in creating nationwide consciousness among the many residents by making certain equity within the discharge of their duties. Additionally, the media may also help forestall and sort out political conflicts by means of peace journalism.

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