Given the  challenges facing the Nigerian state in her bid to
achieve a strong democratic process, a responsive media that supports critical issues that promote good governance has been advocated  as a catalyst for an
effective socio-political development in the country.

That was the talking point at the 2019 Media Summit and Awards of the
Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, Anambra State Council, held at the
Godwin Ezemo Press Center, Awka.

Correspondent, Daniel Ezeigwe reports that 
the 2019 Media Summit of the Anambra State Council of the Nigeria
Union of Journalists is the third in its series, and makes the council
the first in Nigeria to hold the summit for such  period.

The theme for this year’s summit “Media, Legislature and the
Democratic Process,” had resource persons from different vocational
backgrounds, who made lucid insights on daunting tasks confronting the
Nigerian media industry in promoting  
democratic principles. 

The Chairman of the occasion, Chief Ifeatu-Obi Okoye, in his opening
remark, noted that the summit was an opportunity for a serious
discourse on the import of the media as the agenda -setters of any
society, and charged the council to continue to hold such important
fora, given the  importance  of  journalism
in the development of any society.

A Business Executive and Public Affairs Commentator, Dr Obiorah
Okonkwo, who was the summit’s keynote speaker, and whose topic was
centred on “Media, Democratic Governance and Development in Nigeria”,
called for a change in the old journalism mindset that attacks
policies without providing corrective measures to national problems,
adding that the Nigerian media must understand  their  responsibilities in the drive to achieve national goals.    

A Professor of Mass Communication and  former Commissioner
for Information and Culture  in Anambra State, Mrs. Stella
Okunna, who decried the inability of Nigeria to attain the 2015
deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, said that the
press must understand its inalienable power to shape any society,
through professional and efficient approach to information  dissemination, 
adding that journalists must be knowledgeable of their work timeline
to be able to make good critique of legislative works.

In his address, the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ,
Anambra State Council, Comrade Emmanuel Ifesinachi, said that media
summit was conceived as a platform to cross fertilize ideas that would advance good  governance and mass
reorientation, where stakeholders provide insights into the best
legislative pattern that drives effective development.

The 2019 Media Summit and Awards of the Nigeria Union of Journalists,
NUJ,  Anambra State Council had pressmen from different  organizations  in
Anambra State, the academics, representatives of the Nigeria Police,
Nigeria Prisons Service, Federal Road Safety Corps, Anambra State
chapter of Ohaneze Ndigbo, and government functionaries.

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