THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA IN PROMOTING GOOD GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF VANGUARD NEWSPAPER)
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Background to the Study
In today’s world of modern governance throughout the world, the issue of good governance has assumed the front burner as an essential necessity for social, economic and political advancements (World Bank, 1989, Nanda, 2006; Hout, 2007; Gisserlquit, 2012), yet better governance keeps on being a wellspring of stress and a major test to most nations including Nigeria. Strangely, Nigeria, government in an offer to guarantee good governance in the nation had in, the 1999 Nigerian constitution in Section 16 (1) a, b, c, and d, and Section 16 (2) dug in a portion of the standards of good governance as a potential criteria for governance in the nation. In spite of constitutional provisions, just as the monetary assets, and huge possibilities of the nation, including the social and economic policies that have been executed by progressive organizations good governance keeps on being subtle to Nigeria.
In another attempt to enthrone good governance in the country, recent democratic administrations, organized good governance tours, where officials of the federal ministry of information alongside Journalists from various media houses, inspect the progress of work on the projects executed by the different agencies of the federal and the state governments. The objective of the tour is for the media to assess the performance of elected public office holders at both the federal and state level. The Nigerian constitution in section 22 made arrangement for such an activity where it expressed entomb alia; “The press, radio, TV and other agencies of the media communications will consistently be allowed to maintain the essential objectives in this chapter and uphold the obligation and responsibility of the government to the general public”.
The good governance tour organized by the Nigerian government identified two major issues. First, the Nigerian government’s concern and determination for better governance in the country. This concern possibly stems from the importance attached to the good governance concept as highlighted in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which articulates that the Millennium Development Goals must be achieved through good governance within each country and the international level, as well as in this well- cited quote, from Kofi Anan, that, “good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development” (UN, 1998). Second, it identifies the symbiotic relationship between the media and good governance. The media are a critical link in the accountability chain between the government and the governed, providing information for the citizens to hold those in authority accountable and also articulating citizens’ voices and preference for government to use in policy formulation.
In Nigeria, the performance of the mass media in the democratic process at various phases of our history has been well documented (Yusuf, 2001; Nwosu, 2003; Oso and Pate, 2010). Arguably, the mass media have remained in the forefront in the struggle to promote rights of our people through a credible democratic process (Pate, 2012). Given this assumption, this paper argues that media’s contributions to good governance in the society is played out within the ambit of the principles of good governance and that media’s potential to contribute to good governance depend on the extent the media reflect and enforce these principles as institution and sin the discharge of the fundamental roles of the journalists.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The media, in the Nigerian history have consistently been in the front line of the battle to promote good governance in the nation. Lending credence to this assertion, Obilade (1999:235), opined that the “press in Nigeria constitutes an active force in the realization of the goal of the evolution of good governance in the continent of Africa. This big achievement by the Nigerian media spanned through to the first, second, third, and fourth republics respectively. Even during the military era, the Nigerian media fought with all their efforts for the restoration of democracy. This struggle brought the nation to a new era of the fourth republic in May 1999. As part of their constitutional role, the mass media are expected to mobilize the people to participate in the democratic process. This was aptly demonstrated by the Nigerian media during the period under review. Take for example, as soon as the Abdulsalami Abubakar led government established the transition programme that ushered in a new democratic government, the media swung into action by creating awareness on the electoral process.
On the protection of the fundamental human rights of the people, the Nigerian Media fought vehemently well to ensure that those whose rights are violated are brought to face the wrath of the law. Furthermore, the mass media are the fulcrum of all forms of democracy. This assertion is on the claim that in any democratic society, the media is being termed as the market place of ideas for all political thoughts.
Nevertheless, the performance of the Nigerian media over the years could be regarded as a combination of both success and failures. This is because in promoting the hard earned democracy the media struggled and fought to reestablished, there are a plethora of encumbrances the media is facing which serve as impediments in stabilizing Nigerian democracy. The media is constantly receiving heavy pressure from the public, political parties, interest groups as well as the government. This pressure usually results in a situation where the media is forced to take side in reporting national events in order to promote the interest of a particular party or interest group. It is on this foundation that this study examines the role the media have played and continue to play in the socio-political and socio-economic reengineering of structures in a country faced with numerous challenges that limit the role of media in promoting good governance in Nigeria by using Vanguard Newspaper as a case study.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to analyze the impact of the media in promoting good governance in Nigeria by using Vanguard Newspaper as a case study. Other specific objectives include:
- To examine the roles that the Nigerian media has been playing in promoting good governance in the country.
- To explore the relationship between the media and good governance in Nigeria.
- To also examine the challenges faced by the media in promoting good governance in Nigeria.
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