Nduka Uzuakpundu
5 January 2003
THE United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) is unhappy with the preponderance of political reporting in the Nigerian media. While it admits that politicians - in their foibles and frailties - are masters of the Fourth Republic, and so are worthy of the attention given them, it feels, quite strongly, that such a focus - informed by a conscious commercial desire on the part of the print media - shouldn't be "...to the neglect of real issues of life." Its Programme Manager, Planning and Communication Section, Mr Tom Mshindi, told a group of print, broadcast and telecommunications specialists at a workshop on emergencies and disasters - jointly organised with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), in Kano, that such a consuming focus on politics by the media, at the pains of such human interest issues as youth unemployment, was a good recipe for disaster. Said he: "You don't need anybody to tell you that when you have millions of 15-24 year olds in a city, with practically nothing to do, no attention being paid to them; we just allow them to roam...; no food, no care; nothing whatsoever, it is the best case scenario for disaster." The truth, says Mshindi, is that 90 per cent of people everywhere are not concerned about politics or who becomes president.
And that, as one of the participants at the workshop rightly observed, was possibly because, right from the beginning of the Fourth Republic, government and politics have had the nasty potential to be painfully disappointing to both voters and tax-payers. Some of the expressively sickening pointers to that effect were the Lagos bomb blasts and the Kano air crash - alongside the stagnation of the economy. All excellent constructs of a bad government that should be voted out of office. Mshindi notes further that less than 10 per cent of the populace are interested in politics, but because the actors are the elite, they make it seem as if it is everybody's business.
Coverage of national issues
Thus, the attraction that politics has for the media may, to a given limit, be misleading - especially where it concerns the preparedness of donor agencies to be of assistance to NEMA. For the media, where the coverage of national issues tends to conflict, or worse still, take ill-advised precedence, as it were, over issues having to do with emergencies and disasters - youth unemployment - it raises some questions about the right or appropriate definition of news! Outside the media, it may be interesting to know whether the people's elected representatives are in any way devoting attention in their daily deliberations to emergencies and disasters: the looming seismic fits in Lagos, Oyo, Kogi, Benue, Osun, Ekiti, Gombe States, Nasarawa tableland, the hilly regions of the former South-eastern state; collapse of long-neglected dams that dot the agricultural lands of the north; and landslides just east of the Niger; that they, as ordinary mortals - with little power of clairvoyance - know not when they would rock the environment.
The establishment of NEMA by Decree 12 of 1999,
now an Act of Parliament - following the transformation of the National Emergency Relief Agency - ought to be seen as a sign of seriousness, on the part of government to monitor and respond to emergency and disaster. It is NEMA's mandate, to amongst others, formulate policy on all activities relating to disaster management in Nigeria and co-ordinate the plans and programmes for efficient and effective response to disaster at national level; co-ordinate and promote research activities relating to disaster management at national level; monitor the state of preparedness of all organisations or agencies which may contribute to disaster management in Nigeria; collate data from relevant agencies so as to enhance forecasting, and field operations of disaster management; educate and inform the public on disaster prevention and control measures; and co-ordinate and facilitate the provision of necessary resources for research and rescue and other types of disaster curtailment activities in response to distress call. On its part, NEMA has proposed a National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP) in order to put national response to disaster on a sound footing. Currently, it is set to embark on identifying all potential disasters in the country, where they occur and their magnitude and destructive potential and to outline the nation's preparedness to prevent and mitigate them; identify all organisations that manage response to natural and human-induced disasters in the country; embark on comprehensive disaster assessment, including risk mapping and the prediction of potential risks, disaster prevention and mitigation; and establish a comprehensive information system, which identifies and assesses the risks involved in disaster-prone areas and integrate these with human settlement planning and design.
The extent to which NEMA succeeds in managing emergency and disaster situations - in league with the media, the Red Cross/Crescent, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), society-based organisations (SBOs), the police, other security agencies and stakeholders - may win for it assistance from donor bodies. The brighter its record of prevention and adequate rehabilitation, the better. While NEMA will need the media to enlighten the public on the socio-economic consequences of man-made disasters - like ethnic clashes, road carnage, infrastructural collapse, caused by arson or poor maintenance culture, it is imperative for it to have a directory of disaster-prone areas in the country. On these issues, it may have to link up with the media to establish a desk from which early warning reports on an impending disaster (RWRD) will issue to the public and develop working ties with telecommunication operators for the utilisation of the short message services (SMS), especailly during emergency and disaster periods. Such a partnership between NEMA and the media is a pre-requisite for a sustainable emergency and disaster management.
Mass communication specialists
Two mass communication specialists - Dr Umaru Pate of the University of Maiduguri and Dr Abigail Ogwezzy of the University of Lagos agree - to the extent that the media can pressurise governments at various levels to address specific areas that have explosive potentials such as environmental pollution, for which oil companies are notorious, dams, epidemics and farming practices that may induce landslides. Still, the media have the advantage of mobilising public opinion that would hasten government's quick and crucial intervention. The media can take the private initiative to mount campaigns against perpetrators of man-made hazards that have the potential of catastrophic transformations. Such fights are usually expensive and tortuous - as with oil companies whose activities have ruined the means of livelihood of a great majority of the people of the Niger Delta region - through environmental pollution - and, in their unrepentant and arrogant posture tend to have dubious control over supposedly sovereign governments. Through reporting, coverages and general programming pattern, the media can enhance public participation in disaster prevention and management.
One of the most common problems associated with reporting disasters and emergencies, Pate and Ogwezzy say, is the propensity to exaggerate the magnitude of the catastrophe and the plight of the victims. Besides, there may be the challenge of under-reporting the magnitude, possibly on account of persuasion from the authorities to play down the impact or seriousness of the emergency. The media may face the challenge of fulfilling public perception of reporters' objectivity. It's not uncommon for existing cleavages in society to colour the pattern of coverage and content of the media, particularly in cases of conflict. The media are, also, often accused of sensationalising reports that border on disasters and emergencies, possibly to promote sales and patronage. In some instances, government may censor or control the flow of information for reasons of state security, but editors, too, may have to decide the limit they have to comply, if such control clashes with the social responsibility code.
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