Poised to win the war against corruption, electoral violence and malpractice, a Non Governmental Organization, Social Action, has called for strengthened collaboration between the Media and Civil Society actors.
The programmes Officer of Social Action, Prince Ekpere, made the call during a capacity training on skills for anti- corruption campaigns in Port Harcourt.
He called for strategies that would best enhance CSOs and Media partnership in achieving peaceful campaigns in Rivers State, noting that Nigeria has consistently ranked high in unemployment ratio, poverty level and great number of children out of school.
Delivering his lecture tittled” Strengthening CSOs and Media Collaboration in the fight against Corruption, Violence and Electoral Malpractice, “Tijah Bolton, noted that the issue of corruption, election fraud and violence are actually intertwined.
He chronicled the responsibilities of the Media and the CSOs as well as their roles in achieving a near free, fair and peaceful elections and stressed the need for both to collaborate for the good of the society.
He regretted that violence is often both a tool for executing corrupt practices in elections and a consequence of electoral fraud, adding that fraudulent and violent elections can only produce fraudulent leaders who will reinforce the vicious cycle of corruption in governance and politics.
He, however, maintained that to win the war of electoral violence, the media and the CSOs cannot continue to work in partnership since the media are actually a part of civil society and called for effective collaboration of the two.
On his part, Ken Henshaw noted that electoral violence is not new in Nigeria but started during colonial period, adding that electoral violence was the rationale for the first coup d’etat in Nigeria.
He said electoral violence is caused by party affiliation, ethnic and religious sentiments, and called on the media to change the narrative by consistently bringing to the front burner those bad activities politicians engage in instead of those ones that boost their egos.
