As the spate of conflicts among farmer/herders continues across the country, Data and Science Journalist Chikezie Omeje has called on media practitioners to avoid stereotypes in their reportage, stating that it doesn’t solve conflicts.
Chikezie noted this at virtual workshop while delivering a 2020 Davis Projects for peace on covering farmer-herder violence through data-driven solution journalism on Monday.
The workshop was organised by Chikezie as part of his Davis Projects for Peace and further explained that the Davis Projects for Peace empowers students to carry out peace initiatives around the world every summer and the program was the vision of late Kathryn Davis who launched it in 2007 in her 100th birthday.
According to him, Journalists should avoid unnecessary stereotypes while reporting farmer/herders crisis and do a solution driven reports .
He said there is the need to amplify the voices of victims affected in the communities by reporting the in-depth of issues affecting them.
He also observed that violence can be reduced, if communities are been able to maintain peace with herders .
He also noted that as the crisis keeps escalating, the Federal Government are yet to find a lasting solution to it adding that the media should rather use their reportage to douse the tension.
On basic assumptions, Chikezie explained that violence can be sustainably prevented or reduced if there is an improved awareness of the magnitude and negative impact of the conflicts .
He said that violence can reduce if solutions are being taken by communities to maintain peace.
He further said peace building efforts can be enhanced if stakeholders have better understanding of the conflicts dynamics .
On database for farmer-herder violence, Chikezie observed that Nigeria lacks open database on the farmer-herder conflicts .
He identified Granular dataset, such as the timeline of the attacks, the places and victims are not made available by public and private organizations in Nigeria .
He also identified that information on the attacks are scattered through various media stories adding that there is the need to collect data on conflict and build a database.
