Former Minister of Information, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr, has given the Nigerian media and media practitioners a clean bill of having performed well, especially in the midst of daunting socio-economic challenges prevalent in the country.
Nweke gave the commendation Tuesday in Enugu at a town hall meeting organised by the Nigeria Guild of Editors with the theme: “Agenda setting in sustainable democratic culture.”
Nweke gave the pass mark because according to him, media practitioners in Nigeria are working under inclement weather where insecurity is the order of the day and most media practitioners are either poorly paid or not paid at all.
The former minister of information, speaking on the topic, “Assessing media performance in consolidating Nigeria’s democracy: Citizens’ verdict and outlining an agenda for the future,” said the media had done marvelously well in sustaining democracy in Nigeria.
He described journalism as a product of democracy which in turn is advancing the democratic tenets, pointing out that the media is the only institution that is empowered to act as the watchdog of the society whose preoccupation is to hold the government accountable to the citizenry.
“The media is the only institution given the power to hold the government accountable.
“Nigerian media and journalists have performed creditably well given the environment under which they perform,” he pointed out.
Nweke noted that it was the salient role of the media that saw Nigeria through the June 12, 1993 annulled election as well as helping to rebuild Nigeria after the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War of the 60s.
Also speaking at the occasion, a senior lecturer at the Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, Dr. Maxwell Ngene, also appraised the good job of the media in sustaining democracy in Nigeria but lamented that media practitioners are not well remunerated.
