By Doyin Ojosipe
It was a cool but charged atmosphere on March 24, 2020, when journalists and religious leaders faced one another other at the conference room of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), Abuja.
The occasion was a roundtable dialogue organised by AFRICMIL for the media and religious leaders in the country. It was one in a series of activities under the advancing peace and interreligious dialogue in the age of social media, a project supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).
For some reasons, some influential or opinion leaders believe that journalists are most of the time guilty of either misinforming or inciting their audiences based on their reportage.
Religious leaders who were invited for the interface accused journalists of being insensitive and prone to generalizations when reporting religious matters.
“My problem with media is they make a lot of generalisations. They always give blanket reports. Let me make an example using reports of the covid-19 and the government directives not to open worship centres for fellowship, it is true that some Churches did not immediately comply but the media went ahead to report that all Churches did not comply, putting the church in a bad light,” Reverend Solomon Uko, Director of Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), said.
On his part, Aselemi Ibrahim of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) said: “The media is very partial in their coverage. They attach religion to alleged criminal acts, especially when the subject is a Muslim. But they seem to be really liberal with other religion and this has created so much stereotyping for Islam.”
Abbas Jimoh, a Daily Trust Reporter, noted that some journalists do not really know much about reporting on religious or ethnic matters. “Some of the reports I have seen so far show that some of my colleagues are not well grounded in the religion of others and this affects their expertise in handling such reports.”
He advised his colleagues to always consider the number of lives that would be lost as a result of the way they treat religious stories.
Africmil and Stakeholders at the launch of MIL Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue project in Abuja, January, 2020.
A study by a researcher, Mathew Barde, on the effects of media reportage of ethno-religious crisis in Kaduna highlights how media houses ignored the code of ethics by either taking sides, escalating the crises or shamelessly taking the role of an unrepentant liar.
These actions were reported to have affected people psychologically, economically and emotionally, causing ill feelings between the two major religions.
Barde cited media role in: the 1987 Kafanchan crisis, the 1992 Zango Kataf crisis, 2011 post election crisis across some states in the North and North Central part of the country.
Nigeria like other countries has had its fair share of ethno-religious crises. Reports by diverse research organisations such as Demographic and Health Survey, Pew Research Centre, World Fact-book by CIA, among others indicate that Nigeria, with a population of about 180 million, is predominantly divided between two major religions: Christianity and Islam and a really small percentage of African traditional religion and Others.
AFRICMIL launches MIL Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue manual in Jos, Plateau State.
While this huge population was meant to translate into a rewarding workforce resulting in economic gain for the country, violent ethno-religious crises have been a limiting force.
Olabimtan Oladele Apuwabi in his report on “Effects of Religious Crisis on Economic Development” states that religious crises in Nigeria are endemic in the last two decades.
In all crises reports, the wanton destruction of livelihood, bloody attacks with huge death casualties, destruction of properties and economic downturn were recorded.
According to Apuwabi, “… the number of those injured triples the dead, while those displaced is put at a million… crises have also hindered genuine economic development and national integration; religious crisis has been an obstacle to progress, economic prosperity and peaceful coexistence and overall, socio-economic development of Nigeria because of its destructive tendencies.”
Media cannot all be blamed…
Reacting to the accusations by religious leaders, media professionals pointed out that the carelessness of religious leaders in handling crisis had done more harm than good.
They also emphasized that there was no time media did a report without making reference to concerned authorities.
According to Angela Atabo of News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), “The media can not be totally blamed for interreligious or intercultural clashes as we only report facts. We do not manufacture stories, we report what we are told.
“Some times, these religious leaders are like politicians. They brief the media on something, we go ahead and report, then they come out later to refute it or give it another interpretation. How are we supposed to know that they meant something different from their briefs?”
Atabo noted that media outfits that indulge in generalizations in their headlines are not professionals.
“Most of the time, when you talk about story headlines, they often come from all those mushroom social media organisations that do not have editors. Nobody checks them. The reporter is also the owner of the organisation. Some of us have two to three editors, so stories are well checked before they fly,” she added.
In his contribution, Gbenga Omokhunu of The Nation newspaper warned religious leaders to be careful with their utterances when addressing the press and or their followers.
“There is no way journalists would tinker with reports in the name of conflict sensitive reporting. How will the people know the truth? What I want to tell religious leaders is to watch what they say, because what ever you say out there are your words. You don’t say something and think that journalists would go and edit it for you. So if you say something bad and it is reported and you later deny, the journalist would not be held liable for your mistakes,” Omokhunu noted.
Nkechi Onyedika, a correspondent of the Guardian newspaper maintained that religious leaders must take responsibility for their words. She said religious leaders and politicians were fond of blaming media instead of taking taking responsibility for what was published.
Cross-section of participants at the launch of MIL Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue project in Abuja, January, 2020
Indeed, an analysis of the causes of the incessant ethno-religious crises in Nigeria by Onodugo Chris, Benjamin Amajiri and Okolie Anthony, indicates that some fault lines emanate from religious leaders, as well as initial orientation of the people as far as religion itself is concerned.
Quoting Omotosho, in Ethno-religious Crisis: The Impact on Nigerian Socio-economic Development (2003), they highlighted four major causes of ethno-religious crisis as: The lack of genuine desire to understand each other’s belief and culture; The lack of recognition of one another; Campaigns of hatred and blackmail and Extremism.
Way forward…
In order to address the menace and promote peaceful coexistence through inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, AFRICMIL, in collaboration with National Orientation Agency (NOA) and supported by CFLI, launched the peace project titled Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in January 2020.
Observing that a majority of the causes of ethno-religious crises arises from gaps in communication and information, AFRICMIL believes that religious leaders and followers would have acted better if they were well informed and then exhibit tolerance of Others, their culture and core values.
Stakeholders at the Interfaith Dialogue in Kaduna State in March 2020.
On the way forward, religious leaders noted that it was not only important to advocate for peace but more importantly to help followers have a deep understanding of their religion and also respect the beliefs and core values of Others’.
Reverend Solomon Uko, of the JDPC said while Christians have been called to be peace makers, it is helpful to note that some have decided to be trouble makers, hence the need for religious leaders to always be at alert.
Aselemi Ibrahim of the NSCIA, emphasized the need to re-educate followers as it was a known fact that some people incite others. “We should respect the belief system of other people. As a Muslim or Christian, let us respect our core values. I may not be a Christian and may not even accept their beliefs but I should ensure that I respect their beliefs and this should be reciprocal so that peace can be achieved in the country.”
In her opinion, Kuni Tyessi, a reporter at ThisDay newspaper, said many reporters and audience(s) seem to find it difficult to be objective in reporting and picking their information needs based on parental training.
“The issue of religion is a very dicey one. What we teach our children about other religions grows with them and affects their work as journalists as well. The thing is every one is a politician so we should keep sensitizing our journalists to consider nationalism first. Whatever they do, Nigeria comes first.”
Tunde Oguntola of Leadership newspaper emphasized the need for journalists to adopt a conflict sensitive reporting technique.
“We need to, as reporters, be conflict sensitive when reporting issues that can lead to violence,” he said.
Daniel Adelani of Punch newspaper said although it is the duty of reporters to report happenings, it should be done properly.
According to him, “Reports should be balanced and must not stoke unnecessary violence, though I must say that it’s not right to blame journalists all the time. All stakeholders should come together to work for peace. Most times, interpretation of reports by readers is personal and cannot be tinkered with by journalists, so the audience needs to be re-orientated too.”
He added that apart from having a good understanding of other religion, there was need for justice without which there can not be peace.
Cross-section of participants at the town hall meeting on inter-religious and intercultural dialogue in Jos, Plateau State, in March 2020.
Nneoma Benson of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) commended the initiative for the interface on Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, noting that it was important every stakeholder understands the need to respect the beliefs of others.
AFRICMIL Coordinator, Dr Chido Onumah, said the interface was part of the Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue programs meant to bring the media and religious leaders together to find ways of promoting peaceful coexistence among different religious groups in the country.
He said, “The purpose of this gathering is for us to have a dialogue, a conversation and share ideas on some of the things that the media is not doing properly from the point of view of religious leaders and also from the point of view of the media, what they think that religious leaders need to do in terms of providing information for better reportage.
“I think this is a good starting point and we hope that as this project progresses, we will get more media and religious leaders involved. The important thing is that we have started, we have initiated a process that people are excited about… from the outcome of the conversation, it is clear that there are gray areas that need to be cleared, there are points or issues that are contentious but the important thing is that it was done in a peaceful and very amicable atmosphere.”
He said since the project was launched in January, it had witnessed two town hall meetings in Kaduna and Jos, and the launch of a training manual for religious and cultural leader.
Paul Udenyi, the representative of the DG of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), commended AFRICMIL for the initiative. Pointing out that without peace Nigeria cannot develop, he said NOA would continue to collaborate with AFRICMIL in this and other projects that would lead to peace, unity and stability which he said would lead to the country’s development.
