The Deputy President has urged the Nigerian media to help lower political tensions over 2015 general elections by redirecting the attention of the leaders and the political class to service delivery, while also guiding the people to hold their leaders accountable.<\/p>\n
He made the call at an international experience sharing conference on media and elections organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists and the international development partners under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, in Abuja, today.<\/p>\n
Senator Ekweremadu said: \u201cIt is now a little less than two years away from the next general election and politicking and contestations are presently at a feverish pitch; the nation is already caught in the political fireworks of 2015; and governance has taken the backstage because we have turned Nigeria into an election nation in perpetuity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter elections, mandate delivery should follow and those already elected deserve some breathing space to do their work, while the media and the public should hold them accountable to their promises. On the other hand, those elected into offices should also concern themselves less about the next election, knowing that only one good term deserves another.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Deputy President of the Senate who also wondered if the single term for elected executives recommended by the Senate Committee on Constitution Review was jettisoned in a hurry, however, observed that while the politicians were to be held responsible for overheating the system, the members of the media should also ask themselves if they had done enough to temper the political trepidation over 2015 general election.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAs agenda setters to chart the trajectory of national discuss to those key governance issues that affect the lives of the ordinary Nigerians; the media should not play into the hands of those bent on making political hostages out of the nation and her people.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge members of the media to turn down the volume on the 2015 election.<\/p>\n
It is too loud, and it is unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Senator Ekweremadu also called on the media to be less partisan in reporting electoral and election matters as the media could not afford to be polarized along party, ethnic, religious, and other lines in the interest of the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwnership notwithstanding, I believe the media is one critical sector where he who pays the piper should not dictate the tune- at least on editorial matters\u201d, he emphasised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Deputy President has urged the Nigerian media to help lower political tensions over 2015 general elections by redirecting the attention of the leaders and the political class to service…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n