L-R: Executive Director of IMS, Dr Akingbulu, Founder and CEO of Albino Foundation, Mr Jake Epelle, Executive Director of IPC, M Lanre Arogubdade and Malam Danlami Basharu, Director, Anglo-Nigeria Welfare Association for the Blind, all of whom were discussants at the Webinar
By Ayo Kehinde
The role of the journalist and the media in speeding inclusiveness of People With Disabilities, PWDs in the electoral process in Nigeria dominated discussions at a webinar organized by the Institute for Media and Society, IMS, in collaboration with The Albino Foundation, TAF, and the International Centre, IPC, on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.
The virtual seminar which was themed; Focusing Journalism on Catalyzing Disability-Inclusive Electoral Process in Nigeria, drew participants from the media, academia and NGOs.
Organized under the European Union Support To Democratic Governance in Nigeria, Project, EU-SDGN, the seminar had Dr Akin Akingbulu, Executive Director of IMS, Mr Jake Epelle, Founder and CEO of TAF, Mr Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director of IPC, Danlami Basharu, Director, Nigeria Welfare Association for the Blind, as panelists. IMS, TAF and IPC are implementing partners of the EU-SDGN project.
In his welcome remarks, Epelle said the media has a credible role to play in ensuring that PWDs will not only vote but be voted for during polls and urged participants to support the new thinking in this direction by embracing the change in the political slogan from, “free and fair elections,” to “inclusive, free and fair elections.”
For Arogundade, the IPC, in the course of implementing Component 4B of the EU-SDGN, project, which is support to the media (print and online), has held capacity building workshop for journalists on issues of inclusivity and gender sensitive reportage. He expressed satisfaction that the webinar was coming at a period of Constitutional Amendment in the country whereby issues of inclusivity can be well articulated and canvassed for legislative consideration.
Dr Akingbulu in his welcome address, contextualized the webinar as a consolidation of IMS work on marginalized groups considering the many publications and presentation on inclusivism that has been undertaken by the organisation. He said that the Component 4A of the EU-SDGN project, which is support to the media (broadcast), as handled by IMS, also includes a part that deals exclusively with marginalization of disability groups with regards to election.
“Inclusion is a broader initiative. All persons with disability are entitled to all forms of rights in a democratic process and governance. But the reality shows that PDWs are purely ignored in the media in terms of enhancing their voices and their participation in the electoral process. That is why we decided to move the discussion to a higher level by organizing this webinar. One of the outcome of the webinar is to develop a constituency of journalism who will take inclusion as a component of their work and engage PWDs as part of the electoral process.”
Malam Sani Sulieman, a Director of News at the Abuja office of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, who represented the Director General, used the existing relationship between the station and The Albino Foundation on issues of inclusivism to show how the media can set agenda on PWDs.
Radio Nigeria, he said, “ cooperated with Albino Foundation to ensure all their activities are covered and other people with albinism are invited to participate on programmes apart from those sponsored by TAF on our station.”
He urged the media to expand their coverage and reportage on the PWDs beyond election related issues to Constitutional Amendment matters so that the marginalized groups are represented in the democratization process in the country.
Three papers were presented after the opening remarks were taken. They were Salient Disability Gaps in Nigeria’s Electoral Process: Observations From the Field. Epelle handled it. Mainstreaming Disability-inclusivity into Media Agenda at Elections, was done by Arogundade; Dr Akingbulu handled Focusing Journalism on Disability Inclusions: Lessons from International Good Practices, and Basharu spoke on Implementing Media….
Mr Jake Epelle
Drawing from his field experiences, Epelle listed five disability gaps in Nigeria’s electoral process. According to him, they are; inadequate training and transport… material for electoral and adhoc staff of INEC; inaccessibility of electoral materials and venues by PWDs; inadequate reportage of PWDs’ participation before, during and after elections. Others are disability disaggregated data that are not captured at the polling units and the non availability of sign language interpreters at polling and collation centers.
Mr Lanre Arogundade
Arogundade upheld his position that PWDs are citizens in all countries by citing international instruments such as the United Nations Rights on PWDs, which all countries, including Nigeria have ratified and local statutes such as the 1999 Constitution which confers rights on all citizens as well as the country’s Law on Discrimination Against PWDs (Prohibition) Act of 2018.
Though he observed some lacuna in the implementation of some of the laws, he urged journalists to study many of the global and local instruments on inclusion and disability to do robust reports on PWDs.
“For example, we need to be able to study the 2018 Act signed into law by President Buhari to be able to report adequately on PWDs in all spaces,” he said and disclosed that in pursuit of its involvement with inclusivity issues, the IPC produced a Charter of Election for the PWDs with the support of Action Aid Nigeria and the UKAID with inputs from women groups, National Orientation Agency, INEC, Youths, CSOs and media organisations.
He drew that attention of participants to the fact that PWDs are a diverse group including people with albinism, people with leprosy, people with hearing impairment and stated that each group needed to be specially categorized and accommodated in the electoral process.
He called on the media to ensure the voices of PWDs should as a matter of right be heard in their reportage; to provide the platform or open forum for PWDs to participate in the electoral debate; increase the frequency and prominence given to disability in the electoral process; use language of reporting that reckons with sensitivity to PWDs; avoid derogatory report.
Dr Akin Akingbula
International best practices on inclusivism with lessons for Nigeria was the topic handled by Dr Akingbulu, who compared broadcast regulations as its affects PWDs in countries in the European Union such as the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada, Portugal with what obtains in Nigeria.
He contended that though sections in the Nigeria Broadcasting Code including the recent Code 6 in Chapter 3, (38) 1 C, provided that broadcast stations shall ensure that the mentally and physically challenged are not presented in a manner that is embarrassing to them or the public, the media was still wanting in its reportage of the PWDs.
He buttressed his point, thus: “IMS has been involved in some monitoring work over a period of 18 months on electoral reform process in 2019. The work is in various parts. The final report provided information that was valuable. During the 2018-2019 elections in Nigeria, PWDs had 5.2 per cent visibility while other groups had 98 per cent visibility during the period. Report on radio and TV content showed that PWDs were non existent in media coverage during the period.”
To refocus the discussion, he said international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Continental Plane of Action on PWDs , 2019 to 2023 had sections urging the media to protect the interests of PWDs, raise awareness on issues affecting then and combat stereotypes. Other obligations on the media are that audio- visual commercial materials shall not discriminate against people on the basis of age, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity.
“So in the global landscape, there are instruments that provide role the media should paly on PWDs.” He said. “In France, the regulatory body since 2007 has been measuring media diversity annually through a diversity barometer and submit a report to parliament. In Australia, the broadcasting law had been reviewed since 1922 to accommodate new developments such as advent of social media and then mandates all platforms to capture news on PWDs. Similar regulations happen in Canada and Portugal where obligation to take care of PWDs is a condition of the licensing procedure.
Accordingly, international media best practices on PWDs issues had been enhanced by enabling regulations as shown by the BBC, where new content has been created with PWDs characters, and PWDs are given the chance to work on the station’s flagship shows and Chanel 4, which sponsored the best advert campaign advert during the 2016 London paraplegic games with one million pounds.
What Are the Lessons for Nigeria? Akingbulu asked in the course of his discussion.
He answered.
Firstly, engagement on disability inclusion by the media flows well when policy and regulation go together. Secondly, regulation and practice are relevant when they are regularly updated. Thirdly, good, acceptable models are achieved in regulation and practice when stakeholders work together. Fourthly, innovations are constantly emerging in the international scene. Regulations and practices should be alert to developments so they could be regularly updated to be relevant.
In his contribution, Basharu, urged the media to be more proactive than they have been on the coverage and reportage of PWDs. He said the African milieu with its heavy reliance on mystical and religious interpretation of occurrences fuels stereotyping and discrimination against PWDs, who are often seen as outcasts.
He urged the media to get their language right on issues relating to PWDs and called for a change in perception and notions about PWDs. He called for legislation that to eliminate discriminatory policies and regulations in the country.
After a robust question and answer session handled by the moderation, Dr. Oludare Ogunyobo, the participants made the flowing recommendations. That a Journalism Group with bias for issues on PWDs be set up; The teaching of courses on PWDs in relevant departments of tertiary institution should be encouraged so that students get better perspectives of inclusivity issues and become ready advocate after graduation; The media and relevant NGOs should collaborate more and development reporting rather than special beats should be made to handle reports and coverage of PWDs activities.
