Experts faults Media, Regulatory Bodies for Negative communication during Campaigns
Media and regulatory bodies have been blamed for not doing enough in terms of sanctions in averting the kind of negative communication that trailed the campaign in the run up to the February 25, presidential and legislative elections.
This was the conclusion at the third series of special virtual engagement on the 2023 presidential election campaigns with the theme: “Assessing the management and results of the 2023 presidential election campaign” jointly organised by Prime Business, Consortium of Nigerian Communication Experts, TNG and The News Guru.
The virtual event was moderated by the Director of Prime Business Africa (PBA), Marcel Mbamalu and Executive Director, Institute of Strategic and Development Communication at Nasarawa State University, Keffi and the Chairman, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) Education Advisory Board, Prof. Emmanuel Danduara.
The speakers which cut across advertising, the media, regulatory bodies, and the academia spoke about the communication that went into the campaigns, how effective and not so effective they were and concluded that the social media, were either not used properly, underused or not used effectively for positive impacts.
They noted that the regulatory bodies did not do much in promoting positive communication, adding that prior to the election and post election, the management of the ensuing crisis actually altered standards to be used and came up with wrong communication paths that marked up the country’s fault lines, ethnicity, religion and personality as evidenced in the messaging where personalities were attacked rather than issues based campaign.
The experts aside from blaming the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) poor communication for some of the problems post-elections also blamed the media for not doing well in averting this kind of negative communication witnessed prior to the elections.
The experts, also noted there was no liberal space for outdoor advertising, whereby some states governors, and some leaders, did not allow opposition to pass across their messages. They also noted that most of the negative messages didn’t really go through approvals and called on regulatory body like the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) to ensure that does not happen in future.
The experts also noted the impact of the usage of social media on the electorates, stressing that no matter how much they try to contain things in the traditional media space, they are being overwhelmed by what’s happening in the new media, because there’s no measure of control.
The experts agreed to to invite the INEC and National Orientation Agency to be part of the fourth discourse, “because they have a lot to do in trying to change this narrative”, the concluded.
They recommended in a communique issued that: “political parties should appoint spokespersons who are experienced communication professionals, and as much as possible, should use only duly registered Nigerian advertising and public relations agencies.
“INEC’s communication must improve its capacity to provide adequate public enlightenment and education on voting procedures to avoid such calamitous failures in future elections.
“INEC and the other information and communication organs of government, especially the National Orientation Agency (NOA) must collaborate closely and be guided by the public interest.
“The regulation of election campaign advertising must be sustained and the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), as both a government agency and a body created to propagate the ethical conduct of advertising, should be fully empowered to discharge its functions.
“Greater use of communication professionals in all aspects of election campaigns is necessary for the attainment of desirable communication results in elections and subsequently in governance.”
Earlier, forum’s convener, Professor Charles Okigbo, a United States based Nigerian born academic and former Registrar of Nigerian Institute of Public Relations noted that the reason it’s easy to attack individual communication organisations like the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Nigeria Guild of Editors, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) is because they often work alone individually.
“Can you imagine if you have 25 even up to 30 different communication organizations bandied together on specific issues. It could be issues of the economy, issues relating to Central Bank of Nigeria operations, issues of the curriculum of communication education in universities or polytechnics. Can you imagine all of us bandied together and taking a stand, who can stand against us? Who can withstand our onslaught?
“This is one of the ideas that we are thinking that it’s about time that we establish a consortium of Nigerian communication experts and that is what we have done.
“We brought together members of African Council for Communication Education (ACCE), Association of Communication Scholars & Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN), Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
“So if we have all those organisations represented, it wouldn’t be difficult for us to agree on specific lines of direction that will bring everyone’s interests on the table. And that is the idea for what we are doing.
“The unfolding elections today in Nigeria provides us with a beautiful platform for concretizing some of these ideas. And that is the essence of our establishing nine different research teams that are looking at the different aspect of these elections and coming up with their findings.
On his part, the series chairman, a diplomat, and former Nigeria’s Principal Representative to ECOWAS, Aminu Wisdom, described the discuss as a “every important assignment.”He added: “We all have seen the election both well informed and misinformation. It is important for us to align ourselves carefully to do what we can to monitor the professionals on the field, who are the key and the anchor of the main campaign. We all saw what has happened, it’s in the public domain. I appreciate the fact that we are hearing from you to enrich our understanding and provide us with the road map from the pile of the past and prepare us for the next elections.”
