Stakeholders Charge Journalists, CSOs On Use Of Technology For Peace-building

 Media professionals and civil society organisations have been urged to utilize technology for peace-building and tackling criminality and violence in the Niger Delta.

Niger Delta Country Director of Search For Common Ground, Mr. Yacinthe Agbajadan, made the call at a three-day training programme funded by the European Union, and held in Port Harcourt, recently.

The programme was organised by Search for Common Ground, in conjunction with Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), the Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), the Academic Associate Peace Works (AAPW) in 66 communities and 33 local governments in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers.

The training workshop brought together 25 participants from various civil society organisations, media workers and youth groups from across the State.

Speaking during the programme, Agbajadan stated that the training programme aimed at equipping participants with necessary skills to effectively communicate and disseminate information on peace-building efforts in the region.

“Conflict contents and misinformation on digital space could lead to more conflicts, thus, the need for journalists and CSOs to promote peace on the digital space and this cannot be over emphasized as long as the digital space is concerned.

“So, the digital space is a platform capable of providing participants with comprehensive knowledge on how to critically access, analyze and galvanize digital tools to promote contents that would help to reduce conflict and create a community-centered peace mechanism,” Agbajadan said.

Also speaking, representatives from the organising partners, Mr Sunny Dada, Mr Nelson Aso and Ms Afolashade Seye-Ojo, emphasized the importance of digital media literacy in shifting the narrative of the Niger Delta from one that is of violence and criminality to that of peace and development.

The organisers expressed their commitment towards capacity building for local actors in the region, while reiterating their commitment to supporting the participants in implementing the skills and knowledge acquired during the training in their respective communities.

Some of the participants who spoke to The Tide after the training programme, expressed their gratitude to the organisers and acknowledged the relevance of the programme in their efforts to promote peace and security in the Niger Delta region.

They promised to make good use of the knowledge acquired, noting that if media professionals and CSOs become more involved in seeking peace-building and unity in the society, the aim of the training in combating criminality in the social space will be achieved.

The training programme focused on the use of digital media tools and platforms to amplify peacebuilding efforts and counter the narratives of criminality and violence in the region; the ethical considerations in digital peace-building, and the importance of digital fact-checking tools and verification of information before dissemination, among others..