Opinion
Rural Areas And Media Coverage
The basic objective of the media is to inform, educate and entertain the audience popularly known as the readers. This equally denotes that the media play the role of bridging the communication gap between the government and the governed as well as make people participate actively in government programmes and activities at the federal, state and local government levels.
The laudable intentions of the government and the activities of the people cannot be achieved without efficient and effective coverage by the media. It has been observed that the media do not give adequate coverage to the rural areas of this country, a situation that is posing difficult challenges to the complex society.
An observation by a university lecturer, Professor Nkereuigem Udoakah of the University of Port Harcourt that rural areas in Nigeria are not given enough coverage by the media goes a long way to confirm this.
Really he said: “the way our rural areas are reported calls for concern as they are seen as good for nothing for the media”.
There is comparative news worthy events and programmes in the rural areas that should make Nigerian journalists and their organizations re-examine their attitudes towards rural coverage.
To communicate basically means to share ideas, information, opinion, feelings or experiences between people and the media to establish a common ground with people or groups at all levels of the society. This makes them the official watchdog of the society. The common ground must be established between both the rural and urban people involved in any communication processes and in the activities and programmes of government.
Based on this phenomenon, the media and its practitioners must re-assess the values which inform them that there is no news in the rural areas or that there is no market for rural news. Nigerians’ rural condition is a newsworthy phenomenon which developmental journalism must focus on.
The poor living condition of the rural dwellers in terms of development and neglect call for serious concern among journalists in the country.
A cursory look at the way and manner Nigerian media perceive rural news shows that the rural areas are alarmingly neglected in the same manner that the developing nations are treated by the western media. In the past, Nigerian media houses had their reporters or correspondents at the headquarters of every local government and they formed an important link in the newsgathering chain.
The role of these local government correspondents was to feed their head offices with news from distant localities, supplying the newsrooms with stories from the local government areas. In the political structure which the country is currently operating, there is a progressive movement of development efforts towards the grassroots. In this instance, the rural dwellers need journalists that would communicate their feelings and wishes to the government at the centre. But unfortunately, difficult, slow and sometimes frustrating as it is, the local government areas, as centres of development, are not recognised as important in the information flow system.
The Tide and other regional newspapers, for example, as government media, have a critical role to play in this regard by carrying news and information from the hinterland to the core of the state structure. The local government correspondents are the lynchpin in this news flow and they play more significant roles than is usually realized. This is a serious issue that must be looked into.
Nigerian journalists are stationed at the state capitals and some local government headquarters rated as economically and politically important. This development does not speak well for journalism practice in a developing country as Nigeria. Journalism should not be made essentially an urban affair and the rural areas should not only be heard in the news unless there is something done by the government. The social, cultural and political problems of the rural areas can be analytically or persuasively expressed through write-ups in newspapers, radio and television programmes.
The Nigerian media must develop a knowledge and recognition of the rural people through news, articles and features writing which would enhance the confidence, trust and cooperation needed for all sorts of development journalism. The rural dwellers are prepared to patronize or consume media products if they see what to derive from it.
By giving the rural areas the coverage or reportage they deserve, the Nigerian media would fully achieve its set objectives of information, educating, entertaining, persuading, motivating and scanning the environment, and satisfy their information needs.
Also by so doing, the journalist would have fulfilled his obligation to his audience or readers who are keen to patronise him. The media in terms of coverage should not limit to selectively chosen audience or beliefs but must develop as many appropriate channels through which their products, innovation or material can be distributed.
Media organizations should begin to see the proper and effective coverage of the rural areas as a priority, considering the fact that the majority of Nigerians are rural dwellers who need to be heard by the government and the ruling class. They require the considerations of the politicians they voted into power after campaigns to take appropriate actions to address their problems.
So, it has become imperative for media planners and practitioners to embark on modalities to identify and provide what the media consumers at the grassroots require or deserve to retain and boost their patronage.
Shedie Okpara
Quote:”Communities have rights to peace, safety, and quality of life. Noise pollution, crowds, or other impacts from religious activities can affect these rights. Balancing these interests requires consideration and dialogue”.
“All work and no play”, its said, “makes Jack a dull boy.” Despite this age-long maxim that recognises the role of play in early childhood development, play appears to be eluding many Nigerian kids. The deprivation of play opportunities comes in different forms for the Nigerian child depending on family’s social setting or status, but the effect is much the same. For children in Nigerian poor families, life is becoming as much a hassle as it is for their struggling parents. Due to harsh economic conditions, many families resort to engaging their kids prematurely in trading activities especially in hawking, to help boost family revenues, when these kids should be enjoying leisure after school. Some of these children barely attend schools while being forced to spend much of their childhood hustling in the streets. For children from well-off families, time could be as crunchy as it is for their busy parents when, obsessed with setting agenda for the future of their kids, parents arrange stringent educational regiment too early for their kids.
These group of children are made to get-off the bed by 5.30am every weekday, get ready for private school buses that call at 6.00am, otherwise report by however means to school at 7.20am.The situation is worse for kids in the city of Lagos where the need to beat urban traffic rush-hours is very high. Most children are further subjected to extra hours of lessons after school at 2.00pm, only to be released with loads of homework. On many occasions children who leave home for school at 6.30am get back by 3.30pm. With hardly enough time to eat, do school assignments and take afternoon naps, these children hardly had time for plays before dinners. In Nigeria, kids of ages between 3 and 12 spend averages of 9 hours a day and 45 hours a week to and from schools, and additional hours doing home assignments and domestic jobs, whereas their peers in developed countries spend about half that duration and have more time for leisure.
Any remaining spare time left after school work or street hustle is further stolen, when kids who usually are fascinated by gadgets, are exposed to household electronics like phones, tablets and gaming consoles. Electronic games may create a sense of leisure, but the difference with human interactions is that kids doing games interface mostly with machines or with programme structured in ways that entrap a child’s pysch directionally, according to the game’s programming, in ways that may not encourage independent thinking. Moreso, attraction to such gadgets displaces kids’ attention from important television and radio programmes. The prevalent tight, academic schedules for some Nigerian kids, though intended for academic excellence, encroaches on childhood leisure time needed to achieve an all-round childhood development, and could make children to resent formal education altogether. Besides, academic excellence or economic pursuit, is not all there is to living a well-nurtured life.
Children’s leisure time, defined as time left over after sleeping, eating, personal hygiene and attending school or day-care, is very crucial to childhood development. Sociologists recommend that children should have at least 40 per ceny of the day as leisure. According to Berry Brazelton, a former pediatrician at Harvard Medical School, “Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about him or herself.” Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to negotiate their relationships with their peers, and in the process build self-confidence and self-control. Play is one of the important ways in which young children gain essential knowledge and skills. Leisure time enhances learning as fun enables children to learn at their own level and pace. Young children naturally explore and learn many skills by making cognitive connections from events that catch their attention.
Unstructured plays help children developed their cognitive, physical and communication skills that make them acquire social qualities necessary in navigating relationships in adult life. Plays enable children assess how others feel and learn perspectives as well as empathy through observing differences in facial expressions, body language and even tone of voice, which helps them copy how to express themselves to others, and therefore develop socially acceptable behavours that build relationships. In cooperative activities, children willingly take things in turn and may delegate roles. Children can also share the glory of winnings through competitive games, which is all great for working together in task sharing. Aside encouraging parents to ensure adequate leisure time for their kids at home, schools should make plays and exercises an integral part of the educational curriculum. The educational curriculum set by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) includes specific training durations and break periods, as well as sporting activities, as part of the school system.
Due to poor government funding, sports in public schools have declined, while most private schools lack sporting infrastructure or even play grounds. These make recreational activities and sports implementation almost impossible in schools. Also, the increasing rate of urbanisation in Nigerian communities is gradually eroding ancient playgrounds, while established urban centres have lost community playgrounds. With tightening apartment spaces now being the norm in most urban residential areas, many kids are forced to wriggle within burglary-proof enclosures. Nigerian governments and the relevant agencies should ensure that existing child labour protection laws, educational and urban development codes are implemented in the country, to enable proper nurturing of children as the future stakeholders of our society. Private schools, especially, should be supervised to ensure they follow the educational curriculum standards set by NERDC.
In a bid to impress parents and draw more patronage as better option than public schools, private schools, most of whom operate in cramped environments, have continued to set high regiments of training schedules beyond the capacity of most kids, and even encourage enrollment of pre-school age kids who can not sit still to listen for an extended periods of time. Schools, from creche to secondary levels, without playgrounds and recreational facilities should not be allowed to operate, and should be made to understand and implement appropriate curriculum and training durations. Many Nigerian kids, whether from rich or poor families, appear to have been set-up inadvertently, in the same leisure denial that affects their parents. All work and no play could lead to some messed-up kids who grow up not understanding social cues, and being unemotional and self-centered, manifest later as obsessive-compulsive adults.
By: Joseph Nwankwo
We thank God who is above all human contrivance and arrogance. Congratulations, Your Excellency Amaopusenibo Sir Siminalayi Joseph Fubara. Your victory takes us back to the Bible as a living document of a God that rules in the affairs of all His creation. In a manner of speaking, welcome back from your first war with Phillistines, Your Excellency! Yes, first example is David and Goliath! And like David, Your Excellency stands over Goliath in victory. But that is not enough. Our real enemy is that Your Excellency is Governor of a State with a wretched economy. Indigenes of Your State are today reduced to battalions of beggars waiting for who will hire their loyalty on the usual “pay-as-you-go” basis.
Your Excellency, it brings us to another Bible- based parallel. Conscientious Rivers indigenes above 50, should identify with and commit our all to this second parallel. It is to liberate the economy and people of Rivers people from 23 years enslavement and poverty, for us to regain our dignity and pride. When the economy of Egypt was drifting into a disaster zone, even Pharaoh did not know it. He also did not know what to do. But God sent a Joseph to build the economy into a fortress of good fortune that overcame the economic and social disaster Egypt did not know was ahead. Your Excellency for 23 years, Rivers State has been ruled without any logical, credible and consistent PLAN of how to overcome mass poverty from our dehydrated local economies.
Your Excellency, Rivers State cannot survive one month without Federal allocation! So called IGR only about 10 per cent of Federal allocation.It is also not based on what we produce but on tax from other people’s productivity that pass through our State. Pharaoh did not know what to do in the case of Egypt. May it please God to position another Joseph in Governor Siminalayi Joseph Fubara to heal Rivers State and build an economy that all Africa will come to access in order to chart a new course out of worsening economic hardship that is caused by near zero investment in productivity and endemic reckless looting. They are the twin chambers nursing a corporate cancer unfolding across Nigeria and Africa. The hard work begins today, Your Excellency.
We need an economic blueprint that will enrich every Rivers senatorial district from investment to grow productivity and to enrich every Rivers person from career-based productive labour, just as Pharaoh was enriched by Joseph’s economic Blueprint. Let Rivers State stop the trend of waiting the lives of young Rivers people recruited by Phillistines into cultism, thuggery and easy money, as a career. These Phillistines believe they have only lost one phase of many legal battles and battles by other means. But from comments in the public media, their eyes are fixed on 4-years of war and more! Your Excellency, we the people will not let you forget what you owe us. We have to make unbelievers see that your leadership is different and that we are uprooting the old order of an unproductive Feudal System. That system makes a few persons and their cronies to monopolise our collective wealth, while the majority are left in misery. Let’s put an end to enslavement by cabals and mass poverty in Rivers State. That is when the Phillistines will surrender.
By: Amaopusenibo Brown