IN its 2012 Corruption Perception Index, Transparency International ranked Nigeria as the 35th most corrupt country in the world. This report drew the ire of top government officials in the country who challenged the report and recommended it for the trash bin. In the report, Nigerian score 27 out of a maximum 100 marks to clinch the 139th position out of the 176 countries surveyed for the report. In the 2011 ranking, the country placed 143rd position making it the 37th most corrupt countries. Going by the reports and juxtaposing them with happening in the last 10 months of the year (January to October), one does not need a crystal ball to hazard a guess on the country’s position at the end of the year. Indeed, corruption has assumed the stature of a monster daring anybody to tame it. Corrupt public officials steal tons of cash with impunity and rapacious inclination as if naira is going out of circulation. Despite their promise to fight corruption in Nigeria, successive government have not shown vigour in that direction, such that even the watchdog- Economic and Financial crime Commission (EFCC), lays prostrate and incapacitated by paucity of funds and other extraneous factors. Indeed, to say that corruption undermines democracy, rule of law and by extension national development will be sounding like a broken record. Obviously, this monster cannot escape the searchlight of international agencies, who want to track their grants to various sectors in the country. Buoyed by the enactment of the freedom of information (FOI) Act, these agencies came together to build the capacity of media practitioners as whistle blowers using the potency of the Act. At a two-day workshop on Investigative Reporting and Methodologies for Institutionalizing Transparency and Accountability in the democratic Process, recently in Abuja, organised by the International Press Centre (IPC), in partnership with the United National Development Programme-Democratic Governance for Development UNDP-DGD, the European Union, UK Department for International Development and the Canadian International Development Agency, journalists in some northern states of Nigeria were bought together to discuss importance and relevance of investigative reporting to the performance of the media’s watchdog role. At the workshop it was observed that the investigative reporter is faced with varied challenges, ranging from “inadequate material resources for sustained research or investigation, hostile political environment to non-compliance with legal frameworks that compel the keeping of public documents and access by the public. “Others are poor communication, skills gap, infrastructure deficit and weak ethical standards.” The forum also listed dearth of funds to carry out investigative report, ownership interference, political and business interest, poor attention to welfare of the reporters and the pervasive corruption in the media, which has weakened the foundation of investigative journalism. The fact that the media is increasingly overburdened by lack of accountability and transparency in government especially as one scam tends to follow and overshadow another. The Halliburton contract scam, The Oil subsidy sting, the Farouk Lawan bribery scam, the NIPP venture among others were also highlighted. In his lead presentation, titled, “Situating Media Reporting of Accountability and Transparency in the Context of Democracy and Development: Overview of Strengths and Weaknesses”, Eze Onyekpere said that with the backing of section 22 of the Constitution the media had a responsibility to unravel the opaque dealings and “let the public know about the process, activities, outputs, outcomes and results of government transactions. According to him: “The principle of transparency is crucial to the governance process mandating that information affecting governance should be accurate, true, timely and portray the genuine state of governance operations. The information should be made open to public scrutiny…thus for effective accountability and transparency, modern laws recognise a collaboration among the pillars of integrity –civil society, organisations, the media, legislature among others.” While presenting a paper on The Making of an Investigative Reporter: Best Practices, Practical Guides and Methodologies of Effective Investigative Reporting, Dapo Olorunyomi, said that the inability of the investigative reporter to follow up on evens as they unfold had done a lot of harm to the fight against corruption and the entrenchment of accountability in the polity. According to him: “The (Farouk) Lawan and (Aigboje) Aig- Imoukhuede reports described more acts of corruption and abuse of office page for page than almost any probe report that has leaked in the past. The amount of details in them could make for dozens, if not hundreds of good investigative media stories, court cases and all that.” The Premium Times Publisher said that following up on the subsidy probes was needed to help check the power of the executive, adding that in this case the presidency first abused the subsidy system then essentially policed itself by directing the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes commission) and the Aig-Imoukhuede committee.” He said: “The scam brought organised criminal elements closer to the heart of Nigeria’s legitimate oil sector,” adding, “it was a campaign finance mechanism…and many believe that the scam pushed the federal government closer to fiscal insolvency in the spring and summer of 2012. Now oil theft appears to be doing something similar. Lack of accountability makes it easier for these circles to repeat.” The Executive Director Media Rights Agenda, Edetaen Ojo, in a presentation on Advancing Investigative Reporting Through the Effective Use of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act said, based on the assumption that government and corporate bodies were cagey and habitually do not tell the truth “ or the whole truth and cover up information, the investigative journalist needs to dig below the surface to uncover this information and reveal to the public.” He said that that would enable the reporter to gather information that will help the public to have a full picture of an event or issue and to understand both the event and issues and its implications; how it affects them. According to him, the reporter should “check and verify all the facts, provide the appropriate background and context and interpret and analyse it to reveal its causes, significance and consequences.” Ojo said, “with abundance of curiosity and skepticism, good investigative and analytical skills, data interpretation and the tenacity to follow up and stay on a story information can be obtained especially from unofficial sources and records and documents officially made available to the journalist by those who have custody of the records. In the course of investigation, he said, public records are available to help the reporter to correctly report events that may have escaped public attention at the time they happened, “reveal the full facts of a situation or event which were only partially known and bring facts which were completely unknown previously to light.” Despite the challenges the journalist may face verifying if the records sought actually exists, who has it and how to get hold of the it, Ojo noted that obtaining the records is the most difficult aspect of the job, but with the Freedom of Information Act, it would be easy. According to him the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, have given us the legally enforceable right of access to public records or information. Other laws that can be used to access supposedly “inaccessible” information or records besides the FOI Act, include the Public Procurement Act, 2007, National Archives Act, 1992, Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency (NEITI) Act, 2007. He said that these and FOI Laws are designed essentially as a check against corruption and to hold public authorities accountable to citizen. At the end, it was resolved that though the appropriate legal frameworks are there to be used by the investigative reporter in the execution of his duty, these laws are not adequately utilised or the journalist is compromised due to one issue of the other. On the other hand, is the media overburdened by increasing lack of accountability and transparency in government? One scam follows and overshadows another, a competition on who out-steals each other and a race to the bottom. Or has the media become part of the rot that needs a watchdog to focus on it? It was however, agree that to strengthen the watchdog: “A vastly improved salary scale and working conditions should be put in place for journalists, in particular news mediums should be obliged to cover all expenses incurred by journalists in the course of investigations rather than relying on sources for bribes and payments.” Beside ensuring that the new code of ethics become operational, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and other media stakeholders should continue to act in the defense of press freedom and journalists’ rights; they should in particular explore legitimate means to ensure the prompt payment of wages and provision of insurance and other welfare packages for journalists. “Journalists should take advantage of opportunities offered by grant making foundations, media networks, international development partners, donor agencies etc in support of investigative reporting and, “journalists should utilise the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and other transparency laws to expose corruption and raise the bars of accountability, transparency and good governance in Nigeria.”
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 21:00:47 +0000
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