ONE of the critical tasks of the media is to watchdog the society, especially those charged with the responsibility of governance. And if any community is not getting its priority right, leadership is often said to be the problem. But where leaders tend to be careless about those they are leading, the media as one of the agents of society is expected to provide that check.

Nigeria is a country blessed with enormous wealth and resources, natural or human. Yet, it has not been used to better the lots of its average citizens. This, to some, is a product of impunity tendencies among those who called themselves leaders in various strata of the society.

To check the trend of impunity, a body, Stop Impunity in Nigeria, (SIN) has emerged to campaign against all impunity tendencies within the nation. To make the campaign a success, the group, which is formed by some non-governmental organisations, is collaborating with some institutions and the media.

And to help media practitioners understand and renew its commitment to spotlight issues of impunity, SIN organised a one-day training for some journalists in Asaba, Delta State recently.

According to the organizers, the campaign is borne out of a realization that Nigeria’s development challenges are in a large measure the direct result of a culture of impunity, which has gradually taken root in all sectors of the society over several decades.

It is argued that impunity has continued to fuel corruption by both government officials and ordinary citizens while diminishing the capacity of the government to govern.

At the training, various issues were looked at. The Executive Director, Community Life Project (CLP), Ngozi Iwere gave the opening remarks explaining the reasons the SIN campaign is important. Thereafter, the Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr. Edetaen Ojo interacted with the participants on their expectations. Iwere took the floor again and she spoke on understanding impunity.  The MRA boss was then invited again to speak on responsibility of media to cover cases and issues of impunity; why the media is a critical tool in combating impunity and the obstacles to effective coverage of impunity and strategies for overcoming them.

Each of the presentations by the facilitators was interactive. In her paper, Iwere gave the different definitions of impunity by scholars. She related the different definitions to daily life issues including spotlighting key words present in all the definitions. She disclosed that in implementing the campaign, five key strategies of training, research, media campaign, advocacy and documentation, would be deployed.

“Although impunity has become pervasive and entrenched in Nigeria, the campaign seeks to focus on four critical thematic areas, namely public finance management, rule of law, electoral process and patriotism, ethics and civil responsibility, by highlighting instances of impunity and its consequences in each of these areas.”

Ojo, speaking on why it is the media’s business to cover cases and issues of impunity, said that the media has the social and legal responsibilities to do that.  According to him, the responsibilities can be drawn from three sources; the social responsibility theory of the media, the 1999 constitution and international instruments. It has a duty or obligation to devote time and space to the articulation of the relevant issues as part of its social and legal responsibilities of informing and educating members of the public.

“The media has certain social responsibilities to society. For this reason, the media enjoys special protection under the Constitution, as well as under various regional and international human rights instruments. These instruments provide guarantees of media freedom and freedom of expression to media practitioners and media organizations. “The protection and guarantees derive from the recognition that the media play a special role in society with their responsibility to inform, to entertain and to educate members of the public. “In order words, because the media serve a public interest function, society needs to protect them to ensure that they are able to continue to function effectively without hindrance.

“Since the media enjoy special protection in recognition of their public interest function, it follows that for them to continue to claim and enjoy such protection, they must continue to perform this public service. The media can best perform this public service by championing the interests of the larger public and the entire society.”

He also noted that Article 12 of the Code of Ethics for Nigerian journalists also commit media professionals to demonstrate ‘social responsibility’. On how the 1999 constitution empowers the media to check impunity, he quoted copiously sections of the constitution that authorize the media.

“Over 50 years ago, the UN Economic and Social Council, at its 29th Session, adopted a declaration wherein it outlined the role of the media of information in society.

“In its Resolution 756 of 21 April 1960, the UN Economic and Social Council declared that the “Media of information should be employed in the service of the people…

“Subsequent international instruments have built on this important role of the media in the service of humanity in many spheres of life, including in the areas of corruption, good governance, development, human rights, among others.

“In the light of these, does anyone have any doubt that, as media professionals and practitioners, we have a responsibility to expose corruption, cases of impunity, abuses of human rights, violations of the rule of law?”

Arguing that there is no single institution, agency, or sector of the society that can successfully combat impunity on its own, Ojo said this is why it must be a collective effort. He however noted that the media is critical because it’s the tool in the process for the entire society to be involved in the campaign against impunity, apart from the citizens must be aware of what impunity is as well as how it affects their social lives and economic well-being, they must be mobilized to act against impunity or insist that action be taken against impunity.

And the media is a good tool to keep the people abreast about issues and mobilize the citizens for actions to be taken against impunity. “The media is an important tool for combating a lot of social ills, including impunity. The media has the greatest capacity to reach masses of people and provide them with reliable information about all manner of issues. Media channels are more effective than other avenues in getting reliable information into the social system quickly. They are the fastest means of disseminating reliable information to a large number of people.”

He also stated that the media is a critical tool because it has the power to set agenda for public policy makers and influence and shape public opinion.

“The media can be used to influence government decisions and policies on a wide variety of issues. The media can also force government to take action on a wide variety of matters.

“These include economic, social, political, cultural and other matters. In this way, the media sets agendas for policy-makers.

“As a result of its great capacity to reach mass of people, when used strategically, media can very easily be used to influence the thought processes and opinions of the people.

“By setting the agenda and mobilizing public opinion around it, the media can force the government or policy makers to put in place appropriate policies and measures required to combat impunity effectively.

“People who engage in acts of impunity fear exposure, especially when there are sanctions mechanisms that can be applied against them. They will only do it if they believe they can get away with it. But through investigative and other forms of journalism, the media can expose impunity, consistently focus the searchlight on cases of impunity and ensure that action is taken.”

He stated that if the media consistently exposes impunity and ensures that action is taken, then people would begin to realize that they will be exposed and that they can no longer get away with breaking the law.

The project, Stop Impunity Nigeria is a collaborative campaign initiated by four civil society organizations; Human Development Initiatives, Media Rights Agenda, Community Life Project and the Centre for Social Justice.

Meanwhile, the body has expressed “serious concern” about the controversy generated by the election of the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), which took place recently.

In a statement in Lagos, the Campaign said it was a matter of great concern to it and other Nigerians that the loser in the election into the position of Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and his supporters have chosen not to accept the outcome of the elections simply because they lost and have opted to throw the entire country into crisis by spurious claims.

The campaign coordinator, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, of Human Development Initiatives (HDI) in Lagos, said: “The decision of the NGF to hold the elections in secret in the first place was itself indicative of a lack of commitment by the governors to the principles of transparency in electoral processes with the result that the secrecy in the process contributed largely to the initial uncertainty over its outcome, which then triggered the controversy.”

It was argued that with the unintended public enlightenment about the process which has come about as a result of the video clip recorded on a mobile phone which is now making the rounds on social media, it is clear that contrary to the claims of some members of the Governors’ Forum that the process was inconclusive, a vote was taken and the ballots fully counted with a winner announced.

According to the Campaign, such apparent impunity on part of senior political leaders and government officials of the stature of governors in the context of an election within a body of only 36 members is a tragic indicator of the enormous challenge that the country continues to face in its electoral processes generally but more particularly in the forthcoming elections in 2015.

Owasanoye noted that with the attitude being witnessed on the part of some of the political leaders over such a small election, serious danger lies ahead for the nation over the bigger national elections of 2015 where we may likely see higher levels of desperation to manipulate the process because the stakes are higher.

The Campaign also observed that there is widespread suspicion that the NGF elections were being manipulated by external forces with vested interest in the leadership of the Forum.

It said while such suspicion is difficult to confirm or disprove, the actions and utterances of some of the Governors had done little to allay such fears, adding that the perception, whether real or otherwise, is unhelpful to public confidence in the democratic process, particularly in the notion of elections as a credible mechanism for the emergence of leaders.

To the group, the rampant impunity in the Nigerian society has been brought about by such attitudes and activities of a minority of very powerful but anti-social citizens and their collaborators who remain determined to disregard values, processes and rules in their quest to ensure that they get their way all the time. Such politically influential minority, it said, set negative examples for budding youth politicians who are likely to escalate impunity to higher degrees if they ever get the opportunity.

According to Owasanoye, “such negative minority will persist and prevail only if other citizens are unwilling or afraid to speak up and speak the truth about the damage that their actions and utterances do to the society and the country.”

The body therefore called on all Nigerians to roundly condemn the blatant act of impunity on the part of those governors seeking to undermine the outcome of the NGF elections and throw the country into crises, regardless of who their supporters and sponsors may be.

It also called on the governors themselves to retrace their steps, make public commitments to uphold the integrity of electoral processes at different levels and take other urgent steps to restore public confidence in the electoral processes.