Yau stated this while presenting a paper titled: Contemporary Conflicts in Nigeria and Possible Impact on Media Coverage of 2019 Elections, during a workshop for online Journalists/Bloggers on Conflict Sensitive Reporting, held in Abuja.
He said, “The Boko Haram conflict has preceded three presidents. Yar’adua saw its infancy while Jonathan was in power when it blossomed. By the time Buhari came, it had occupied a landmass greater than South-East Zone of Nigeria.
“It was a campaign issue which generated toxic hate speech in 2015, but as a campaign issue, it had two utility uses, one for the ruling party and the other for the opposition.
“For the ruling party, it was a cash-cow as money purportedly meant to buy weapons to fight the insurgency became the arsenal for the re-election campaign of Goodluck.
“On the other hand for the then opposition party, the APC, the insurgency was a demonstration of the failure and incompetence of the government.
According to him, as the 2019 polls draw nearer, a similar scenario is being played out as the ruling party (APC) is also using state funds meant for the North-East to fund their campaigns, and the now major opposition, the PDP is accusing of the failure to tackle the security challenges.
The Executive Director added that the opposition is saying Boko Haram is far from being defeated, that the present administration has failed in ensuring the return of the remaining Chibok Girls, and the securing of the release of Leah Sharibu, among others.
He maintained that the implication of reporting the aforementioned by journalists may be regarded as acting as collaborators of opposition and may face a threat to their liberty.
Also speaking, Dr Ruqayyah Yusuf Aliyu, who presented a paper titled: Understanding Conflict, Its Nature and Character; said ” Conflict is inevitable, it can be positive and constructive on one hand and negative and destructive on the other hand, depending on its cause and management, saying “equity and justice help in a great measure in preventing, curtailing and resolving conflict.”
Aliyu who is a lecturer in the Department of Information and Media Studies, Bayero University Kano, maintained that, “Online reporters can contribute to curtailing conflict by avoiding hate speech and fake news, among other roles”.
Earlier in his welcome address, Director, International Press Centre (IPC), Mr. Lanre Arogundade, said, “This training is deemed necessary because the online environment now occupies a very central place in media operations.
“First, it has offered a converging point for all the traditional and conventional media – The Radio, Television and the Print such that we now speak of media convergence.
“Second, it has offered a very broad spectrum of information and dissemination as well as access to the media by millions if not billions of internet users be they as individuals or groups.
“Third, Nigeria has a large population of internet users, and as a result, there is a rapid increase in the number of journalists offering to practice online to reach this internet or online population.
Arogudade explained that, “What all this means is that we simply cannot ignore what goes on online in the name of journalism especially against the background of growing perception that online media and social media platforms are the major harbingers of hate speech and stokers of inciting flames”, he explained.
“Perception aside, there is also some evidence that hate speech actually flourishes in the online environment.
Participants were drawn from the South-East, South-South, Northern part of the country and the FCT.
