By Chinyere Okoroafor and Zainab Olanrewaju
The Chief Executive Officer of Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), Motunrayo Alaka, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the 50-50 gender balance in the appointment of his cabinet members.
Alaka spoke at the maiden ReporterHer Award organised by Women Radio 91.7 FM in partnership with WSCIJ and sponsored by UN Women and Canadian Government, at the weekend in Lagos.
ReportHer Awards acknowledges gender-balanced reportage and celebrates media organisations and journalists who give prime time/space to women as their male counterparts.
The WSCIJ boss noted that gender balancing in appointments would put Nigeria on the global map as a gender-sensitive nation.
To Founding Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the media organisations need have a 50-50 gender reporting agenda.
Also, the CEO of Women Radio, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya, said the awards focused on recognising the collective and deliberate efforts of the media to change female narrative, alter stereotypes, and close gender imbalances “as Nigeria is experiencing more visibility and reportage of women”.
She said though Nigeria still has a male-dominated media industry with decision-makers and editors being men, “we are witnessing an increase in media visibility on female-centric issues”.
Mrs. Okewale-Sonaiya hailed the Nigerian media for what she called a deliberate and intentional commitment to gender-sensitive reporting.
The Director of the MacArthur Foundation’s Nigeria office in Abuja, Kole Shettima, said the foundation was committed to gender inclusion and the media industry.
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He added that they support not less than 60 media organisations in Nigeria that promote gender inclusivity.
Also, the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Balarabe Ilelah, said the commission was at the forefront of protecting the dignity of women, as provided for in various places in the Nigeria broadcasting code, particularly Section 310.
“We believe women must be empowered to be a part of all decisions and developmental processes of our dear nation.
“For the awardees, this should boost you to do more, give more, and contribute more. There is still more to do in the area of affirmative action, forced labour, problems that are almost everywhere in the country: rape, girl-child abuse and many more.”
One of the judges for the awards, who is also the Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Lanre Arogundade, said the centre received 109 entries from which it selected the best.
The former Chairman of the Lagos Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the awards looked at the social responsibility and impact of gender stories that have been reported.
He said the centre set some assessment perimeters, including the essence of using women as sources for reports and the 50-50 representation of men and women in the stories.
Arogundade added that the assessors examined “the extent to which the story uses data, cite sources and looked at presentation and effectiveness and the extent to which media institutions that submitted their entries, and journalists meet the professional standards portraying women”.
Other judges for the awards are: Chinonso Clark (CEO, Lead for Good Africa), Hamzat Lawal (CEO of Connected Development), and Ene Ede (Publisher of The Woman Today).
The Voice of Nigeria (VON) won the radio category; Blueprint won the print category; Arise News TV won the Television category; Tech Cabal won the digital category, while Premium Times Senior Multimedia Reporter and Gender Advocate, Titilope Fadare, won the Journalist Best Women Reporter of the Year.