President of Journalists for Christ (JFC) Lekan Otufodunrin has urged the government to be proactive in addressing issues that can lead more people to become internally displaced.
Otufodunrin, represented by his vice, Ugonma Cokey, spoke during a visit to Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation, SportingLife, and Gbelegbo, in Lagos.
He said findings from JFC’s new series: ‘Silent cries’, focusing on internally displaced persons (IDPs), informed his advice to the government.
The team, including Project Officer, Dayo Emmanuel, and Pastor David Alabi, noted that the project, supported by World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), and Bread for the World (Brot), involved IDPs telling their stories themselves.
“People become IDPs for no fault of theirs just as former President Goodluck Jonathan has also been displaced from his country home owing to flood.
“The media is in a position to tell the stories in a way that the government prevents more of these ugly occurrences and not act when we are overwhelmed by the issues,” he said.
Explaining what birthed the third edition, he said: “Media monitoring before embarking on the project showed IDP-related stories were not told enough.
“Twenty journalists were selected from a pitching exercise, and offered grants to write stories properly capturing accounts of the IDPs.”
JFC noted that ‘Silent cries’ serves to show journalists how to do better IDP-related stories, and encourage more journalists to focus on the subject.
The team encouraged Christians in The Nation to be vibrant members for onboarding on similar projects.
News Editor (Daily), Mr Bunmi Ogunmodede, hailed JFC for focusing on “people that are almost forgotten.”
Ogunmodede promised the paper would help amplify the project to the authorities.
Mr. Sunday Oguntola, Online Editor, said the organisation would consider republishing some of the stories.
He said they would partner JFC on laudable causes.