NGO Advocates Continuous Electoral Engagement For Nigeria’s Democratic Growth

As the 2023 General Election in Nigeria draws near, a non for profit organisation, Search For Common Ground, has called for non-stop dialogue on issues affecting democratic growth in Nigeria.

The National Media Manager of the group, Temisan Etietsola made the call on Thursday, at the end of a four day workshop, tagged “Sustaining Electoral Engagement For Democracy” (SEED), organized for media stakeholders in Osun state.

Etietsola said hate speech, fake news, illiteracy, exclusivity and violence were some of the issues militating against democratic growth in Nigeria.

He said tension generated by those factors were not good for democratic growth and could lead to further violence with people picking sides.

He noted that conflict situations arising from electoral activities would be better managed if they were tackled, using the Common Ground Approach.

According to him, the Common Ground Approach emphasizses commonalities as against differences between groups for the purpose of making them live and work together in peace.

He also said that democracy in the country would post an all round growth if all stakeholders were continuously engaged to collaborate for greater effectiveness.

His words: “People, especially journalists who have the mandate to report situations and inform the people must themselves learn to transform conflicts.

“It is their duty to de-escalate any tensed up situation by being responsible in their reportage. And they will be able to do this better when they have a deep understanding of their role in the society, the root causes of the conflicts they are reporting and the obstacles there are to collaboration.”

Also speaking, the Project Media Coordinator, Perry Tukuwei, urged journalists to be purposeful in rejecting hate speech and writing as they could lead to instability in a multi-ethnic country like Nigeria.

He also enjoined them to stick to the values that hold up the journalism profession: truth, accuracy, objectivity and responsibility.

Nnenna.O