Media professionals report, but are rarely heard or have their views reported. In this piece, TUNJI AJIBADE, writes on an event that provided reporters and editors with an opportunity to air their views on the state of the nation with regards to security challenges, under the International Literacy Day theme: Literacy For Peace.

Media practitioners were in focus when The Knowledge Exchange Network, KEN, an NGO, marked the International Literacy Day on Sept 8. Speaking at the event that had in attendance media practitioners from the print and electronic media, the Founder of KEN, Mrs Juliet Chukas said this year’s event was specifically targeted at reporters and editors.

According to her, the NGO focuses on different segments of the society, and on this occasion, it was the turn of media practitioners to be heard on topical issues as they affect the country. She added that this year’s theme as stated by UNESCO is relevant to Nigeria and Nigerians because of the present state of security situation in the country.

Issues examined at the event included a definition of the link between literacy and peace; possible differences between being educated and being literate, and the correlation between literacy level of the general population and the literacy level of the leadership of any nation. Participants also discussed the possibility of balancing peace issues in the context of the security challenges confronting the nation side by side with literacy level.

Of interest to the participants were the views of media practitioners, whose views are hardly expressed though they have the responsibility of reporting news and views of others, on how they perceive the nation’s security challenges. In addition, steps that needed to be taken in order to promote literacy and secure peace in the country were also discussed.

Meaning of Literacy and the categories

While making contributions at the interactive-media chat session, the Acting Managing Editor of African Herald Express, Alex Ogbu, described a literate person as one who is able to read printed materials, interpret as well as apply it. In that case, categorizing a person that cannot read in English, but does other indigenous languages as an illiterate raises issues, and it did open up other angles in the discussion on what may be the realistic definition of literacy, and how it contributes or subtracts from peace.

Mallam Hamisu Rogo of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, would state that literacy is an economic issue, in the sense that low level of literacy cannot be totally separated from poverty or lack of opportunities. In that case, people that fall into this category become threats to peace, and it does not matter whether they have formal education or not.

Mr Tunde Alabi went on to posit that formal education is not the only requirement to be considered literate, pointing out that there are some other basic requirements if any individual must consider himself literate. One of these, he said, is the need to continuously improve oneself, learn to be temperate, acquire knowledge which will make him follow the path of peace at all times, learn patience in all things.

The advantage here, he submitted, is that a combination of these will make an individual charismatic among those he has contact with.

Central to the discussion at this event is the role practitioners play in the dissemination of news especially with regards to the current security situation in the country. While some members of the public present at the event contended that the media may share parts of the blame in the manner some of the news coverage on violent occurrences in the countries, media practioners stoutly defended themselves.

The broadcast media, for instance, stated that a lot of news management actually takes place although the media is still criticized in spite of its efforts. Many of them who have covered events of violent nature shared their experiences of what they came up against at the scenes bomb explosions, riots, or accidents, for instance.

Careful management of the scenes caught on TV cameras, they said, have helped to avert negative reactions that can further threaten the peace. No reporter or editor will add or remove, but in order to maintain the peace, reportage that can lead to more violence are regularly toned down.

Others would point out the centrality of censorship in the print media, and the extent to which ownership plays influences what is reported and what is not, as well the known need to manage news reports of occurrences that have religious, tribal or political implications and can potentially threaten the peace.

Responding to one of the issues raised: Readers are leaders. Can we say that there is a difference between being educated and being literate? Ms Molara Wood, award winning writer and journalist, pointed out that a recent research shows children or adults who read fictions to empathize more.

She added that one who reads stories will be able to see the motivation of the character and see things from the interior of the character, which is likely to help build the reader’s character, positively. She went on to point out that in the 1950s and 60s when there were highly respected leaders, many of them were literate; many of them wrote and they were orators, and this assisted in the good governance of the time in comparison to what obtains at the moment.

Wood further submitted that if leaders in Nigeria read, they will empathize more with the populace, and there will be more of an understanding of what is needed to be done to make the Nigerian society better..

As part of the programme, the history of the International Literary Day was told by Mr Taiwo Oluwasegun, an author, and the Executive Programme Director of Health and Rural Development, PAHRD. Ms Wood read sections on Knowledge as well as Leadership from the book, “Where There Are No Mentors,” a collection of quotable quotes compiled by Taiwo Oluwasegun.

The quotes taken from this book, and which included words from Henry Carr, Martin Lurther King Jr, John Maxwell, E.A Adeboye, Barrack Obama, as well as Aristotle, were germane to the issues under discussion at the event. Also present at the media chat, among others, was Mr Bernard Nyanshanko, an editor with Radio Nigeria, as well as a host of other dignitaries.

International Literacy Day takes place on September 8 every year. The first year the holiday was celebrated was September, 1966, but was proclaimed a public holiday by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.

However, literacy represents the lifelong intellectual process of gaining meaning from print, and UNESCO defines it as the “ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute, and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts.

Ajibade is a Communications Consultant.